Joplin, Missouri

Miranda (left) and her friend Rayne left for Joplin, Missouri at 6:00 am this morning. They are traveling with Thorncreek Church and volunteering to help those in Joplin that were devastated by the F5 tornado on May 22, 2011. The church has done an incredible job collecting furniture for the people of Joplin. American Furniture donated a tractor-trailer to haul furniture to Joplin, and the people in the Thorncreek community filled the trailer with slightly used furniture and appliances. When I dropped off our contribution yesterday, I was amazed. Amazed(!) at how much furniture had been collected.

This is Thorncreek Church members 2nd trip to Joplin to volunteer, and I strongly encourage readers to go to the Thorncreek Church website and watch the "Joplin Disaster Relief" video. Miranda, Deborah's daughter and my step-daughter, has been a regular attendee of Thorncreek's 320 Student Ministry high school meetings, and Miranda wanted very badly to go to Joplin. Since Miranda had never been away from her mom on a trip, it was hard for Deborah to see her go, but go she did.

I remembered back to my high school days and all the trips that I went on with Young Life and other north Texas church groups. The difference between mine and Miranda's trip is that all of my trips were about me--we went skiing every year and we went to summer camps to play--but Miranda's trip is different. As pastor Ruben Villarreal commented before they left for Joplin, "this trip is not about 'me.' Put 'me' aside."

As I stood watching the "kids" load up into the vans, it made me proud. Proud that Miranda, Rayne, and so many young teens can give up their lives for a week to help others. I agree with Ruben when he said that this trip will be "life changing" for the volunteers. It's already affected me, and I wasn't even going.