It’s now been three months since a tornado whipped through the heart of Joplin, Mo., killing 160 people.

Much has changed in those three months, and since my daughter Carly and I were there in mid-June. We returned in early August.

The biggest visual change is that most of the estimated 2 million cubic feet of debris has been hauled away, to a landfill created in Galena, Kan. Signs of the destruction remain: huge piles of debris on some properties; a few mangled cars; grave markers strewn about a cemetery; damaged trees dotting the horizon.

For the most part the worst of the destruction zone now is bare land, with little beyond streets and some foundations of houses. But there are signs that Joplin is ready to move from a cleanup to a rebuilding phase. Utility poles are up and new wire is being run. Street signs are going up. A few houses are being built. The walls are up at the Home Depot to replace the store where 34 people died in the May 22 storm.

Joplin has faced several hurdles in rebuilding. One is the sheer volume of building permits to be processed. Another is that building codes have changed since some of the neighborhoods were built. It might have been OK to build houses closer together half a century ago; but what do you say when two property owners just want to rebuild, and that violates current codes?

Building permits are being issued, however, and construction is picking up. (One thing that’s striking as you drive through Joplin is that hundreds of the remaining houses have fresh shingles on their roofs.)

Much of what is happening in Joplin, however, isn’t physical change. As visitors who knocked on doors both in June and August to see how the church we represented could help, the mammoth change we noticed was that people are moving on with their lives. In the first few weeks, every conversation focused on the tornado, and residents were eager to share their stories. Now people are talking about other things: school, jobs, the economy.

The relief centers are primarily serving meals to volunteers now. The influx of volunteers has slowed, largely because of the start of school and the less urgent need. 

What frightens Joplin residents is that they see themselves falling off the radar. The Red Cross and Salvation Army left. Attention and resources have been pulled away to other areas in need, such as states hit by Hurricane Irene.

The church where we stayed in mid-June stopped housing volunteers at the end of August. The church where we stayed in August is still housing volunteers, but it is feeling the strain of months of having a stream of volunteers parade through. Sadly, that church has seen its attendance drop; some members were worn down by the church’s commitment to the relief effort, and frustrated by church programs being put on hold for months.

Is Joplin still ripe for revival? No short-term visitor can get a feel for that. From our limited exposure, some positive signs remain, but they are less apparent. At Grace Baptist Church, where about 100 sheds are being built to provide much-needed storage for people who lost their houses, attendance has risen since the storm, though the rise has been tapering as people move from crisis mode into a new routine.

But most of the people we encountered in Joplin remain plugged into churches, or open to discussing the hope of Christ. I found it greatly satisfying that in both of our trips to Joplin we didn’t run into anyone who said no when we asked if we could pray with them.

Some random reflections:

— A guy told us about how his mom rode out the storm. She was in her house alone and realized she needed to take cover so she headed from the kitchen toward the laundry room. As she started walking, this 81-year-old woman felt the wall beside her being pulled away, then the ceiling above her. But she made it into the laundry room. Her son had to kick the door in to get her out because of the debris that had fallen in around her. The kicker? He said she had a Bible in her left hand the whole time. Talk about being grounded in the Word.

— We were told that Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) officials say Joplin had far less looting than other disaster sites they have worked. One possible factor: Residents reportedly caught a guy looting and duct taped him to a power pole. They left, police arrived, and the looter begged police to take him in because the folks who taped him up said they would be returning with baseball bats.

— We talked to a guy whose house was hit by lightning and caught fire just three days after the repairs to his house from the tornado had been completed. Wow. 

— Joplin got an inch of badly needed rain from a nasty storm while we were there. One guy told us it had been so dry there that even the catfish had ticks.

— Realty signs were up at houses all over Joplin. I’m not sure what to make of that. School officials had been fearful that enrollment numbers would be way down for this school year because people might move out of the area, but 92 percent of students returned. But we had been told that no housing was available within 50 miles of Joplin just three days after the storm hit as the displaced sought places to stay.