On Monday morning I went with a group of three other ladies from church to Children's Hospital to throw a "clinic party". The whole idea for volunteering at Children's started with my friend Linda Cooper. Many of you have been praying for Linda as she is fighting ovarian cancer once again. Although seeing a friend going through such physical struggles is difficult, it has been a blessing to watch the journey of faith God has taken her on. Linda is one of the strongest women I know and she is a huge inspiration to me. She has a heart of gold, but I know it has been difficult for her to feel like she is making a difference in the lives of others because of how focused her cancer has caused her to be on herself. Children's Hospital came to mind as a place where she and I could volunteer and share some love with the children there. I proposed the idea to Linda and she was really excited about it. Two other special ladies, Phyllis and Cindy, jumped on board to join us for a fun day with the kiddos.

Volunteers are used in a variety of ways at Children's from room visitation to throwing parties for the children. The clinic party takes place in the waiting area of the Oncology and Hematology department. Children who come for treatments are in and out of the waiting room. We set up our craft at the table and any of the children (patients) and/or their siblings were welcome to join us. Linda had found this awesome craft idea and had brought all the supplies ready to be colored and assembled. We made spinning tops out of used CDs.

Although there were only a few children who joined us on Monday, we had a great time! If nothing else, we enjoyed fellowshipping together and meeting sweet Megan who helps coordinate the volunteers. We even found it therapeutic ourselves to color in the coloring book I brought! :) But the kids who joined us really made our morning. We had a couple four year olds, a boy and a girl, and they were adorable and quite hilarious.

We're making plans to go back and hope we'll have even more kids to entertain next time!

The photo above and CD spinners craft directions can be found by clicking here. And for more information about how you can volunteer at Children's Hospital click here.
I've been accepted to go on a short-term trip with Samaritan's Purse to Haiti in August. I'm super excited for two reasons... 1) I've wanted for a long time to get involved with the work Samaritan's Purse is doing across the globe and 2) I've been wanting to get down to Haiti to help since the earthquake on January 12, 2010.

The team I'll be on will be primarily a construction team as Samaritan's Purse continues its rebuilding efforts in Haiti. I'll look forward to sharing more information as I know more about the specifics of the project. Samaritan's Purse has been working on a variety of rebuilding projects including community centers, schools, orphanages, and churches.

Will you pray with me as I prepare for this trip? I know God is putting together the right team and preparing the ground for our arrival. I need to raise around $1,000 to cover my flight (most of that cost), immunizations, and supplies. If you would like to give towards my trip, you can send a check made out to "Hannah Sterling" to the following address:

Hannah Sterling
P.O. Box 4878
Maryville, TN 37802-4878

To give you a bit of an idea of how Samaritan's Purse has been involved in Haiti since the earthquake, here is some information I received in my pre-trip information packet...

"Since the earthquake, Samaritan's Purse has rotated hundreds of trained emergency responders into Haiti who are skilled in medicine, heavy equipment operations, water and sanitation, engineering, and logistics and management, among other professions. To address the staggering shelter needs, Samaritan's Purse is providing 10,000 transitional shelters for displaced persons. In addition, Samaritan's Purse continues to provide life-saving assistance in the distribution of food, non-food items, and health, water, sanitation and hygiene interventions for those in need. Through Samaritan's Purse health activities, 9,800 life-saving medical procedures and surgeries were performed for earthquake victims. Samaritan's Purse distributed food to 360,000 beneficiaries. Water filters, bladders and tap stands were provided to communities in need of potable water, each system providing thousands of liters of clean water per day. Samaritan's Purse is working with a local church network of 2,000 churches to distribute assistance and share the Gospel."

Thank you for praying with me as I embark on this journey. And thank you for considering how you can give to help me reach my goal!

(photo courtesy of SP)

For more information about Samaritan's Purse, check out their website at www.samaritanspurse.org.
I took a few hundred photos during my time in Alabama. I basically went down each affected street and took a photo of every single house I passed. The slideshow below shows homes and businesses damaged or destroyed in Tuscaloosa, AL. The April 27th tornado made a nearly 6 mile path through the heart of the city. These photos display a small portion of this huge area of devastation.

On Thursday I had the opportunity to go to Tuscaloosa and volunteer with another relief organization. Tuscaloosa is about an hour from Birmingham. I had been hoping I would have time to squeeze in a visit, so I jumped at the chance on Thursday. I had found a couple places online that were openly accepting volunteers. I settled on an organization called Project Blessings, mapped out the address, and off I went.

Project Blessings is a non-profit organization founded in 2009 to address the needs of those in the community who are in desperate need of home repair. Volunteers work side by side with the homeowners to make the necessaries repairs and renovations to ensure the home is safe and secure. Since the storm of April 27th, Project Blessings has been operating out of Woodland Forest Baptist Church to bring supplies and relief to the local communities. They have been taking in donations of food, water, clothing, toiletries, cleaning supplies and other items to distribute to those in need during this devastating time.

I helped out in the church gym turned distribution center sorting a big donation of clothes from Columbia. Columbia sent dozens of boxes filled with hundreds of shirts, pants, and outwear to assist the citizens of Tuscaloosa--many who have lost everything. When local residents come to Project Blessings, they sit down with a volunteer who takes their information and records the specific needs they have--much like how it is at Pratt City Disaster Resource Center. Then the volunteers head inside the gym to find the requested items. I helped put some brand new outfits together from the clothes we sorted that morning.

I was so impressed by Columbia and all of their donations. Those clothes were NICE and such great quality!! We cut the tags off before giving them to the local residents, but check out this shirt for $64! I loved being able to hand over clothes like these!

I enjoyed meeting the other volunteers and was interested in learning how each of them came to serve with Project Blessings. Alan, from Franklin, TN, read about Project Blessings online and came Thursday to volunteer at the end of a business trip in this area.

Keonte has been volunteering for about two weeks and heard about the project through a son of one of the people who founded Project Blessings. He helps residents when they first arrive at the center and he also helps provide material for the website by taking photos and interviewing residents and volunteers.

Ali and Liz are students at the University of Alabama. They were in their apartment when the tornado hit. After being warned by a neighbor, they rushed to the bathroom and crouched in the bathtub. They could feel the pressure change and hear the tornado destroying the community around them. Thankfully their apartment was spared, but the other side of the complex had some damage. They helped raised money through their sorority and come out as much as they can to volunteer with Project Blessings.

And Shawn, last but not least, is there each day helping to run the show. After the storm hit, Shawn would listen to the radio for ways to get involved. She would distribute bottled water and assist from morning to evening any way that she could. In her own words: "One day I heard about Project Blessings, showed up here and never left!" You'd never guess her profession... she's a glassblower!

I also got to speak with and hopefully encourage one of the local residents who came to Project Blessings to receive some assistance. Her name was Cynthia. Cynthia's house had minimal damage, but her friend James' house had significant damage. He has moved in with her until his home can be repaired. "God has a plan," Cynthia shared, "He had a plan for this storm. We have to trust Him and let him handle things." I asked her how we could specifically pray for her and
the community. "Pray for us each and every day. Pray that we will stay bonded in Christ. That is how recovery will happen." She also asked that I would thank people who have prayed for them, volunteered, or helped in any way. "Please thank them from the bottom of our hearts!"

You can find out more about Project Blessings at their website, www.projectblessings.org. They can always use volunteers. As it says on their page, no need to register, just show up! They can use help in their distribution center, and they are also still sending teams out each morning for home repair projects. They need more donations, especially cleaning supplies, paper towels, and big boxes of powdered laundry detergent.

(from left to right) Keonte, Ali, Ronnie, Liz, Shawn, me, Alan

I still had some money left that had been given to me by people at my church, so I did a run to Dollar General and purchased some cleaning items.

I will close with some photos of the devastation in Tuscaloosa. It was as bad as Pratt City and Pleasant Grove--worse in some areas and a much wider area of destruction... about 6 miles.

Most of the streets and neighborhoods were reduced to a scene like the photo above. In pre-storm heavily wooded areas, there was hardly a tree standing. And if there was a tree standing, it was merely a portion of the trunk.

The tornado destroyed or significantly damage around 650 businesses in Tuscaloosa County. I saw the remains of Hobby Lobby, Big Lots, World Gym, Krispy Kreme and dozens of locally owned businesses.
I'm constantly amazed by God's provision and blessings. Wednesday night was no exception. I googled some churches in the Birmingham area to find one that had a Wednesday night service I could attend. I settled on First Baptist Church of Gardendale, just one exit down from where I'm staying. I worked late at the center on Wednesday and wasn't sure I was going to make the 6:15 service, but I headed that way and hoped for the best. I pulled into the parking lot right at 6:15.

FBC Gardendale is a big church, and I wasn't sure where the entrance was. I pulled up beside a lady and asked her to point me in the right direction. She did and I pulled into a parking space. The lady, whose name is Betty, walked into the building with me and asked me where I was from. I told her I was down volunteering. She invited me to sit with her so we found a seat and enjoyed the service together.

After the service, Betty wanted to know more about me. She asked me more about what I was doing, why I came all this way to help, and what else I do. We stood in the lobby for a while as I told her a little more about my life. As we started walking out to the car she asked if I had eaten dinner. I hadn't. She told me she had cooked up some cabbage, pinto beans, corn, potatoes and cornbread. She asked if I wanted to come over and eat some. I was hungry, and she was so sweet. If she didn't mind bringing a stranger into her home, I didn't mind being that stranger. :) I followed her to her home and we had a delicious meal!

Her mother Agnes lives with her. Agnes is 94 years old. And her grandson and his wife live downstairs. Agnes was sitting on the couch when we arrived, watching "church" on television. She is such a sweet lady, still sharp as a tack. Betty and I sat at the kitchen table for over an hour talking about everything under the sun. She asked a lot of questions about the ministries I've been involved in, and I found out more about her life and things she has been through. It was really a sweet time. I could tell she enjoyed the company and I definitely did. I felt at home. And that's always a good feeling when you're out of town!

Betty was interested in the recovery efforts here in Pratt City, so I invited her to volunteer one day if she was able. She came today and stayed for several hours. I showed her around the center and then she helped file the forms after I entered them into the computer. I think she enjoyed it and I certainly enjoyed the help!

I feel blessed to have met her and like I said, I'm constantly amazed at how God provides and blesses. God provided a meal, but rather than just another fast food dinner, He blessed me with a delicious home cooked feast! And I think this is a good example of how sometimes we have to open ourselves up to new places, new people, and a little spontaneity to fully experience all the blessings God has in store with us!
"A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed." Prov 11:25

You know the saying, "It's better to give than to receive"? That statement rings so true for my life! I love to pick out that perfect gift for someone, and it brings me as much joy (if not more) than the person receiving it on the day when he or she opens that gift. I love to give! I believe God has blessed me with a giving heart. I can't say I don't enjoy receiving gifts, because that would be a lie, but I just really love giving things to people who need or want them.

Yesterday I headed back down to Birmingham, Alabama to volunteer again with Pratt City Disaster Resource Center. As you probably saw before I left, I posted a list of items that were needed for the center. Because of the generosity of many of you and those at my church, I was able to pack my car full of donations! I should have taken a photo, but I packed it as full as I could while leaving room to see out the windows. The trunk and entire back of my car was full. I could feel my car groaning at the extra weight, and it put a bigger dent in my gas bill than usual. But thanks to the generosity of even more sweet folks, even my gas was paid for! God is good! Thank you to everyone who gave towards this trip and helping the people of Alabama!!

I was excited to arrive at the center this morning and have to get help unloading everything. I told the guy that there was a lot of stuff. He followed me out to my car and I said, "You might want to get a couple more guys." He said, "How much is there? Like a shopping cart full?" "Maybe five or six," I replied. "Oh!" We got it all out and rolled it inside with the help of the number of shopping carts I estimated. Later another volunteer said, "I can't believe how much you packed in your car! I thought a truck had been unloaded!" I told him that many years of experience have led me to be an excellent packer!! (Mom helped too!)

I spent the day in the main office helping with computer work like last time. Mrs. Helen and Pastor Eric were happy I had returned. I think it is refreshing for them to know that they can tell me to do something and it will get done. Something I didn't mention in my last post about the center, but some of the women who "volunteer" at the center are actually inmates from a nearby prison. There are usually one or two working around me that I get to interact with.

Near the end of the day, I helped put the finishing touches on the "household" room. That room will be opened tomorrow for volunteers to help the locals get household things they need like linens, dishes, silverware, lamps, pots and pans, and so on. A lot of the items I brought down were displayed throughout this room. And I'm going shopping tonight to purchase more things for that room in particular with the gift card and extra money people at my church gave me for the people of Alabama. Thank you!

I'm looking forward to the rest of my time here. I'm hoping to get out into the community a bit and have interaction with locals in the nearby neighborhoods. And I'd like to make a stop in Tuscaloosa at some point and see the rebuilding efforts going on there and see if I can pitch in. It's going to be a busy week and I'm already exhausted. But I'm excited and ready for however God wants to use me this week!

And P.S... we all got a special treat at the center today when Taylor Hicks (Season 5 American Idol winner) stopped by to see what's going on at the center and find out ways he can help his native state during this difficult time.


Below is a video from his webpage. The first half gives a good look at some of the places I photographed last time I was here. The second part of the video talks about a benefit concert happening here tomorrow. If you're in the Birmingham area you should check it out!

If you would like to help the victims of the April 27 tornadoes, I will be packing my car up with donations to take to Alabama next week. You can find a list of the current needs below. Call or email me if you have items you would like to donate. If you live out of town and would like to contribute, you can mail a Walmart gift card and I will go shopping on Saturday. (Email me for my address.) If you go to my church, you can bring donations to church Sunday morning and I will collect them before I leave that afternoon.

1. Dry Goods
Cereals, potatoes, tuna and hamburger helpers, mac & cheese, spaghetti, beans and peas

2. Canned Foods
Canned meats and sauces (they currently have enough canned veggies and fruit)

3. Cleaning supplies, Bags & Paper Products
Mops, brooms, bleach, laundry detergent and dish detergent, ziploc storage bags (gallon and quart size), paper towels and bathroom tissue, trash bags (kitchen and 33 gallon)

4. Bedding & Towels
Sheets, pillows, pillowcases and bedspread/comforters, bath/face/hand towels, kitchen towels

5. Household Products
Dishes, glasses, silverware, small kitchen appliances (toasters, crock pots, irons, blenders, can openers), house (landline) phones, pots, pans, and cooking utensils

One idea for a big but inexpensive way to help, purchase dishes from Goodwill or similar thrift store.

Also, if you are interested in volunteering in Alabama for any portion of next week while I am there, let me know. Birmingham is an easy 4-hour drive from Maryville.

If you've been watching the news in the past couple of months, you've seen how places in our country have literally been ripped apart by storms, flooding, and tornadoes. It's been heartbreaking to see the images and hear the stories from the devastation. Recently I heard about a father in Joplin who's son was ripped from his arms as they were huddling together in a car as the tornado came through. Can you imagine that kind of heartache and loss? Or the mother, also in Joplin, who went out for pizza during her son's graduation party and never came home. What a tragedy.

My heart first really opened to people affected by disaster after I spent some time volunteering in Baton Rouge just days after Hurricane Katrina. Since that time, whenever I hear of a devastating event like a hurricane, tornado, earthquake, or tsunami, I want to leap into action and offer some kind of help. The more I've watched the news lately, the more I've wanted to do something to love on the people who've been affected here in the South. For me personally, giving money is not enough. (And I wouldn't have much of that to give anyway!) I wanted to physically go and do something to help the hardest hit communities. So I researched some options and off I went...

After a couple dead ends with other organizations, I got online and found a group called Hands on Birmingham. They are an organization that believes in the power of volunteers and aims to put people with a giving heart in touch with places that can use them. I searched some options for disaster relief and found Pratt City Disaster Resource Center. I signed up to help out Thursday and Friday and off I went!

Local people who were affected by the storm can come to this resource center to receive assistance. After filling out a form with the needs they have, a volunteer takes them through the center to gather up some of those requests (i.e. clothing, toiletries, household items, toys, etc). If they have other needs such as assistance with debris removal or rebuilding, they are put on a list and hopefully soon helped with those needs too. FEMA was also present gathering information and assisting where they are able. I saw some Red Cross and Americorps volunteers come through the center, and there were other corporate and church groups in and out volunteering their time as well.


The resource center is set up in a school building that is only used now as a temporary location when other area schools are being renovated. It has proved to be the perfect place for the center's operations.



Each of the classrooms is being used either as an office or is filled with specific items that help meet the needs of the local residents.


Volunteer groups set up here to feed the volunteers. So wonderful!

When I arrived Thursday morning, I was greeted with open arms. The ladies were nice to me from the beginning, but once I mentioned that I drove down from TN to help, they were elated and kept giving me hugs. Now that's a good Southern welcome! You never know what the atmosphere is going to be like when you volunteer somewhere like this. It can be a bit chaotic with all that is going on, and people are often in emergency mode. But these ladies were not only getting the job done, they were so grateful for the volunteers and let them know it. (And these folks were all volunteers themselves!) Sweet Ms. Thomasine assigned me to help with data entry. That wasn't really what I expected to do, but it turns out that is exactly where I was supposed to be. Every volunteer who comes through to help and every client who comes through for assistance gets entered into the database and their paperwork is filed. To give you an idea of the amount of people who have helped and been helped, they had some tables pushed together long-ways and a few dozen fat binders in alphabetical order from one end to the other. My administrative skills were put to use yet again. And on Friday, I compiled all the data from the three separate computers volunteers had been using into one big database. That was a job! But it was very helpful for them, and I knew God had me at that place for that specific time to do that very task. (It's always a sweet thing to know you are right where God wanted you to be!)

Not only do I feel like I made a difference in those two days, but I got to meet some of the most wonderful people in the world. The three people in charge of the whole operation were Ms. Peaches, Ms. Helen, and Pastor Eric Harris. They are stationed in the computer room (Room 12) where I was at. And so it was neat to be in the same room with the big dogs who were getting things done! :) Pastor Eric is a local pastor, but since the storm, he has been busy working on helping and restoring the community. He's at the center practically every day all day guiding the team and making important decisions for the day and for the future of that community. He is trusting that God will help to build back a community even stronger than before. Ms. Peaches and Ms. Helen are two angels who are really making an impact. Ms. Helen is volunteering her time from morning to evening to help keep things running smoothly. And Ms. Peaches is "on loan" from her church to direct the operations and provide the backbone for the center. The foundational people like these three and others all came together from different churches knowing they needed to do something. It's a little over a month since the storm came through and I am amazed at what they have created with God's help. They could teach others how to provide effective disaster relief! And not only were these three people doing a wonderful job with the task they've been given, but they truly made me feel like family. In just two days, they did an incredible job making me feel loved and appreciated. They even surprised me with a big gift basket and bag filled with goodies to thank me as an out-of-town volunteer. How sweet is that?


Ms. Peaches, Ms. Helen, and William



Two good friends of mine, Benny and Ronnie, who live near Birmingham. They helped Friday to clear out some trees and debris.

While I was there I had the opportunity to drive through two of the hardest hit areas in the Birmingham area. Pratt City was one... and I first saw that disaster area on my way to find the resource center. It literally took my breath away as I looked over and saw what looked like a war zone. House after house was either ripped to shreds or just completely gone from the foundation. I drove down those streets a few different times to take photos and document the wreckage. The other area was Pleasant Grove. My friend Ronnie who has been a long-time supporter of mine when I was in New Orleans and Africa lives near Birmingham and he took me around a few neighborhoods in Pleasant Grove. This was an even wider area of destruction, though the city has already done quite a lot to clear the area. My first thought was that it took New Orleans a whole lot longer to get their act together on clearing places like the 9th Ward. But this town has really rallied, and they've cleared so much of the debris away already. The lots of homes that were nearly destroyed or totally destroyed were already cleared... not even the foundation remained. But there were still many homes that were still "standing" and I took photos of those. I'm sure some people are still searching through the rubble for anything they can salvage before they send the machines in to completely clear it out. When you're driving through these areas and you see home after home in such devastation, you'd think it might lose its effect on you. But it doesn't for me. Which is why I took a photo of nearly every home I passed. Each one was just a terrible sight. And I think these photos are important to show, which is why I'm going to post some now and I've even made a slideshow so you can see even more.


(Above) A church completely ripped apart by the tornado

Any one of these homes could have been our home. We have been spared, this time. But what about our neighbors who weren't spared. What about those who lost everything? What about those who lost a loved one or their entire family? What are we going to do to help those in this dark hour of need? Sure, the bulldozers may have everything cleared out in another couple of weeks... but then there is the rebuilding... the putting back together the pieces of all that was lost. Restoring hope when people need it most.

I wrote a blog entry back in 2006 called "Remembering Baton Rouge". At the end I wrote "[my prayer is] that our tomorrows are few in which we find ourselves looking back on the days before... wishing we could have done more." What are you doing to make a difference in this world? What can you do today to brighten someone else's tomorrow?

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About Me

About Me
In 2005 God asked me to surrender my life to His plans and purpose. Everything changed. From Mexico to New Orleans to Namibia to Haiti it's been one incredible adventure with the Lord after another. This blog is a piece of that journey.

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