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all weekend! This weekend the Dickinson County 4-H Horse Club sponsored an EKH show here and we all helped with it... it was fun but tiring! 2 full days of announcing, running things back and forth, working gates, being the ring steward (Sara and Ross), etc...
Saw some beautiful horses though -- wish we could afford one!
Jessica is off to 4-H camp as a counselor so she was only there for part of it.
Tornado!
Wednesday July 11th we spent an hour in the basement as a line of storms marched steadly northeastward through KS --- we are all fine and no damage in Abilene but the town of Chapman (pop 1400) 12 miles from here lost 6 city blocks! All the schools are gone/severly damaged as are the churches, the funeral home and a lot of residences! The twisters also touched down in Manhattan causing damage to KSU, businesses and residences (one of the ladies in my Bible study no longer has a home).
You can see intial pictures of the damage at http://www.ksn.com/ if you like. Scroll down and there is several videos over the last few days. There was a camera crew there today too that was just arriving as we were leaving --- we got there at 8am when the town was opened up to those who weren't residents/employees/etc and just wanted to help and left at 12:30
Today our family spent 4 hours helping clean up debris in the streets, driveways and homes. While it didn't even begin to seem like enough it was still something we could do to help our neighbors in this small town -- it doesn't even look like Chapman anymore in many ways! I will try to upload pictures asap. We are considering going back on Mon/Tues to help as Tim is off. The clean up is going to literally take weeks and I can only imagine how overwhelmed the residents feel --- I felt overwhelmed after only 4 hours and knowing I had a home to go back to!
But what a blessing to see people pouring into the community to help! Our bus driver said she had heard there were more volunteers registered to help today than the entire population of Chapman! (sniff sniff) God is good even in the midst of tragedy and it was heartening to see several of the families we attend church with right in the middle of things!
You can see intial pictures of the damage at http://www.ksn.com/ if you like. Scroll down and there is several videos over the last few days. There was a camera crew there today too that was just arriving as we were leaving --- we got there at 8am when the town was opened up to those who weren't residents/employees/etc and just wanted to help and left at 12:30
Today our family spent 4 hours helping clean up debris in the streets, driveways and homes. While it didn't even begin to seem like enough it was still something we could do to help our neighbors in this small town -- it doesn't even look like Chapman anymore in many ways! I will try to upload pictures asap. We are considering going back on Mon/Tues to help as Tim is off. The clean up is going to literally take weeks and I can only imagine how overwhelmed the residents feel --- I felt overwhelmed after only 4 hours and knowing I had a home to go back to!
But what a blessing to see people pouring into the community to help! Our bus driver said she had heard there were more volunteers registered to help today than the entire population of Chapman! (sniff sniff) God is good even in the midst of tragedy and it was heartening to see several of the families we attend church with right in the middle of things!
Bridge called Hope...
One of the young men whom Sara graduated with has a great goal for his life! He wants to learn to be a farrier and then open up a ranch for troubled/special needs kids and rescued horses. Something like this place:
He and his family visited this one last year and he has both of her books. Which Sara and I have both read..... trust me you'll need tissue but they are must reads! The ranch is also a Christian organization with a strong emphasis on God which makes it even better!
I think it's wonderful that these are his goals and have also encouraged Sara to talk to him more about it. I think something like this would be a near perfect fit for her with her love of horses and gift with children!
We'll see if this is the way God leads her too or not, but either way it's a great thing!
