A Community in Crisis:
Dawson Springs, Ky. 

As we returned from our trip, we reflected on the people we met and helped during our week of volunteer work. All were very thankful and expressed their gratitude by just stopping to say “thanks” wherever we were working. They are a strong and proud people who normally are averse to taking outside help. However, due to the total devastation of the tornado on December 10, 2021 they are humbled  by the outpouring of help from all over the country. 

 

 We were blessed to work closely with the Omaha Rapid Response Team from Nebraska, which was formed by churches in and around Omaha after the 2001 9/11 disaster attack on our country. This volunteer group is worthy of our prayers and support. They are typically one of the first organizations on scene of any disaster in our nation.   Their mantra is Galatians 6:2 “Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

 

 Pictures and words do not begin to describe the trauma and loss that this community is going through. So many homes and lives are scattered throughout the countryside. Grandma's rocking chair, grandfather's guns, childhood toys, memories, and pictures forever lost to the wind of this monstrous storm.  In two minutes time, this landscape was scarred for a hundred years.   There were seventeen souls lost on that fateful night and hundreds of injuries. Anyone who survived the storm will forever be changed by its impact.

 

 We will never look at our home and community in the same way.  As we came into Blairsville on our return, we couldn't help but imagine what if this storm had struck here? As we came into our Track Rock Valley, we pictured a mile-wide tornado destroying everything we had known and loved for our entire life. That is what so many are going through in Kentucky.

 

 Many years ago, I had  a Sunday School teacher who posted this question on our class board “I've always wondered why somebody didn't do something about that? Then I realized I am somebody!”  As Christians, we have a great opportunity to become the “hands and feet of Jesus.”

 

 Track Rock Baptist Church is coordinating with Dawson Springs officials in an effort to help with the rebuilding of their community.  If you would like to join us in our quest to help rebuild homes and lives,  you may donate to Track Rock Baptist Church on our website www.trackrockchurch.com,  or you may mail your check to TRBC PO Box 1195 Blairsville Georgia 30514 and please designate the funds to “Kentucky Rebuild.”   If you would like to volunteer to be a part of our next trip, please contact us at 706 897 0551.

 

God Bless You All and God Bless America

Track Rock Mission Team