Oakville Resident Volunteers at Joplin Church Two Months After Tornado

Oakville resident Rich Gordon usually spends his day helping patients locate blockages in coronary arteries at SSM St. Clare Health Center, saving their hearts from a worse fate.

But in July, Gordon decided to help people in a different way, dealing with the proverbial heart rather than the literal one. His wife, Pamela, asked him to volunteer with her at a church in Joplin teaching Vacation Bible School. Gordon immediately agreed.

“It just seemed right,” he said. “I’ve got more vacation time than I can spend.”

From July 17 to 22, the couple and another teen from their church, , took the trip down to the tornado-ravaged city and taught Vacation Bible School at Immanuel Lutheran Church.

The church sustained only minor damages, but was less than 200 feet away from complete devastation.

“We didn’t know what to expect when we got down there,” he said. “For me, it was kind of surreal, a post-apocalyptic world. It didn’t look like a community, it looked like something you would see after the devastation of a war.”

Two months after the disaster, Gordon said the area he was in was mostly cleared. The government had given the community a deadline to get their debris and trash to the street for pickup. What were once houses were now 30-foot-high piles of debris.

During the day, Gordon and the group delivered water, Gatorade and lunches to the workers in the community.

“I was really impressed by the number of mission teams from churches all over the United States that were there,” he said. “They would just come in large groups of 20 to 30 people. They were knocking down buildings and clearing lots. They came from as far away as North Carolina.”

By night, the volunteers taught Vacation Bible School to kids whose lives had all been affected by the tornado in some way.

“Kids were all over the place,” he said. “Most of them were acting out, some of them talked about it, some of them didn’t. There was one 3-year-old girl who had to be held the entire week we were there. She kept reliving the horror and talking about the glass breaking and the roof being torn off her house. Even the older kids, they were all kind of needy.”

The school usually gathers about 30 students, but this year, the safari-themed Bible lessons brought in 90 kids.

Gordon taught a different message each evening and connected it with a game and song.

Along with the kids, church staff was also affected. Some of the leaders and regular Vacation Bible School teachers lost their homes. Despite their losses, Gordon was surprised at their spirit.

“It just really hit me how they had this positive attitude,” he said. “There was still work to be done at this church, Vacation Bible School still had to go on.”

The church staff’s attitude reflected the rest of the Joplin population.

“The mood of the people is very upbeat,” Gordon said. “They’re just pulling up their bootstraps and moving on. They’re very appreciative of the help, but I get the feeling if there was no one to help, they’d be doing it anyway.”

Gordon and his wife are planning another trip to Joplin in January. While they’re not sure exactly what their work will entail, they’d like to take the oldest of their three children, Emily, who attends .