Displaced Mission Trip Participants Serve Together in Nashville Tornado Relief Effort
May 28, 2020
On March 3rd, 2020 the Greater Nashville area was hit by a deadly EF-4 tornado causing hundreds of injuries, millions of dollars worth of damage to structures and 24 deaths. Just ten days later, on March 13th, President Trump announced a National State of Emergency in response to the global pandemic caused by the COVID-19 coronavirus. It was because of this pandemic that all Spring Break Mission Trips for Lipscomb University were canceled. This was a moment when the coronavirus impact was being felt on a personal level and yet the pandemic still felt “somewhere else.”
Today, going anywhere beyond the mailbox seems risky, but way back in March most schools were still cautiously open and Tennessee Governor, Bill Lee, wouldn’t issue a “Stay at Home” order until April 2nd. It was during this moment of uncertainty that Lipscomb Senior and Missions Intern, Olivia Malham, felt overwhelming clarity about a service effort needed in her own backyard. “I was supposed to be a part of a tornado relief effort. It was if all of the pieces suddenly fit together. This was why I didn’t feel peace about joining a spring break team and this was why I had only made very flexible plans for my week off of school. The Nashville Tornado Relief group came together quickly. We had immediate interest from many students, as well as staff and faculty.” Having participated in four mission trips, Malham decided to lead her first trip and began working to pull together a team. Students, faculty and staff who had been displaced from canceled mission trips would serve in partnership with Community Resource Center, an organization working with the city of Nashville and surrounding counties to receive, sort, and distribute goods to the communities impacted by the tornado. Additionally, Malham coordinated to spend a day working with the Church of Christ Disaster Response Team to remove a fallen tree and debris from an elderly man’s home in Lebanon. Each day of what would have been spring break, about 25 students and three faculty/staff were ready to work on projects. In all, 70 students, faculty and staff joined the effort.
One student, Jeremiah Niehls, was planning his second trip with the Guatemala Medical Mission Team led by Dr. Alan Bradshaw. “While I understand the reasoning, the frustration and heartbreak of not being able to go to serve and spend time with the people of Guatemala was still very apparent [for our whole team]. I have to say, I was absolutely thrilled with the [Tornado Relief] idea. Since I had that time already reserved for serving the Lord I was confused as to what His intentions were for me now that those plans were cancelled, but it soon became clear that while one door had closed He was opening another full of new opportunities to serve our neighbors in a time of desperate need,” Niehls reflected.
Grace Boucher was supposed to go with the Center of Business as Mission to Jamaica. She said, “I had been looking forward to my first time serving on a Lipscomb Mission trip for a while. When I heard that the mission trips were canceled, I started to look for other spring break plans with friends. But when I found out about the Tornado Relief opportunity, it felt like a no-brainer. The whole reason I was going to Jamaica was to be the hands and feet of Jesus and love on His children. Now, I had the opportunity to do the same thing here in my own city.”
While the local mission effort came together relatively quickly and with great enthusiasm, it wasn’t without challenges. Malham recalls specific challenges related to the layered and simultaneous crises. “It was difficult to balance my team’s desire to help our community with the need to social distance in light of COVID-19. My team’s heart for service was evident in all that they did and they were willing to work as much as possible. Although a difficult decision, we canceled our last two days of service because I felt that we had a social responsibility to protect those most at risk for the virus. However, it was beautiful to see how high my team’s spirits were despite that decision. We still spent those two days together, just quarantined on campus instead. I loved seeing a group of students who were all a part of different mission trips come together to form a new bond.”
|| Emily Bruff, Assistant Director of Missions and Community Connection
Bible and Ministry Blog