Andrea Page, a member of First Baptist Church in Walker County, Alabama was visiting Oklahoma this past weekend for a friends’ daughter’s wedding at Our Lord’s Community Church, when she saw something that lifted her spirits – a couple of people wearing dark green shirts.
Pat and Rich Grasman serve as Early Response Coordinators for World Renew’s Disaster Response Services. They had come to Oklahoma to determine where and how World Renew volunteers could best respond to the devastation of last week’s tornadoes. Wearing their distinctive, green, World Renew t-shirts, the Grasmans met with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) representatives as well as staff at several area churches to help determine where volunteers could best serve the stricken community.
As they emerged from a meeting at Our Lord’s Community Church, Page caught sight of the Grasmans and exclaimed, “Praise the Lord, the Green Shirts are here!”
Page told OLCC staff that World Renew had been a blessing to her and her community following tornadoes in 2011. A Needs Assessment team had gone door to door to help determine unmet needs and had helped the Walker County Long Term Recovery Committee determine priorities of what homes to work on. World Renew also had reconstruction teams in Walker County that had completed repairs on homes of people that Page knew.
“It was great to hear this from a member of a community where the Green Shirts had such a great presence,” said Rich Grasman.
World Renew’s presence in Oklahoma is also being felt by those in need. In addition to doing an assessment and helping to prepare a plan for World Renew’s Response, Rich and Pat are providing spiritual support and care to tornado survivors they encounter. This has included a woman from a mobile home park who was emotionally vulnerable after her children narrowly escaped being trapped in the rubble of Plaza Towers Elementary school. It has also included a man who had lost his home and his maintenance job when an apartment complex had been destroyed.
Rich and Pat expect to soon be joined by teams of World Renew volunteers who will be involved in activities such as clean-up and long-term recovery. Your financial support is urgently needed.
