I (heart) Tractors!

I spent several Saturdays in October providing much needed service to the devastated East Texas region. The church was amazingly efficient in organizing a 2500 man/week army to assist the community efforts with cleaning up the mess. I believe that most of the volunteers came from the Houston and Dallas areas. The members in Louisiana were still providing work parties to Katrina areas.

My ward’s group left Katy at 3:30am and arrived at the organization point at 7am. The crew chiefs had a quick meeting, where assignments were handed out based on each crew’s available resources. We had 2 tractors—so we received some of the more technically challenging assignments. I came up with the mathematical rule that 1 tractor effort= 101 men effort. I never thought I’d say this, but: “I want a tractor!”
As I waited for our first assignment to begin, I walked through the church building that was being used as the staging point for the service projects. Every classroom had been turned into an inventory room—a room of shovels, a room of peanut butter, a few rooms of tarps, a rake room…and so on. I quickly grew deeply appreciative of the church’s preparedness for disasters like this. The divinely inspired programs that the church follows to maintain food and equipment supplies is a true godsend to the people that receive it. Through his servants, the Lord is able to bless His children. The prophets’ council for all members to have a year-supply of food and goods is a simple extension of this preparedness, so that we can take care of ourselves (“if ye are prepared ye will not fear”) and we can provide our own personal assistance to our neighbors and friends who may be in need.