My wife and I felt the touch of disaster late in May when a tornado of major proportion struck the small Southwest Missouri city of Joplin. This city was our home for five years. We attended Ozark Bible College in Joplin, and I attained my degree from the school. On Sunday May 22 an F5 (the strongest level) tornado tore a path across the city. We first knew about the tornado when a friend of ours posted on Facebook that his parents’ house had been in the tornado’s path. These folks are good friends of ours who had lived in Vernon, B.C. for several years, but they had long ago moved to Joplin. Jean’s sister lives just north of town, and one of Jean’s nieces lives right in Joplin. Her sister and niece were not affected by the tornado other than suffering a power outage for several days.
On Sunday afternoon our friends had just returned to Joplin after attending a wedding upstate. No sooner than they had gotten home the tornado sirens started to wail, something they had heard many times before. This time the TV and radio announcers were saying to take cover immediately. They did. She crawled into a bathtub and covered herself with pillows. He crawled under some stairs. As soon as they hid themselves the tornado hit the house. In a few short moments they became survivors of one of the worst tornado strikes in U.S. history. Their house was not completely leveled, but it cannot be rebuilt. Today they are rebuilding their lives, and they intend on being in B.C. this summer. A total of 158 people were killed, and over 7000 homes were destroyed in the twister.
Stories of death and terror combined with stories of heroism and miraculous survival have arisen as people in the path have spoken to reporters. A classmate of mine and his wife hid in a closet, and when the tornado had passed their house had been stripped away. They were injured, but the wounds will heal. They consider it a miracle that the only part of the house to survive on the main floor was the closet in which they hid.
The college was well away from the tornado path, and now is providing housing for relief groups helping to rebuild the stricken area. Joplin is within the U.S. Bible belt, and churches have sent much in the way of aid and volunteers. At a memorial service in which President Obama and Governor Nixon of Missouri spoke, Roman Catholic, Christian Church and Methodist leaders joined together in prayer and praise. Disaster had brought them together. Barak Obama quoted 2 Corinthians 4:8: “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair” (KJV). May we also have that same hope no matter what sort of crisis we face.
– submitted by Lloyd Strickland
