“Doulos. I am a servant.”-Abundant Life Christian Center
“I wasn’t a hero. But I served in the company of heroes.” –Richard Winters, Band of Brothers
In our professional capacity as peace builders, entrepreneurs and social media mavericks here at HSCT, we do our best to separate the “we” from the “I” in this blog. The “we” is talking about strategies in developing a peace building business or marketing strategies for conflict professionals. The “I” comes through in our weekly HIT pieces and sometimes even in our ‘tongue-in-cheek’ approach to writing.
However, occasionally the “we” and the “I” overlap and become just me, Jesan Sorrells.
And over the next week, I will be blogging my thoughts and conclusions that stemmed from the experience I had last week, traveling to Moore, Oklahoma and the surrounding area, getting –as I put it when I was asked by a fellow traveler—my “skin” in the game, such as it were, in the realm of disaster relief.
As you may or may not be aware, vicious tornadoes ripped through Oklahoma about 4 weeks ago and caused massive devastation, the likes of which have been seen before. But not up close and in the trenches. And, dare I say regular reader, not by you either. I went with a group of about 200 volunteers from Southern Tier Family Life Church (http://www.stflc.org) out of Binghamton, NY and Abundant Life Christian Center (http://www.alcclife.org/) out of Syracuse, NY.
We traveled over 24 hours to Oklahoma, bunked together, military style, and then waded into the 90 degree, dry heat, the still air, the broken rubble and even the broken sewer lines. Our group changed lives and worked so thoroughly that work was thrown at us that others didn’t want to do. We took nothing in return except our bonds with the people we helped, and the bonds we established with each other.
But, the internet is now a media medium of pictures, not words. So, check out the images below in this first post and be back tomorrow for my thoughts on what I learned by serving with a company of volunteer heroes.
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| This was in a local neighborhood in Newalla, OK. |
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| This was taken in Moore, OK. |
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| The first tornado of three touched down here in a neighborhood in Moore. |
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| This was taken in a neighborhood in Newalla, OK. |
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| The first thing that all the volunteers did every morning was gather in the pavilion. |
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| Yes, those are stains on my pants. No, it’s not what you think… |
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| We bunked military style, six men to a row. |
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| This is a photo of the opposite side of Moore, OK. |
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-Peace Be With You All-
Jesan Sorrells, MA
Principal Conflict Engagement Consultant
Human Services Consulting and Training (HSCT)
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