Lady Lake 2007
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In the early hours on February 2nd, 2007 three separate tornadoes touched down
in Lake County, FL, killing at least 21 people. The path of the tornadoes was over
16 miles and a 1/4 mile wide, leaving a huge amount of destruction.
We immediately contacted local churches and was put in contact with Robin-Anne.
She lived in Lady Lake, but hadn't experienced any issues from the tornadoes.
Robin-Anne was collecting care packages and other items and was staging a small
distribution center from her home. I was still working full time and couldn't
immediately go to Lady Lake. We teamed up with Paul and Mandy Yoder who
agreed to use their car sales lot to collect goods and create care packages.
Paul and Mandy, with a few others, took off for Lady Lake with the care packages.
There were some problems hooking up with Robin-Anne, but Paul and Mandy
found the area hit by the tornadoes and immediately set to work distributing them
and ministering to folks.
One such person, Brent, didn't want any help. A tree had come through his roof
and many areas of his home were exposed. The interior was ruined. He said he
could handle it and that they should help others who needed it more!
Mandy used her charm and smile to convince him to take some of the stuff! She
was able to let him know that Jesus loved him and that was why they were there!
When they returned home they asked that I try to contact him to help him if we
could. We had already arranged to take a group up the following weekend.
Robin-Anne had room for us to stay and work set up for us to do. I told Mandy we
would try, but had already committed to other jobs.
Friday came and our group took off. We arrived in time to get unpacked and to
bed. The next two days would be busy ones!
We got up bright and early and got ready. The home we were to begin working on,
had not contacted us yet. One of the owner's parents had a heart attack and had
been taken to the hospital. We waited a little while but needed to get to work so
set out to find something else to do. We tried calling Brent, but no answer.
We came upon an area that was set up for disaster relief. Brother Jack was
leading a group from Disaster Immediate Response Team (DIRT). This place was
a flurry of activity! I talked to Jack as I followed him around, in between his
phone calls and other conversations. Once he realized we had an awesome team
and the ability to get to work, he gave us our first assignment. Others from our
church who could only come up on Saturday had joined our team. We set out to
job #1.
The home owners weren't home, but Jack had already secured a work order and
liability release form the day before. Once there we quickly determined that we
needed a lot of wood to replace on the roof, fascia and soffit. We sent Brett from
our church to Home Depot to pick up the lumber and other supplies.
While in the parking lot, loading the lumber, a local guy came up and offered to
help him load his truck. Brett explained that he was part of a church relief group
from Sarasota, and we were volunteering to help the residences get cleaned up.
The gentleman thanked Brett for coming and he went his way.
Once back, Brett began unloading the truck and a guy on a motorcycle pulls into
the yard, apparently he's the homeowner. I introduce myself to him and he tells
me his name is Brent, the same guy that Paul and Mandy had ministered to the
previous weekend! And then Brett walks up and says hey Brent, apparently Brent
was the local guy who helped him load the lumber on his truck at Home Depot!
We ended up spending the weekend at Brent's and rebuilt his roof and got it dried
in so that he could have the roofing materials installed the coming week. We
even had a church service on Sunday morning in his front yard. A few other
volunteers and neighbors joined us as I led us in Worship and then taught from
The Word!
We spoke to Brent about the Lord and he said he became a Christian at an early
age and had fallen away from the Lord, but we were certainly giving him a lot to
think about. Continue to pray for him and his family.
We ended up going back every Saturday for about 2 months, teaming up with
Brother Jack and DIRT ministries. We contacted other Calvary Chapels in the
state and several joined us. Ft. Lauderdale brought in a bus load of people a
couple of different weekends.
We truly had the opportunity to do a lot of different types of work with many
different people and the story above is only one of several "God" stories, that
space limits me from sharing with you.
This was however an event that totally changed Mary Jo and my lives. I was
winding down the end of a job. The company I worked for had closed our division
and as Operations Manager, I was closing things up. Through a series of "God"
events and divine interventions, the Lord used Brother Jack and the leader of the
DIRT ministry, Brother Charles specifically to go full time into Relief Ministry.
You can read more about that in the "About Us" section of this website by
clicking here.
The last weekend that we spent in Lady Lake took us full circle. The family we
were set up to help the first weekend we arrived had suffered through many
hardships during the two months after the tornadoes. We ended up back in
contact with them and helped them replace their roof. Three of us from Sarasota
made the trip. When we arrived we were overwhelmed by all the work that
needed done, but I told the guys, let's just get started and see what God does. The
homeowner and his father showed up to help us.
All day long it looked like and did rain all around us, but we prayed that it
wouldn't affect us until the roof was dried in. As the day was coming to an end we
ran out of roofing paper, one roll shy. The homeowner said he'd go get another
roll and he and his father would finish the job as we had a two hour trip back
home. We cleaned up and headed out. Before we made it home, the homeowner
called us to thank us and told us that they had finished the job. As he was talking
they were pulling out of the drive way and all of the sudden it started pouring
down rain. God is so good, all we have to do is be faithful!
in Lake County, FL, killing at least 21 people. The path of the tornadoes was over
16 miles and a 1/4 mile wide, leaving a huge amount of destruction.
We immediately contacted local churches and was put in contact with Robin-Anne.
She lived in Lady Lake, but hadn't experienced any issues from the tornadoes.
Robin-Anne was collecting care packages and other items and was staging a small
distribution center from her home. I was still working full time and couldn't
immediately go to Lady Lake. We teamed up with Paul and Mandy Yoder who
agreed to use their car sales lot to collect goods and create care packages.
Paul and Mandy, with a few others, took off for Lady Lake with the care packages.
There were some problems hooking up with Robin-Anne, but Paul and Mandy
found the area hit by the tornadoes and immediately set to work distributing them
and ministering to folks.
One such person, Brent, didn't want any help. A tree had come through his roof
and many areas of his home were exposed. The interior was ruined. He said he
could handle it and that they should help others who needed it more!
Mandy used her charm and smile to convince him to take some of the stuff! She
was able to let him know that Jesus loved him and that was why they were there!
When they returned home they asked that I try to contact him to help him if we
could. We had already arranged to take a group up the following weekend.
Robin-Anne had room for us to stay and work set up for us to do. I told Mandy we
would try, but had already committed to other jobs.
Friday came and our group took off. We arrived in time to get unpacked and to
bed. The next two days would be busy ones!
We got up bright and early and got ready. The home we were to begin working on,
had not contacted us yet. One of the owner's parents had a heart attack and had
been taken to the hospital. We waited a little while but needed to get to work so
set out to find something else to do. We tried calling Brent, but no answer.
We came upon an area that was set up for disaster relief. Brother Jack was
leading a group from Disaster Immediate Response Team (DIRT). This place was
a flurry of activity! I talked to Jack as I followed him around, in between his
phone calls and other conversations. Once he realized we had an awesome team
and the ability to get to work, he gave us our first assignment. Others from our
church who could only come up on Saturday had joined our team. We set out to
job #1.
The home owners weren't home, but Jack had already secured a work order and
liability release form the day before. Once there we quickly determined that we
needed a lot of wood to replace on the roof, fascia and soffit. We sent Brett from
our church to Home Depot to pick up the lumber and other supplies.
While in the parking lot, loading the lumber, a local guy came up and offered to
help him load his truck. Brett explained that he was part of a church relief group
from Sarasota, and we were volunteering to help the residences get cleaned up.
The gentleman thanked Brett for coming and he went his way.
Once back, Brett began unloading the truck and a guy on a motorcycle pulls into
the yard, apparently he's the homeowner. I introduce myself to him and he tells
me his name is Brent, the same guy that Paul and Mandy had ministered to the
previous weekend! And then Brett walks up and says hey Brent, apparently Brent
was the local guy who helped him load the lumber on his truck at Home Depot!
We ended up spending the weekend at Brent's and rebuilt his roof and got it dried
in so that he could have the roofing materials installed the coming week. We
even had a church service on Sunday morning in his front yard. A few other
volunteers and neighbors joined us as I led us in Worship and then taught from
The Word!
We spoke to Brent about the Lord and he said he became a Christian at an early
age and had fallen away from the Lord, but we were certainly giving him a lot to
think about. Continue to pray for him and his family.
We ended up going back every Saturday for about 2 months, teaming up with
Brother Jack and DIRT ministries. We contacted other Calvary Chapels in the
state and several joined us. Ft. Lauderdale brought in a bus load of people a
couple of different weekends.
We truly had the opportunity to do a lot of different types of work with many
different people and the story above is only one of several "God" stories, that
space limits me from sharing with you.
This was however an event that totally changed Mary Jo and my lives. I was
winding down the end of a job. The company I worked for had closed our division
and as Operations Manager, I was closing things up. Through a series of "God"
events and divine interventions, the Lord used Brother Jack and the leader of the
DIRT ministry, Brother Charles specifically to go full time into Relief Ministry.
You can read more about that in the "About Us" section of this website by
clicking here.
The last weekend that we spent in Lady Lake took us full circle. The family we
were set up to help the first weekend we arrived had suffered through many
hardships during the two months after the tornadoes. We ended up back in
contact with them and helped them replace their roof. Three of us from Sarasota
made the trip. When we arrived we were overwhelmed by all the work that
needed done, but I told the guys, let's just get started and see what God does. The
homeowner and his father showed up to help us.
All day long it looked like and did rain all around us, but we prayed that it
wouldn't affect us until the roof was dried in. As the day was coming to an end we
ran out of roofing paper, one roll shy. The homeowner said he'd go get another
roll and he and his father would finish the job as we had a two hour trip back
home. We cleaned up and headed out. Before we made it home, the homeowner
called us to thank us and told us that they had finished the job. As he was talking
they were pulling out of the drive way and all of the sudden it started pouring
down rain. God is so good, all we have to do is be faithful!
and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the
darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. Isaiah 58:10
darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. Isaiah 58:10
