Tornado

Friends,

Kadie and I have been on vacation (and will be throughout this next week) so I've been away from internet access. I was stunned to find out that the tornadoes that hit Colorado this last week struck the area around Cornerstone Baptist Church in Windsor. Cornerstone's pastor is Dave Samples, an occasional commentator on this blog. Please keep him and Cornerstone Baptist in your prayers as they minister to a reeling community. I enclose a recent email he sent out:

Dear Friends,

The days have been moving very quickly as our church and our community digs out from the rubble left by the tornado. Words just can’t express the level of destruction that our community has survived. The fact that the largest amount of destruction happened within a few blocks of our church has given all of us at Cornerstone a great ministry of care.

Cleanup of the Cornerstone campus began Saturday morning at about 10:00 once we were given permission to return to the property. Access was limited and controlled by the National Guard but I believe that everyone who attempted to reach the church on Saturday morning was allowed in. The work went quickly with the Colorado Disaster Relief Team being the first on the scene. They did some clean up of the parking lot area including the removal of a light pole that had fallen in the middle of the parking lot. The Disaster Relief Team left our facility and made their first stop at the home of one of our neighbors who happen to be elderly. The older couple was attempting to clean the debris from their yard and they were extremely grateful to the have the help of the team. The Team has chainsaws and was able to take out some trees and moved a great deal of debris very quickly. As the Disaster Relief Team moved out…our guys and girls from Cornerstone moved in and spent the day cleaning and making temporary repairs to our property. We are thankful to Excel Energy who stopped by and turned on our electricity on Saturday afternoon. We are also grateful to the “CO CAT” Company who assisted us in boarding up and tarping the places where the roof was missing. They did a lot of work absolutely free of charge. Someone was set up by McDonald’s giving away free lumber which we used to board up windows. I don’t even know who that was but—we are thankful. As the church building was being repaired, others were moving out into the community helping with cleanup and tree removal. Several chaplains from our church as well as the disaster relief team were walking the community and meeting needs. It’s interesting that within the past year at least five of our members have undergone disaster relief training with our state convention. It’s amazing how God has prepared us for this event.

Our property is the center of the disaster relief and clean up effort. We have fire, police, medical, and a Salvation Army feeding unit all working from our church. This is giving our church great exposure in terms of meeting needs and reaching our community. It’s rare to see any news about the Windsor tornado without seeing a shot of our church building. Fox 31 carried a feature on our Sunday morning worship service this evening. Worship went well today with 249 worshippers. The testimonies were very moving in each service. God is truly doing a work in us and through us.

One of the needs that have been identified is for childcare while parents are cleaning and repairing. Liz Simper is working to put something together to meet this need. Contact her if you would like to help.

My apologies to those of you who have yet to get a return email or phone call. I have much to do in the way replying to communication. It’s amazing how much accumulates when you don’t have electricity.

Blessings upon you!

Pastor Dave

(Taran: Pray for the church and her pastor. Pray that God's grace will be channeled through their efforts. Look for updates at Dave's blog.)