A Joplin Story

I must share with you my favorite Second/Joplin story thus far. One of the young men from our church volunteered in Joplin last week.

He helped an older lady who was all alone, rummaging through the wreckage of her home, trying to find valuables. Our member ministered to her until she had to quit.

In their time together, they had each learned the other was a Christ-follower. As they parted, the lady hugged her helper and said, "I will meet you at the Pearly Gates, and will tell Jesus you were the one who gave me drink when I was thirsty, and food when I was hungry."

Enough said.

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Joplin and Second

One week ago tonight, the tornado hit Joplin. Few of us knew that evening how serious the devastation was.

On Monday morning, we had fuller information. Second immediately sent $5000 to Forest Park Baptist Church in Joplin to help their affected families.

As the week progressed, people from Second kept making their way to Joplin to help. This morning the people of Second gave a special offering of over $34,700 to help Joplin.

We also had 192 people sign up to be volunteers to help in Joplin over the next few weeks. We at Second plan to stay on task for the long haul.

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Golden Gate Jail

On this date in 1937 President Franklin Roosevelt pushed a button signaling the beginning of traffic across the Golden Gate Bridge. My great-uncle Vernon Wilcox was in a San Francisco jail at that moment.

Vernon, my Grandma Hill's brother, served as an engineer on the project. On the morning of the dedication ceremony, he decided there would be no harm in his taking a stroll across the bridge before the official festivities began.

Everything went well until he reached the other end of the bridge, where he was arrested for trespassing. He spent a few hours in jail, but was always proud of the fact he was the first to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge.

Uncle Vernon went on to other exciting exploits. He wrote a fascinating book about the engineering work he did on the Alaska Highway.