"If you want a blessing, be a blessing."
Clint Massey summed up the repeated mission trips he and members of Westside Baptist Church are making to central Arkansas.
"We went out to this ladies' farm ... she thought she'd been forgotten," Larry Whisenhant said.
"She had been calling and asking for help from other ministries," Massey said of the lady, Linda Blagg. "They had told her there wouldn't be any help. When we showed up, she broke down in tears."
The lady had been widowed during the ice storm last winter after her husband was killed in a wreck. She had been boarding horses on her farm for an income and the tornado leveled the trees, barns, buildings and fences on her farm removing her ability to earn a living.
"That was our mission -- to clearn fence lines and fence rows," Massey said.
The group, consisting of Billy Moore, Clint and Jennifer Massey, Whisenhant, John and JT Garrett, drove to central Arkansas pulling trailers loaded with a skidster, lawn mowers and other equipment.
"Sunbelt did give us a discount when they learned what we were doing," Massey said.
"The first thing we did was go to a church in Ferndale and set up lunch to feed all the workers in the area," Massey said, adding that he had prepared a couple of pork butts for pulled pork sandwiches, chips and water and fed about 150 people. "That was all donations from the church."
Both men said that all too often after the first wave of assistance has come and gone, people are forgotten after a crises.
Massey said he maintains contact with two northwest Arkansas ministries which also have people on the ground in central Arkansas weekly and coordinates with them to know what type of work needs to be done and where.
"Right after the tornado, they spent a day and a half just trying to get to her house," Whisenhant said of Blagg. "Those are the people being forgotten right now because they don't live in densely populated areas."
The Pea Ridge church members mowed grass, moved downed trees and cleared the land. They plan to go back again.
"We try to do as much as we can before the kids go back to school. We try to make it as meaningful a trip as possible," Massey said. "The big issue was getting her back into horses so she could have some income."
It is expensive to rent the equipment, Massey said, adding that donations are welcome.
"Lori Rogers gave a donation," Massey said.
"Anyone is welcome to come along. We usually leave early in morning on a Saturday and return that same day. Drive time on both sides is about three hours," Whisenhant said.
Massey said there are still 300-400 work orders waiting for workers.
"I try to use these trips down there to challenge people -- whether Republican, Democrat, Independent. It's not what the government does or doesn't do, it's what we do that causes the government to step in. You can't legislate taking care of people," Massey said.
"It creates a gap. You've got to get involved. We're creating the gaps here. It's not whether the government does a sufficient job or not," he said. "I'm really challenging a lot of the people here. The Christians I know in the area -- 1 John 13:18 -- if you have possessions and see someone in need, how do you have the love of God if you don't share?"
"On Sundays and Wednesdays our churches are packed. But will we go out and help?" Massey asked.
"You don't have to go there to have an impact. You can do that right here in Pea Ridge," he said.
"You should have seen the look on her face," Whisenhant smiled saying of Blagg. "I thought she was going to faint. She said, 'You're from where? How long did it take you to get here?'
"She couldn't believe we would drive down here to help her," Whisenhant said.
"It really touches them that people would care enough to go out of there way," Massey concluded. "There's plenty of work there for everybody."
Community on 08/06/2014