My Time In The Bathtub

So for the first time since living in my house, which will be 7 years this September, I found myself along with the kids hiding in the bathtub with pillows and blankets over our heads. Most of you know that this is the most recommended course of action when there is a tornado warning in your area and you don't have a basement.

I have never been afraid of storms, actually growing up I would sit out on my front porch with my dad watching storms go over us trying to see if we could find a funnel cloud. But this day, May 8, I found myself feeling a little anxious as we felt our house shaking, the attic fan and vents opening and closing very quickly, lights flickering off and on and I for the first time in my life heard that loud train like sound. Todd was at work, with no phone because he had to send it off for repairs, and Donna and Gary were on their way to Texas so I was really was a little nervous. I wasn't sure if my mom would be able to answer phones because she was at work and the airport was having tornadoes right over them. Thankfully my mom answered the phone and I was able to talk to her and she helped us to know what was going on as she kept an eye on the radar.

After spending about an hour in the tub the storm finally went over us and we were safe. Thank you Jesus! Our house was still standing and we still had a roof over our heads. We thankfully had no damage to our house. Praise God! But we were without power and I got word that our church had been hit and had damage.

After being home without power and needing some water I decided to take the kids and go see the church and pick up bottled water while there. I was surprised as I pulled up to the church to see the extent of the damage. As I walked through the building I honestly wanted to cry. I hated seeing the damage.

As I walked through I took a few pictures. Here's what the worse of the outside and inside looked like. It's hard to tell because of it being so dark, but there is ceiling laying on the floor and metal hanging down

The pictures show the outside of the front of the sanctuary. The roof was ripped off down to the trusses. We did find out that we had 6 trusses damaged with 3 of them having to be completely replaced. We may not be worshipping in our sanctuary for a couple of months.There was more damage done with our garage, fences, the houses, multi-ministry building and the semi trailer we use for the Live Nativity Pageant was turned over. You can check out a video here of the full damage done to the church.

We did spend almost a day without power. Some of our neighbors spent several days without power. We also had several families in our church that had a lot of damage to their houses and land. Fair Grove high school was hit really hard with a dear friend being in the room that the ceiling and walls fell in around the students. Thankfully she was not hurt, but I can not imagine being there seeing all that she saw.