Youth groups helping with tornado relief in Missouri, Alabama

In tornado-stricken communities in Missouri and Alabama, youth groups from Churches of Christ are lending their time and sweat to recovery efforts.
WPSD in Paducah, Ky., reports on teens who helped in Joplin, Mo. See the video.
Paula Harrington, a member of the Calvert City Church of Christ in Kentucky, said the youth groups from several Churches of Christ in Marshall County, Ky., conduct a work camp each summer.
“But this year, we wanted to do something different,” Harrington told The Christian Chronicle. “We worked in the heart of Joplin and also briefly in the town of Duquesne, a town close to Joplin that was also hit.”

Central Church of Christ in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (Photo via www.centralchurchofchrist.org)

The Kentucky teens’ efforts were coordinated by the 26th and Connecticut Church of Christ in Joplin (see our report on the tornado’s impact on that congregation). The youth group was housed by the Hillcrest Church of Christ in Neosho, Mo.
ABC 33/40 in Birmingham, Ala., reports on 200 teens from throughout the Southeast helping the Central Church of Christ in Tuscaloosa, Ala., with debris removal. See the video.
See our report on the tornado’s impact on that congregation.
Before the summer is over, the Central church expects that 2,000 young people “with strong wills and big hearts” will have come to help out, according to the TV station. Campus minister Trae Durden told ABC 33/40:

We put up a volunteer sheet on our website right after it happened. And we had it filled up within about two weeks. We had the whole summer booked out.