Real Stuff ... our view of Joplin!

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

Helping Joplin Now!

Sometimes it is amazing what can be done with just a mission and some focus!  My friend LeRoy is very focused and he's on a mission.  When he heard that the main terminal for the trucking company that he works for was under assault from nature along with the rest of Joplin MO, he leaped in to action. 

LeRoy is a trucker and so he started filling a semi-trailer with stuff ... makes sense, truckers driver trucks and trucks haul stuff.  But in the course of a day Leroy ran out of his own stuff to put in the truck so he said a prayer and called some friends.  Those friends brought some stuff and they all said a prayer and called their friends.

It wasn't long until they had the 1st truck filled with pallets of water, clothing, food and supplies.  Right now LeRoy is filling the 3rd, 4th, and 5th trucks ... his friends and the friends of those friends have continued to pray and bring stuff.  People (strangers) are calling LeRoy from as far away as Oklahoma and donations are coming in from the east coast and all around.  The TV news and the local papers heard about LeRoy's friends and their stuff and they started talking about it.

So now LeRoy and his band of friends (long time and newly introduced) are looking to collect 150,000 pounds of good to send to a couple of churches in the Joplin that are distributing the goods.  This has turned into a massive relief effort that is unique as it is going direct from the donors to those in need. 

If you want to help or just show your support to this little group, click on the link below and log on to facebook ... LIKE the page and keep tract of the needs for this effort.


https://www.facebook.com/pages/Greene-Daviess-County-Joplin-Relief/209609692411938