JOPLIN – Instead of the tanning on the beach or a gliding down the ski slopes, 479 young people chose to spend their spring break on mission in Joplin, which is still recovering from the May 22, 2011 tornado that took 161 lives and destroyed thousands of homes and businesses.
Those 30 teams of 479 volunteers in March – most of whom were college students from Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas and Colorado and as far away as Pennsylvania – equates to 12,388 volunteers hours.
“And those were just our groups (that came through SRBA),” said Steve Patterson, director of missions for Spring River Baptist Association (SRBA), which coordinated the volunteers.
The students worked with chainsaw teams from Oklahoma to removed debris that still lingered in many neighborhoods more than 10 months after the storm passed through. They also stacked and stored much of the downed trees to be given away later in the year as firewood before returning each night to sleep at First Baptist Church, Webb City.
“Since we had the sheer numbers, we were able to comb those areas pretty thoroughly,” Patterson said.
John Smith from the local Baptist Student Union (BSU) and Jackie and Rachel Jacobs, the volunteer coordinators from SRBA’s J-Hope ministry, organized all the projects and activities for the week.
Some students hosted a Vacation Bible School at a community building at one of the FEMA “villages” on the outskirts of town. Patterson said the ministry was a big hit, so much so that they were asked to come back and do it again and the doors were opened for several churches to join together for Easter services there.
Any mission trip has the potential to impact the missionary, as well as those being ministered to, and spring break in Joplin was no different. During both weeks spring breakers were in town, SRBA gathered all the volunteers for something they called “Understanding the Storm.”
“We had recorded audio from the local radio stations as the storm was happening while the kids were waiting for us to start,” Patterson said. “We showed videos of the damage then had a time where people who survived the storm gave their testimonies.”
One of the testimonies was from an 11-year-old girl, another from a local college student, and the final from a man who lost his mother when the tornado destroyed Harmony Heights Baptist Church’s building. Following that, Patterson preached.
“All those students said it brought it together for them why they were really here,” he said. “It really helped them see who they helped to hear their stories.”