It was December 10th, 2021 in Mayfield, KY. Christmas season had begun and trees were up in the Mayfield homes. The trees and homes were decked with lights and some gifts under the trees. By 9:26 P.M. a Tornado set Mayfield and many other areas in it’s destructive path of 165 miles long. There were 57 estimated fatalities. This town lost many businesses, including a candle factory, that was a main source of employment in their community. An abundance of people lost their homes, churches, and the women’s shelter was hit as well. During a season of abundance, joy, and giving this town experienced a great loss. The kids had to be bused over an hour away for school. Many of the affected homes were renters. The disparaging thing was that many of the homes that were rented were insured but after being rebuilt or fixed the owners went up on rent. This left so many homeless due to the inability to pay the rent at such a high price. Other insured homeowners faced a different but equally disheartening issue. Some of the lower income families had homes that had been paid off for years. These families also had insurance but the cost of building homes was a much larger rate than what the insurance based their appraisals on which was rates from 3 years prior. This huge deficit put people in home half the siE they were in before and of much less value than the ones they had. Lastly, many are just still waiting for a home to be rebuilt. One local is making an effort to be a part of the driving force to fix that. Richard, a retired construction worker, has volunteered most of his free time giving back to the community by leading the rebuild of the homes of those uninsured or with no money to add to geloing repair their homes. He partners with local churches to find the needs and Adventures in Missions has been sending teams to pray over, with, and for these homes as they assist in the rebuilding. While we were in Mayfield, we witnessed a youth group of boys from a Christian school in Arizona take on a unique task for their spring break. The task was to go into a home to clean, demo, and make ready for a women’s shelter transitional home. This was no ordinary home. In this home once lived a man that had battled with severe mental health issue as well as spiritual struggles. It was a littered, cluttered, and disgusting sight to all who entered. On the walls were spray painted sayings and pictures that depicted a man who struggled between hearing God’s voice and the enemy’s voice. As the boys and their leaders began tearing the “bad parts” of the house down and cleaning out the evil in the house they could begin to see a transformation. One of the boys, Joseph, said that “it was like a test from God by saying how He has transformed our lives and we should transform this house.” Through that week the youth grew closer together and closer to God. They learned that something that was meant for evil ended up being used for good and they got to be apart of it.
