McHenry County Blog

The following was written by Denise Rhodes Beck on Wednesday, June 1, 2011, and is re-printed with permission. She is serving as a missionary in Uganda

I am….(fill in the blank).

The white lady with all the kids.

Little left of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Joplin but its cross.

The one that is married to the really tall white guy.The one who tripped carrying her groceries from the market (coordination is not my spiritual gift).

Tonight I was the friend sitting across from Emilie over a platter of Ethiopian food.

In between cleaning up spills and coaxing our children to finish eating, our conversation ended up where every other conversation over the past week and a half ended up…Joplin. My home town.

Joplin High School with duct tape making an "H" and "E" after the "O" and "P" on the top line. The eagle is the high school's mascott. It was carved in a tree trunk after the tornado blew threw.

The place we both left exactly one year ago today.

The place my mom sent the email from that I awoke to on Monday morning entitled,

“We are all OK”

(those words are always followed by a “BUT”).

The place the tornado made famous.

To be so far away from people and places you love when they are suffering is heart wrenching.

I sat at the computer Monday morning (Sunday night U.S. time) and just sobbed as I read post after post and saw picture after picture.

My kids just stared and me (one brought me a vitamin…I don’t think they knew what to do with me).

Joplin's St. John's Hospital after the tornado.

I questioned so much why God had us so far away at this time.

So tonight Em and I shared our stories of weathering the storm from afar.

After a few stories in, I began to see why, and I thought you might like to hear, too. When tragedy strikes, those it strikes are put in an amazing position.

Joplin's 20th Street. Note chalk figure on the pavement.

A terrible, awful, amazing position.

It is as if they have been given a microphone and their life is now being lived four times louder.

The church is not a building. It is the people. This is where the Bethel Assembly of God building used to be.

People will now stop, look, and listen….FOREVER.It is like my friend here whose eighteen month old daughter was accidentally killed by a teammate’s car.

Thirty years later my friend’s life story still quiets a room and fills it with goosebumps as she speaks of her choice to love and forgive…and stay in Africa.

A wooden cross inside St. Paul's Methodist Chruch survived the tornadic winds.

Hundreds of churches have been planted as a result.Joplin…you have been given a microphone, and the world is listening.

I can say that because I am on the other side of it.

When I enter a local shop and one of my African friends has heard about the tornado and is questioning how there could be a God, I have an open door and we talk.

I believe this is the Joplin Morman Church.

When the kids’ art teacher’s face drops when he hears I am from Joplin; he wonders if my family is OK, I share God’s goodness.I begin to listen to Emilie tell of a friend, a young girl from Canada, who stopped by so full of searching and questions.

She doesn’t believe in God but she is having trouble processing what she is seeing on Aljazeera (the international news channel).

Joplin's Home Depot is in the background across the street from the demolished AT&T Store.

“They are talking about Joplin.

“They are saying they have never seen anything like it before.

“People are taking in strangers from the street.

“People are opening their homes to feed and clothe anyone in need.

“They are saying it is the church!”

The totality of the devastation in Joplin can be seen here.

And Emilie is invited into this young lady’s heart to share with an openness that has never before been possible.

Joplin, you are his hands, his feet, his light to the world.

His glory is being shouted from your microphone.

So many of you have lived through a nightmare.

A little girl has lost her doll baby.

I pray thirty years from now your decision to give God glory in the midst of your hardest days will be the stuff that causes a hush to settle over the room.You have been given an incredible gift.

Thank you for sharing it with the world.

So…who am I today?

If Joplin is selfless love, loudly proclaiming his glory, I hope at the end of everyday, I can say…

“I am Joplin.”

= = = = =
All of the photos may be enlarged by clicking on them.

This is the third installment of my Joplin sister’s letter about the tornado that hit just north of her family’s home.

Dillon's grocery story was destroyed in Joplin. Owned by Kroger, it will be rebuilt.

For almost two weeks a group of radio stations that one person owns (such as country, talk, lite rock) had tornado talk 24 hours a day.It was pretty addicting, listening to them and hearing the callers looking for friends and family or just information.

Then, someone else would call in to say they had seen that person, or could give someone a ride, or help them out with a place to stay, or even give a stranger a water tank.

A house standing, but severely damaged.

Several friends had most or all of their homes destroyed.

One couple had been hiding in their bedroom closet when the roof blew off of that and their bedroom. Their curio cabinet, filled with Lladros, and their china cabinet were untouched. Denny and I helped pack their breakables up and brought them to our house. I have told her she is not getting them back!

This Joplin home is definitely a teardown.

The tornado didn’t discriminate, as it also went through one area with very expensive homes (as well as others with more modest homes).

A destroyed dentist's office in Joplin.

23 dentists had their offices destroyed, including our neighbor, one of our best friends, and a member of Denny’s golfing group.Our dentist is using another dentist’s office one day a week. Then he will be renting a former Movie Gallery until he figures out whether to rebuild or not. He had just built a top of the line, gorgeous office, which was pretty much destroyed.

He was in the process of replacing a crown for me the week before the tornado hit. I have a temporary crown which I dislodged eating a gummy Dot.

I happened to see Pat (our dentist) golfing yesterday.

So I said how sorry I was about his office and, by the way, I broke my temporary crown.

I was lucky enough to get it replaced today.

That’s how it is, living in a relatively small town.

Of the twelve ladies in our Bunco group, 4 lost their homes and one more had 11 of their 18 rentals damaged.

The skeleton of St. Paul's Methodist Church.

One day at Catholic Charities, I was helping a group of college girls pack their SUV with lunches to take into neighborhoods. I asked if they had a place to stay that night, and they said their were heading home. The night before they gotten to stay at our very nice casino in a convention room.

So, I went back into the Catholic High school and offered to house volunteers.

I was thinking of a group of cute girls or boys, but instead got a middle aged man from Indiana.

He turned out to be a great guest. He helped out at two different charities and got to clear some yards and was totally worn out, but fulfilled. He said he’d like to bring his wife back in a couple of months.

More in this series over the next three days.

Pontoon boat delivering a message on the Fox River and Chain of Lakes.

While taking our boat to D’s Marina in McHenry, I found this p0ntoon.

I asked one of the guys about it and he said,

“Oh, you mean Noah’s Ark?”

He said it belonged to a minister of a church.

The message on the back is

God answers

prayers.  How can

we pray for you?

It’s from the Light House Church. The phone number is written beneath: 815-382-4223.

The church also seems to be known as “The Beacon.”

Right on top it says,

Shining the Light of Christ

on the Chain O’Lakes