In April of 2011, the United States experienced more extreme weather events— tornadoes, flooding, drought, and wildfires—than in any other single month in our nation’s history. These events spread across thousands of miles, bringing struggle and devastation to thousands of people. And the staff and volunteers of CRWRC’s Disaster Response Services (DRS) are working hard to meet their needs, to serve as the hands and feet of Jesus.

Here’s one story that illustrates how the work of DRS is making a difference in the lives of real people in real ways.

Bev Hammons and Jan Perkins live in northeast Alabama, where their home was destroyed by one of the powerful tornadoes that swept through that area last April. Their home was torn apart, leaving a pile of rubble and a set of stone steps that used to lead to their front door.

Due to Bev being in a wheelchair, the two sisters didn’t make it to the basement of their house when the tornado hit. All they could do was get to an interior hallway in the center of the house…and pray. The section of the house where they were huddled together was lifted from the foundation and dropped about ten feet away so that they landed on solid ground. The rest of the house crashed into the basement. If they had been able to make it to the basement, they would have most likely been killed. Their mother and brother lived close by and did not survive the storm. This left the two sisters emotionally distraught and with little hope for rebuilding their lives.

That’s when CRWRC-DRS, in partnership with the local long-term recovery group, stepped in.

In February of 2012, Bev and Jan moved into a brand new house built by CRWRC-DRS volunteers from Orland Park CRC in Illinois. Their new home is wheelchair accessible and represents more than 2,000 volunteer hours of labor. In many ways, it is an improvement over the house that was destroyed last April and the stone steps that survived the storm were even integrated into the new home. The women are grateful beyond words for the work of the CRWRC-DRS volunteers that came from a Christian Reformed Church in Orland Park, Ill.

Orland Park Christian Reformed Church (CRC) has been sending volunteers to work on CRWRC-DRS projects for several years. Cindy Vander Laan, Orland Park’s volunteer coordinator said, “We’ve been especially blessed to serve Ms. Perkins this year—our whole congregation gets behind our volunteer projects with CRWRC. We’ve learned that when we do a construction project, it’s really God’s house, and he’s just letting us build it.”

There are so many people like Bev and Jan that are still struggling to overcome the hardship caused by this string of weather events last April. And CRWRC-DRS, through volunteers like those from Orland Park CRC, is there to help.

by Steve Finkill, Contract Writer