Eureka Church Members Remove Rubble, Bring Compassion to Joplin

She'd seen the ruined bones of a village before, but that didn't matter for Liz Stallman when Joplin's razed neighborhoods appeared. The tears came regardless.

"Picture your hometown," the House Springs resident said. "One second everything is normal, then it's like you go through a wall and there is nothing."

A few years before, Stallman, 18, took a mission trip to Greensburg, KS, leveled by a tornado in 2007. When a twister tore a miles-long path through Joplin in late May, she called Tim Schulte. He's the student ministries director where she worships, at .

She told Schulte that she wanted to help in any way she could.

"I felt in my heart this was something I needed to do," Stallman said.

Church members took a day-trip to Joplin a month later. They've done two others since. They're planning a multi-day volunteer event that starts on Friday, Aug. 12 and runs until the end of the weekend.

"It's a very powerful experience to go down there," Schulte said.

The groups have mostly removed debris from the city. They've also taken heavy equipment there for days at a time, he said.

Items that carry memories treated with care

Volunteers set aside any keepsakes, like family pictures, they find in the wreckage, Stallman said. Items uncovered in a destroyed home are placed together on whatever is left of it, whether that's a front porch, or just the foundation.

One house stands out in her mind. Every room but the kitchen was gone. There, a refrigerator door was swung out, all of its food blown across a nearby table. She said it smelled like a mixture of rot and death.

A piece of torn-off roof had landed on the ground close by. She lifted it. A pristine Bible lay underneath.

She remembers people she met in Joplin, too. A homeowner who is a World War II veteran survived the storm with his daughter. It was the second time he's had to rebuild a house.

Stallman found Japanese paper bills scattered in the yard—money he brought back after the war ended. She also discovered a picture of a young kid that turned out to be the man's great-grandchild.

"Oh my gosh, this was on our fireplace," the daughter told Stallman. "How did you find it?"

"It was just on the ground," Stallman replied. "There was a little dirt on top of it."

Schulte said on the last trip, it was tough to find a parking spot in the lot for volunteers. He saw license plates from neighboring states and those farther away, such as Virginia. Despite this spirit of volunteerism he described, Stallman said the need remains.

"Some people think you need to travel the world to help, but something like this, it's right here in front of our faces," she said.

How do you volunteer?

The church's trips are open for anyone interested. Call Schulte at 314.220.4324 or email him at ts.eumc@sbcglobal.net for more details.