Illuminated cross travels from Sedalia to Joplin

JOPLIN — With a beaming smile and glistening eyes, Viki Simmons said the gift to her church arose “from broken to beauty.”

The gift was discovered, devised and delivered by teens who were on a quest to help Joplin residents after the May tornado that shredded that city, but those teens also ended up providing comfort and inspiration to a congregation searching for light and hope.

On Sunday, the youth group from Christ & Trinity Lutheran Church in Sedalia presented to Peace Lutheran Church in Joplin an illuminated cross they made from broken glass found where Peace Lutheran stood until the EF-5 twister decimated the structure.
Simmons called the gift “truly a symbol of what God wants us to be for each other.”

In June, Christ & Trinity youths traveled to Joplin to help with cleanup and aid efforts. The trip included a stop at Peace Lutheran. Adult congregation member Cathy Hatfield, who took the teens to Joplin, said at the time: “The kids had not had time to process through all the work, and I didn’t want to leave until they could find some connection.”

My daughter, Hannah, was one of the teens on the trip and she got the ball rolling on what would be an incredible journey for her friends and our church. The five who made the trip and were integral to the project shared their thoughts with the Peace Lutheran congregation before the cross was unveiled during Sunday’s service at Bethany Presbyterian Church, where the Peace congregation worships as it plans for a new building. Since Hannah is in Germany on Rotary Youth Exchange, her mother, Melany, read her thoughts.

“The five of us got hoppin’ trying to help anywhere and everywhere we could,” Hannah wrote. “But at the end of the day we had one last stop, Peace Lutheran, and as we walked around, my perceptions started to shift from the devastation of what was left to being ultra aware of what was there ... (including) the most beautiful, although broken, glass in all shapes and sizes. ... As soon as I did see these things, I knew I, or we, needed to do something with it.”

Fellow youth group member Emily Greble said, “Glass that once had purpose and meaning was now scattered on the ground in pieces. But maybe destruction didn’t have to take away the meaning. Maybe we could give it new meaning.”

Boy, did they.

With the help of Smith-Cotton High School art teacher Michael Shukers, Hannah, Emily, Alex Eppenauer, Mitch Morenz and Caitlyn Craig (with help from Allison Eppenauer and Chaz Satnan) created a gleaming testament to the power of rebirth. When it was revealed Sunday, Linda Wheeler, who has attended services at Peace Lutheran for 11 years, gasped and, while most sat in awe, called out, “Thank you.”

Wheeler, a professional artist, marveled at the cross’ beauty and said it was “like Christmas all over.”

“We are so blessed that these children thought of us in such an overwhelming way,” she said. “They could not have done anything better for us.”

During her sermon leading into the youth group’s comments, Peace Lutheran Pastor Katharine Redpath noted it was the first Sunday of Advent.

“Advent is about waiting for the promised Messiah, the one who will make all things new, the one who will pick up the pieces of our brokenness and put them back together into something amazing and beautiful and whole,” she said. “We limp through life with broken relationships and broken dreams and broken promises, but God is able to gather up all those broken pieces, and in spite of their sharp edges and their unmatched sizes and their far-flung hiding places, God is able to create something whole and new from them.”

The youths created a cross as a symbol of faith, love and renewal, but the project also taught them about themselves and others. In his comments to the congregation, Alex said, “One of the things that really struck me was, among the rubble, a Bible and hymnal. I couldn’t help but think that I may not know these people, but they read the same Bible and sing from the same hymnal.”

During a post-service luncheon, Wheeler said Joplin residents received a lot of help from across the country over the past six months, including many donations of practical and needed items. “But this gift of spirit is more important than any of the practical stuff,” she said.

Caitlyn, a freshman at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, could not attend, so Christ & Trinity Pastor Kim Knowle read her comments:

“My hopes are that this cross will bring hope and new light to the congregation of Peace Lutheran and allow them to know that our congregation’s hearts have been with theirs all along and we will continue our prayers for them as they continue to rebuild.”

Simmons was more than impressed by the youths and their efforts. “These young people had the insight to create something that would give so much comfort,” she said.

Wheeler was struck that the teens “were so alert to beauty in what was left.” But most meaningful to her is that the cross will allow the Peace Lutheran congregation to “relive the beauty and joy we experienced in that church.”