They took chainsaws, gloves, food.
They came back dirty, sore, tired and with sawdust in their ears and noses, but smiles on their faces.
A group of men, women and teens from Westside Baptist Church, Pea Ridge, traveled twice to the Mayflower and Vilonia areas to help with disaster relief.
"The world needs to see Jesus," Randy James, pastor, said. "I challenged our members to take Jesus outside of these four walls. To see Him outside of the church is an even bigger witness."
James, a bi-vocational pastor, also works at Northwest Arkansas Sheet Metal.
He and members Clint Massey and Larry Whisenhunt were three of several members who made the trip twice to Mayflower and Vilonia, Ark., to help the communities affected by tornadoes.
Massey is a Wal-Mart employee who manages contractors. Whisenhunt is retired.
Both men know the destruction of a tornado first hand.
Massey said he was in Moore, Okla., when the tornado hit last year.
"I was heading to our store in Norman on I-35 when the sirens started going off," Massey said. "I got to know how the Red Cross works and, long-term, after everybody leaves, the gap that needs to be filled. I basically got an understanding of the process -- the rebuilding, the clean up, the whole process."
Whisenhunt, who said he was in a tornado in 1966 in Topeka, Kan., when he and his wife were newlyweds.
"As a general rule, after a disaster like this, there's a gap left for general clean up and recovery," Whisenhunt said.
"It's 18 months to five years before a life becomes normal again," James said.
Massey said he contacted people in the Mayflower and Vilonia areas to get a list of needed items and to be sure they could get into the destruction area to work. He connected with Rubicon Disaster Relief, he said.
"Once I made contact and knew there was work that could be done, I contacted the pastor and we put it before the church to go help our brothers and sisters," Massey said.
James said the group worked with people from New ork, Texas, New Jersey, Alabama -- "people from all over the United States."
On the first trip, May 10, the group took chain saws, cut debris and hauled it to the roadside.
"We cut trees off houses -- put them into manageable pieces so others could pick them up. All debris has to be hauled to the road," Massey said.
Some of the team members served food.
"We took food the first time," James said, explaining that Massey prepared smoked pork and they served 300 people. "We visited with one man who had nothing left. It turned his house upside down and busted it all to pieces."
"We always seem to think as people that we have needs, but when we go to a place like that and see peopel who have lost everything they've lost -- we see real need. A need doesn't always mean putting money in someone's pocket. They were able to talk. A lot of people just want to tell their story. They need to show their emotions. That was one f the good things about it. We got to show compassion and friendship to peple we didn't even know," James said.
"It didn't matter what their denomination was, whether they were Christian at all. We showed compassion and love," Massey said. "What we found is that obviously help is dwindling. The last time we went, there were only dozens of people there helping."
Massey said the group connected with members of the Assembly of God Church in Mayflower and learned that many people want to give out water and pamphlets, but few want to get dirty hauling debris to the road.
"We asked 'What do you want?'" Massey said.
The men said that so many people working and living there are worn out. They needed help. Their presence gave hope and relief.
"You can make an impact on someone's life you didn't know before," Massey said.
"Doing this, just in the name of volunteering! It wasn't about church. It wasn't about denomination. It was just going to help someone in need. One word lesson we all learned out of this was 'servant' -- being a servant to someone else," James said. "That was a big lesson, even to the teen-agers we took. They weren't allowed to be in the work area, they served food."
The youth also were able to arrange the dry goods donations on shelves because no one had the time to organize it.
"Everybody can do something," Whisenhunt said. "We worked this last time with the AG church. They're one of the end points for relief. They've served over 8,000 meals. We just wanted to give them a break, to help them out. You make a bond with those people. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter what denomination people are."
Whisenhunt said it was unbelievable how the path of destruction led right up to, around and past the church building, but the building remained unscathed.
"That church is no bigger than this," Massey said, comparing the church in Mayflower with Westside Baptist who has an average attendance of 75 members. "It's humbling to see the kind of impact they're having, to see everything they've done and are doing. If that doesn't inspure you to get off your keester and help, nothing will."
"Being a servant is always glorious," James said. "You get dirty sometimes. But, even in the mud, the dirt, the heat, there's a sense of fulfillment."
"That is one of the most gratifying parts -- to help someone who was in need. It just feels good," Whisenhunt said.
The men said they are planning another trip July 12 and welcome anyone who would like to join them.
"I wouldn't care if we have to rent five 15-passenger vans," James said. "We were about 20 percent of their workforce that day."
"The need will continue for a long, long time," Whisenhunt said. "It's important for any readers to understand -- people from outside our congregation are welcome to go. It's not something the church wants to keep as an exclusive. We welcome anyone."
Massey said that anyone who wants to volunteer may contact him at [email protected]. He said there is definitely a need for anyone who can safely run a chain saw, but also for tractors to pull large tree trunks out of the debris piles.
Volunteers who can't make the trip are welcome to meet at the church to load vehicles taking supplies down.
"The pile of refuse is so inter-tangled that it's very difficult to get them out," Whisenhunt said.
"It's obviously not cheap. We took down multiple vehicles and purchased food, gas," Whisenhunt said, adding that financial donations can help.
"Because of my faith, I'm not afraid of the storm," Massey, the youngest of the three, said. "I do sometimes fear, after seeing what we saw and all the devastation, and nobody helps. I wonder what would happen if that happened here.
"It almost makes you lose faith in humanity completely. The malls are packed. The golf course is packed. The movie theaters are packed. The lake is full of boats," Massey said, "but there are few people going to help."
"We need to quit arguing whether AG or Church of Christ... we just need to help each other -- just go love each other. The two greatest commandments are to love God and love your neighbor," Massey concluded.
"If we do that, everything else will fall into place."
Sports on 06/18/2014