MONROVIA – On Thursday 10 members of the New Beginnings Family Church will begin a journey to Joplin, Missouri bringing a semi-truck loaded with donations of everything from toothbrushes to mattresses – and a check for $13,000.
The effort stems from shock and sympathy felt by church members after a tornado ripped through Joplin on May 22.
“Money is one of the top things,” Spina said Tuesday, adding that a $8,000 donation had just come from Abundant Life Church in Rancho Cucamonga. “But supplies are huge. And our plan is to fill the truck with supplies and bring 10 of us to Ignite Church in Joplin. It’s been set up as a shelter and relief center housing and feeding people.”
His non-denominational church located at 2780 S. Peck Road is “a church of action,” Spina said. “We just do it.”
Ignite Church Pastor Shane Munn said Tuesday that he was touched to have support for Joplin coming from so far away.
“To think that someone all the way across the county wants to reach out and help us – it’s humbling,” Munn said.
Joplin’s shelters have been “consolidating,” Munn said, with local universities stepping in; and where his church once housed and fed 100 homeless residents each night, he said they are now mostly putting up relief workers.
Response from the rest of the country has been “overwhelming,” Munn said.
“I don’t know how many states people have come from, but there were (volunteers) from seven different states helping us,” Munn said. “That type of effort has to continue for us to rebuild, six, eight 10 weeks down the road.”
Cash donations are best, Munn said, because it allows relief agencies to react to specific needs.
“A lot of people didn’t have house insurance, or renters insurance” because of the financial downturn, he said. “They really need to get back to their lives, and there’s only so much agencies can do.”
Still, he said, Joplin’s people are trying to be positive and accept the “new normal.”
“They look at the houses and say, at least we’re alive … things can be replaced. You can’t replace people and relationships.”
Spina and his congregation, which also runs a local monthly food bank from the church, said they plan to be “angels on the ground” in Joplin, and provide whatever practical help they can.
“One woman in the church, who doesn’t have a lot of money, went door-to-door, neighbor to neighbor, and ended up with a trunkful of canned goods, shampoo, toilet paper,” Spina said. “We have some families who went (Monday) to Costco and loaded up, and we’re getting mattresses – lightly used – since so many people have no place to sleep.”
No used clothing is being accepted, Spina said, but packaged underwear and socks are in demand, along with toiletries, batteries, shovels and water, among other top needs.
“Mattresses are absolutely practical,” Munn said. “Roofing, tar paper – these are now becoming the needs.”
And to anyone who questions the practicality of trucking supplies thousands of miles, Spina said, they also see it as showing support.
“If there was a devastating earthquake here, and (our church) was set up as a relief center, how much would we appreciate people from Nevada, Kansas or Missouri bringing semi-trailers to help?” he said. “Everyone says that’s what’s great in the U.S.A. – we come together and help one another, no matter what our beliefs are.”
Such help is invaluable, Munn said.
“Mattresses are absolutely practical,” he said. “Roofing, tar paper – these are now becoming the needs.”
Checks and donations can be dropped off at the church from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. today Spina said. For more information, call 626-241-8481.
janette.williams@sgvn.com
626-578-6300, ext. 4482
