You turn on the T.V and what appears to be tornadoes sweeping up houses and cars on a discovery channel episode, can sometimes affect you indirectly, thus there really isn’t any emotional impulse involved. But in all honestly, it really isn’t your fault, they say the chances of you being part of a catastrophe caused by a tornado is slim, very slim. This is how i was, just like everyone else i spent most of my time viewing tragedies around the world on T.V, that didn’t really trigger any sympathy or even pain for those who were involved in the trauma, it had become second nature.
Now, if you were a part of the community in a small town called Ringgold, Georgia, the first few sentences don’t apply to you. The tragedy is real, visible and probably has shocked and maybe even affected your family directly. 27th of April 2011, a tornado touched down in this small town, killing 8 people, injuring 30 and evacuating 125 people to a nearby school.
Figuratively, the numbers are not colossal, so minute in-fact that compared to the losses to large scale disasters, genocides or even other natural catastrophes that shed millions of lives, this isn’t really headline news.
But at Creative Hope, we’re not looking to cover stories that matter most or affect people on a large scale basis, but we’re here to talk about Hope, Hope of recovery, unity and rebuilding something from the dust, the longing for something beautiful in the midst of destruction and hopelessness.
The town was busy, hectic and people were moving pretty quickly for a small town. It was a good sign. It felt as thought everyone was united in hands, working in unison to renovate the town. Signs of volunteers were marked visibly, if there was a house that needed a new roof, there were 2-3 volunteers working on it simultaneously. Some homes that were destroyed entirely were rebuilt from ground up.
Even though everything seemed to be moving quickly, the large-scale chaos the tornado had caused could steer the remaining projects to another extensive few months. But honestly, buildings can be rebuilt and schools can resume, but how quickly can those who have been affected emotionally by this disaster can get back on their feet and find true Hope?
Even though we didn’t participate greatly in helping the town recover, we were probably the only crew that came to this town for a different reason. Reading through magazines and online news articles only mentions the tragedies and the habitual facts, none of them mentioning the hard work other organizations were putting out to help this town, or even the inspirational stories the people who lived there had to share.
Our trip was short and powerless, but we witnessed a small town that came together to rebuild their losses, whether physical or emotional. Tragedies happen very often nowadays and people are starting to lose Hope and may feel crippled by its effects, but our trip to Ringgold displayed true grit in the midst of hopelessness and we are hoping this example can bring courage to those who have none left.
