The Joplin relief effort here in the South West part of Indiana has really caught us off guard, but not in the way that you might think. You see Greene county is the 4th poorest county in Indiana, we rank in the bottom 10% of counties nationwide for higher education and in the bottom half of all counties in the US for adults with a HS diploma. Our unemployment rate is 8.3% and the average household income is only about $41,000 a year.I'm not trying to deflate my fellow Greene county residents, in fact it's quite the opposite. You see it is the perfect example of what my friend Jerry told me the other day (Jerry is over 70 and always has words of wisdom). He said "Jason if it ever comes that I need a hand out, you know real help, I'll head over to the poor side of town." Greene county (and our neighbors) decided that we may not have a lot but we have enough ... in one week the efforts of Leroy Barnhill and his army of volunteers, along with the residents of our community, shipped 115,000 pound of aid to Joplin in 4 separate semi trailers.
By the time we are all home from work on Tuesday that will be 5 or 6 semis and 135,000 pounds of supplies. And this is shipped direct, no middle man, no government, no red tape ... just good people doing what Jesus would do! I've heard about very young children giving their very best toys, young men giving the jacket off their backs, and a mysteriously appropriate gift of thousands of sets of rain gear.
How great are the people in my community ... pretty damn great.
http://www.bloomfieldfcc.org/page_32.html
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Greene-Daviess-County-Joplin-Relief/209609692411938
No comments:
Post a Comment