So Monday started out early, where we found out our "site assignments", gathered the necessary tools, and headed out to the sites.  There is A LOT to do, both at these sites and in this city.  It's pretty wild.  One of the residents I met today was really neat to talk to, b/c he has been through so much yet still thanked us for coming and was very grateful.  He had just gotten out of the hospital for open bypass surgery 2 days before the tornado severely damaged his house and had to crawl out of his house since his garage got picked up and slammed into the 2nd story of his house.  Later that night he found out his brother's house was leveled, and this past 4th of July his father's house burned down.  Yet he still was so thankful overall.

God has blessed us with good weather so far, as it has been "much cooler" than it has been the past 2 weeks.  It hit 89 today, a far cry from the 102-105 it had been the past 2 weeks.

A unique thing we did today was take a tour in our team vans of the city.  It's pretty amazing to see the destruction caused by a 1 1/4 mile wide by 10 miles long EF 5 tornado.  Thousands of homes leveled, thousands more severely damaged.  High school destroyed.  Yet one incredible thing was a cross that a church was built around was the ONLY thing left standing  unharmed in the direct path of the heart of the tornado.  The church was flattened to the ground, yet the cross in front untouched.  It's the only thing standing all around it.

Another amazing thing is the hope this city still has in other people and in God, in spite of what happened.  Oh, and people are very nice out here  (Us NY'ers are almost skeptical of them haha).

After much needed showers and dinner, we had an evening program and a little free time right now before heading to bed soon.

Please keep up the prayers and God bless,
Steve K