Sweetness and Sorrow

Sweetness & Sorrow

Saturday

This was mostly a travel day after meeting with Kim and several women from FLC San Antonio at Starbucks for breakfast and a few more words of encouragement. I enjoyed the interaction between a mother and her tender, intelligent, conversant child. It made me miss my grandchildren all that much more. And it brought a smile to my lips.

Our GPS took us on a wild goose chase for a while through Austin before we finally found a suitable place t eat lunch, Freebirds World Burrito. Awesome cool place. They have Death sauce there and Pot Brownies (baked in small pots) and let you form tin foil sculptures and decorate the wall with your creations. Sweetness.

The most notable travel time was through West, Texas, the site of the fertilizer plant explosion. This is a toen where people park on one side of the street, pulling in head first, not parallel. We began in the center of town, on a crest of a hill, overlooking farms and fields. 

The rail road tracks on one side, the uptown side on the other. The Antique shop was open and a lovely young lady served as store keeper. This store used to be many things. The walls were old worn brick, the ceilings peeling antique white paint. A faint painted remnant of the old grocery store sign could still be made out on the outside wall. 

We browsed. Made a few personal souvenir purchases and continued to explore the other side of the road, only to come back over soon afterwards. Most businesses close here by noon or 1 PM on Saturdays. We counted a couple restaurants and at least four bars. A floral shop, insurance, thrift store, antique shop and Scoops, a sweet ice cream shop which had only opened five days before. Sweetness.

“We believe West is coming back,” the kind woman at the counter told me. From the looks of things from here, West was already sweet and strong and beautiful.

There was a family already sitting at a booth when we arrived. A mom and her children came in shortly after we did. An older couple soon flowed in and sat up at the counter. Lesa paid for the ice cream of the young mother and her children. Scoops accepts checks, cash, VISA and Mastercard but they don't run debit cards. While there, we found out how to get to the explosion area. We were encouraged to stay at the Inn run by the mayor. We already had hotel arrangements near Dallas.I would have loved to stay there, meet the mayor, pray with the town council. Since everything was closed on Saturday, its unlikely any thing would be open Sunday. Father's Day.

We had no idea the kind of destruction we would see, nor the way hope looks when it is alive and well in the hearts of a shattered community. The photos do not describe half of it.  Sorrow.

We cried. It looked like a war zone. Only a few of the homes looked completely bulldozed and cleared away. Some people left everything and have not returned. Street a after street. Half the town suffered great property losses. Shattered window glass. Caved in roofs. Siding blown off. Brick exteriors. Gone. Charred remains of studs. A chimney stands alone. House after house after house after house. The elementary school. The Middle School all closed down, all in such states of damage that they will most certainly need to be bnulldozed down themselves. But carefully placed in many yards were starts of hope painted by little children with warm sayings. Each one unique. “God Bless West. “ “HOPE.” Swirls of different colored paint. We cried.

We saw several young boys and their dad each using heavy equipment, breaking up what remained from cement slab foundations. As we drove around again to give them a painting of hope I made on the road for such purpose, this family was walking up to the street at the same time. They had not lost a home, But they knew someone who had, and who lost a son. I gave them the painting and said they could keep t for themselves or pass it on to the family they knew.

This day was emotionally exhausting, draining, devastating. We all agreed that this is nothing compared to what we may see in Oklahoma, where the tornadoes ripped miles and miles of peoples' lives apart.

We are getting ready to go to TD Jake's Father's Day service in Dallas this morning. Worship, praise and thanksgiving is a welcome respite. Sweetness.

Oklahoma bound soon.