Yong Lee & Family lived in Moore and was greatly affected from the tornado. We met him through St. Anthony Catholic Church. Yong Lee actually was standing in his living room while he received a phone call from his daughter , telling him that there was a tornado and to take cover ( mind you, he heard the alarms but thought it was nothing, like usual). But, he listened to his daughter and went into a coat closet…praise God he did because after the tornado directly hit his home, where he had been standing while talking on the phone was completely destroyed. All that was left was the closet he stood in. Our team was able to go and move his refrigerators ( he had 5), as well as several other big items in his home to a storage unit.
Pam is a 3rd grade math teacher who lives in Little Axe, Ok. This area was also greatly affected but because there were no deaths, it was not very publicized. Actually, when walking up to her home, I thought it looked fine, just lots of trees that needed to be cut down and brought to the street, as well as debris and a couple broken windows. But, once we met her and started talking, the actual foundation of her home was completely shifted and she is no longer allowed to stay in it. So, we cut down all the trees for her and picked up the debris. But, until her home is fixed and the ground hardens up, she will be living with a fellow teacher. She was a true joy to work for and I really loved talking to her about how amazing education is!
Adam & Amy are the cutest couple that we met! They live in Moore, OK , actually in the same neighborhood as the Plaza Towers Elementary School. They got married back in April of 2012 and bought this home in September of 2012. They were lucky because neither of them were home when the tornado hit, they were working. I was with a bunch of the girls from St.Joe’s and saw Amy picking up debris in her yard. So, we decided to head over to her home and chat/help her. She was so appreciative and incredibly positive. I mean, literally, her whole home was destroyed and they had water damage everywhere. But, she just basically said that it wasn’t as bad as it could be and they will just fix it and move forward.
Allen also lives in Moore, OK, right next to the elementary school. Amy and Adam are his neighbors! But, our team just picked up all the debris in his yard and moved everything to the street. Allen kind of kept to himself and was talking to the insurance company while we worked on his home. But, none the less, he was very appreciative of our team.
Jimmy was a fella who lives in Moore, OK. We didn’t see anyone at his home
originally so I just told my team to start to clean up his debris...there was a
ton. Shortly after we had been working, Jimmy pulled up on a motorcycle. He was
very quiet and appreciative for us cleaning up his home; he had come back to
check on extra damage from the tornados that came through the night before. As
we were leaving, he didn’t say a word, but he didn’t have to, his tears spoke
volumes. He waved good-bye and then worked our little booties off, saying the
whole time “this is for Jimmy”. Later that day, I walked to his backyard and
saw a cross and flowers, like someone had died. So, not sure of what happened
but regardless his heart and home were very broken and I am beyond grateful to
have given the privilege of showing his Christ’s hands and feet.
John was a friendly man that I met who lived in Moore. I actually found him moving stuff in his garage. I offered to drive all his stuff to his storage unit but the truck wasn’t big enough, which stunk! But, it was really awesome chatting for a while with him. He told me that he decided to just wait out the storm, like he usually did. So, he just sat in his bathroom with his mattress covering him and just praying God would spare him. And now he lives to tell the tale. It was kind of cool because later that week I drove by his home and he had spray painted the ply wood covering his garage that said “ThanksVolunteers”
John was a friendly man that I met who lived in Moore. I actually found him moving stuff in his garage. I offered to drive all his stuff to his storage unit but the truck wasn’t big enough, which stunk! But, it was really awesome chatting for a while with him. He told me that he decided to just wait out the storm, like he usually did. So, he just sat in his bathroom with his mattress covering him and just praying God would spare him. And now he lives to tell the tale. It was kind of cool because later that week I drove by his home and he had spray painted the ply wood covering his garage that said “ThanksVolunteers”
Jeffery is a young guy who lived right caddy-corner to the Plaza Towers School. I wasn’t on his home working but the team that was cleaned all the debris from his yard and then packed up his whole house into bags to make his move a little bit easier.
Joyce & Betty…I don’t even know where to begin with these two funny ladies. Joyce lived in an apartment complex in Moore , lived in Moore for 60 years. The tornado broke her windows in her home and for the most part it didn’t look bad, but once we got to chatting, she said the inspector came by and said there was water damage throughout the whole building and the foundation had shifted, too. So, she was required to move out. Betty is Joyce’s sister. They are too funny and quite a handful. They literally sat in Joyce’s apartment, telling us what to take and how to carry things. So, we boxed up and moved her out of her apartment and into a storage unit. Joyce was going to stay with Betty until she could find a new apartment in Moore. Joyce actually told me she had been hiding in her closet, praying, while the tornado was hitting, too. (Funny side note, later that week Betty called us back and asked us to help them move all the stuff from their van into her home…we get there and it was literally like 2 bags of clothes)
Mike was a homeowner in Moore, Ok. I didn’t work on his home or hear his
story but all the men did! He had lots of big, heavy debris to be moved into a
dumpster.
Donna & Marcus, Jessica, Amy and Angela were a family who lived in Moore. They lived in an apartment with extensive water damage and foundation issues. So, our team boxed up her whole apartment and moved them into Norman, Ok for the meantime. Donna was a sweet lady who was very appreciative. Her son, Marcus was there helping us out as well. While, Jessica, Amy and Angela were at the new apartment waiting for us. It was a pretty meticulous task as we were packing up her whole life, but it was neat getting to talk to her. Actually, something that awesome happened , which had potential to turn bad was that Marcus had us boxing everything up in boxes until they ran out…then we used big black trash bags. Well..we were also picking up trash in the house too. And, one of the teens asked if what was in the bag was trash and I said yes…so he threw it in the dumpster. Come to find out, that bag had all of Marcus’s electronics. So, I ran to the dumpster, and saw hundreds of the same bags as literally the construction crew just threw about 50-60 black bags of roof tiles into the dumpster just as I was walking up. I told one of the construction crew members and he helped me dig through the dumpster…we were about waist deep in trash bags. Marcus told us to stop looking because it was all replaceable, so we listened…well I did at least. The construction guy, Terrance, actually didn’t stop looking for 30 mins and came to find me and said, “Something in my soul told me to keep looking” and he found it! Amazing! Marcus and I were very relieved and thankful…God is here, my friends, God is here.
Sandra was a lady I actually met while I went to look for free food for our team. We went usually to a Baptist church that was giving boxed lunches for anyone who needed them. So as I was waiting for my order of 45 boxes, Sandra pulled up. She asked me if they had food for her and her children as they have no electricity and nowhere to go (which broke my heart knowing they were staying in their destroyed home). So, I went to find them some boxed food and bottled water, and really anything to give to her. Her face, so broken and worried looking, will never leave my mind. Sandra’s kids names are Amanda, Amber, Cadence and Robert.
Francis lived right outside Moore, Ok. We got her information through the Knights of Columbus. We were able to go into her backyard and clean out all the trees, as well as take apart her now rotting above ground pool. I wasn’t in this team but I heard it was quite a task!
Nancy was a home owner who lived in Oklahoma City and needed her trees to be cut down and moved to the street.
Frankie was a St.Jame’s Catholic Church volunteer that I met when we went to stay at St.Jame’s. She had a huge tree that had to be cut down because it was going to fall over on her home. So, my team went to her home and chain sawed the tree up! We also picked up debris from her yard. She seriously was the cutest, sweetest old lady ever! I sat and chatted with her about life and how she weathered the tornado. She said she just sat in her bathroom, too and prayed the Rosary over and over again. She told me Mary is a powerful lady…I think I may have to agree with that!
Mr.Bells home was completely and utterly demolished from the tornado. We found him through St.Jame’s Catholic Church, he is a parishioner there. When we got to his home, all that was left was a staircase and one exterior wall. So, while the bull dozer was getting the big debris, we were picking up the rest of the debris around the home, as well as trying to clean out his pool. Might I add…his pool literally had just been finished 2 days prior to the tornado hitting. His grandkids never even got to play in it. But, he reassured us that he was rebuilding on their property and would fix his pool up for his grandbabies. He was so sweet and had so much strength for having this affect him so much.
Eurma is a single elderly woman who lives in Moore, OK. She had a huge tree that was uprooted and needed to be chainsawed and taken down. So, our team went to work! After using the chainsaw, I went to chat with sweet, Eurma. She told me that she never married or had kids and she just retired; she said it was such a nice feeling to have young people around her. I asked her what’s one word of advice for us about life and she said, “Don’t procrastinate even though it’s easy, and take every opportunity given to you because it may never happen again”. I have to say, she is one smart lady! She’s our adopted Grandma in Moore!
Donna & Marcus, Jessica, Amy and Angela were a family who lived in Moore. They lived in an apartment with extensive water damage and foundation issues. So, our team boxed up her whole apartment and moved them into Norman, Ok for the meantime. Donna was a sweet lady who was very appreciative. Her son, Marcus was there helping us out as well. While, Jessica, Amy and Angela were at the new apartment waiting for us. It was a pretty meticulous task as we were packing up her whole life, but it was neat getting to talk to her. Actually, something that awesome happened , which had potential to turn bad was that Marcus had us boxing everything up in boxes until they ran out…then we used big black trash bags. Well..we were also picking up trash in the house too. And, one of the teens asked if what was in the bag was trash and I said yes…so he threw it in the dumpster. Come to find out, that bag had all of Marcus’s electronics. So, I ran to the dumpster, and saw hundreds of the same bags as literally the construction crew just threw about 50-60 black bags of roof tiles into the dumpster just as I was walking up. I told one of the construction crew members and he helped me dig through the dumpster…we were about waist deep in trash bags. Marcus told us to stop looking because it was all replaceable, so we listened…well I did at least. The construction guy, Terrance, actually didn’t stop looking for 30 mins and came to find me and said, “Something in my soul told me to keep looking” and he found it! Amazing! Marcus and I were very relieved and thankful…God is here, my friends, God is here.
Sandra was a lady I actually met while I went to look for free food for our team. We went usually to a Baptist church that was giving boxed lunches for anyone who needed them. So as I was waiting for my order of 45 boxes, Sandra pulled up. She asked me if they had food for her and her children as they have no electricity and nowhere to go (which broke my heart knowing they were staying in their destroyed home). So, I went to find them some boxed food and bottled water, and really anything to give to her. Her face, so broken and worried looking, will never leave my mind. Sandra’s kids names are Amanda, Amber, Cadence and Robert.
Francis lived right outside Moore, Ok. We got her information through the Knights of Columbus. We were able to go into her backyard and clean out all the trees, as well as take apart her now rotting above ground pool. I wasn’t in this team but I heard it was quite a task!
Nancy was a home owner who lived in Oklahoma City and needed her trees to be cut down and moved to the street.
Frankie was a St.Jame’s Catholic Church volunteer that I met when we went to stay at St.Jame’s. She had a huge tree that had to be cut down because it was going to fall over on her home. So, my team went to her home and chain sawed the tree up! We also picked up debris from her yard. She seriously was the cutest, sweetest old lady ever! I sat and chatted with her about life and how she weathered the tornado. She said she just sat in her bathroom, too and prayed the Rosary over and over again. She told me Mary is a powerful lady…I think I may have to agree with that!
Mr.Bells home was completely and utterly demolished from the tornado. We found him through St.Jame’s Catholic Church, he is a parishioner there. When we got to his home, all that was left was a staircase and one exterior wall. So, while the bull dozer was getting the big debris, we were picking up the rest of the debris around the home, as well as trying to clean out his pool. Might I add…his pool literally had just been finished 2 days prior to the tornado hitting. His grandkids never even got to play in it. But, he reassured us that he was rebuilding on their property and would fix his pool up for his grandbabies. He was so sweet and had so much strength for having this affect him so much.
Eurma is a single elderly woman who lives in Moore, OK. She had a huge tree that was uprooted and needed to be chainsawed and taken down. So, our team went to work! After using the chainsaw, I went to chat with sweet, Eurma. She told me that she never married or had kids and she just retired; she said it was such a nice feeling to have young people around her. I asked her what’s one word of advice for us about life and she said, “Don’t procrastinate even though it’s easy, and take every opportunity given to you because it may never happen again”. I have to say, she is one smart lady! She’s our adopted Grandma in Moore!
Jeanette was a lady that we met through the Knights of Columbus. She had up picking up a whole bunch of sticks in her backyard. When we first pulled up, I didn’t think it would take long to just pick up sticks. But, in reality, it would have taken her days to do this by herself because she has a bad back and hard time walking!
Darla & Glen were a special couple that we met in Oklahoma City. Their home was destroyed from a tornado that hit 5 years ago and so they moved into their mom’s home, who passed away shortly after. They had a huge tree in their backyard and actually was right next to the electric wire. Of course, the storm knocked the tree right into the wire and completely destroyed the tree with branches everywhere. So, we went to move all the branches and debris. IN the meantime, Darla started to cry as they had just found out her husband has Kidney Cancer and that was why they needed us because he wasn’t allowed to do anything strenuous. It’s mind boggling to think of all the things they are enduring right now…but she said their faith in God will get them through anything.
Ana is a mom that I helped at All Saint’s School. The school turned their property into a distribution center for Catholic Charities. So, one day we went to organize and stock the shelves of the center. While that was happening, Ana needed to be taken around to “shop” for free for all the supplies she needed. Her home and her sister’s home was affected so she had to get stuff for their kids. She has 4 and her sister has 2. I cannot image having children while going through this. She had such strength and power in her, but all with love and care for her children. When I looked at her, I saw the face of a warrior…aka a mom!
Camanda was a lady I also helped shop at the distribution center who had 6 kids. She told me that she was in the house when it was happening…and so her and her children ran up to the attic because of the flash flooding happening. Their whole bottom of their home is ruined by water damage as well as the roof.
Dennis lived outside Oklahoma City in a wheat field. He came home to his home completely destroyed as well as property. His timid demeanor broke my heart, as he kept repeating that they got hit real badly this time… all his wheat was destroyed. He actually started to cry. Our team went into the wheat fields picking up big items of debris and roofing that had flown during the tornado.
Jim & Pam were a sweet couple from St. Jame’s parish in Oklahoma City. Their home was not destroyed but they had a lot of debris that they were not able to clean up by themselves. So, our team went to help them clean it up!
Please continue to pray for these people! xoxox/K
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