We hopped onto yellow school buses after a mini-sacrament meeting in work boots and sweatshirts and got comfy for the 1.5 hour ride to the Rockaways, a peninsula of Long Island.
We were split into teams, arrived in Queens, gathered supplies and made our way through the neighborhood still littered with debris & sand and lined with damaged homes. It felt a little like a ghost town & a war zone at the same time. We found people that needed help, and we helped.
They were hours well spent. Every home had been flooded. I couldn't have imagined the damage that was done, it was something you had to see to believe. People still without power, homes destroyed, and the sand, weird to see it so far removed from the ocean! It was just devastating.
Mckay and some other guys removed some huge trees and were pretty excited about it (so excited in fact, that they filmed themselves chopping it down with an axe to show their wives). It was a long day of hard work but it felt wonderful. It was neat to have the opportunity to be a part of something so good that the church organizes. It was realizing that sitting in the pew at church on Sunday really isn't what the gospel is about. It's about love and service and charity; about lifting others and pulling together as a community. It was so great to spend the day with work gloves on my hands and sneakers on my feet doing good.
The men transporting our "sleigh" of supplies.
At one point during our day a possibly looney, very small Asian man said that we were going to save the world. "Just watch!" he said, maybe a slight exaggeration but I'll take it.
Cleaning up in the dusty, sandy basement.
Lunch break at the food trucks. Businesses donated food for the people (& volunteers, we assumed) in the area. It was tasty stuff!
Right before we went home, a walk down the street to see the ocean.
In front of one of the homes on the shore.
Cleaning the ruined windows in a family's newly remodeled (and now completely gutted) basement.
We were tired by the time we finally made it home through NY traffic (ugh) and slept well that night. It's crazy to think that tomorrow as families across the country are roasting turkey in their ovens, there are still people without power, camping out at hotels and trying to salvage their properties and get life back to some form of normal. It lends a whole new meaning to gratitude this year.
This year, my Thanksgiving thankful is for my warm home, bright lights, cold fridge and hot water.
3 comments:
I'm holding back tears. This is so wonderful. It really is a life-changing experience to be a part of this type of disaster and clean-up that the church organizes. It's humbling. I remember after the tornado when we had an early Sacrament meeting and then got out and worked. It was the absolute best. I LOVE YOU!!! And am so thankful for you! Also, you look beautiful in these pictures. We never look more beautiful than when we are serving!
Very well said. It was definitely divine timing that we served when we did because it showed us how much we should be thankful for.
(On a irreverent note: those fries were amazing!)
so wonderful that you guys were able to help out! I love that church was canceled for that reason...because like you said, giving service and helping others is more important.
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