Day Two: We Conquered the Tree!

Day two was also a success, but I didn't want to be redundant with my titles. :)

We went back to the same house outside of Rainsville (the town we were in is actually Fyffe) to finish off the tree.  When we first got there, Tom did a small job ontop of the house getting rid of some of the remnants of the chimney that were left on the roof.  Only took a small amount of time--but still a huge help to our friend I'm sure!

The next step was to finish tackling the tree we had been fighting the day before--and after 5 1/2 long hours of chainsawing, pulling, tossing, and carrying, we defeated it!! Unfortunately we couldn't get rid of the large stump that was left, but atleast the risk of more branches falling over onto the house is now gone.

We also got to talk to the family a bit more about the actual event itself.  The homeowner described how he saw the tornado coming from the left side of his property and had his family take shelter in 2 different closets (his 2 daughters and his wife in one, and his son and mother-in-law in another) while he literally watched his house get torn in half.  The tornado was able to pull down a tree on one side of his house and land on his kitchen area, which is currently still in repair, mere feet from his son and mother-in-law.  He said he remembered telling his family that it was all ok and the tornado was gone, and just then he heard the tree on the other side of the house (the one we were working on) fall near to where his girls and wife were taking shelter.  All in all, everyone was ok (physically) in the end, but the damage was unimaginable.  And not just the damage to the house--it is damage to his time.  He trains horses for a living, but is so busy trying to fix his house, fences, and trees, that he obviously can't keep up with all of his land and livestock.  All we can hope is that we are not the last group to come help him and his family, who were literally less than 20 feet from death. 

"I can do all things, through Christ who strengthens me" -Phil 4:13

A praying mantis--how perfect.

Keep praying!! +
Megan