So today marks 4 years since an EF-5 tornado ripped through Joplin, Missouri and devastated everything in it’s path.
I remember that day well…
My roommate and I had spent the night in our new apartment. It was a beautiful Sunday morning and Steph fixed us scrambled eggs for our first breakfast together in the new to us place. Steph was headed to NW Arkansas to help some girls from our dorm get settle at Camp War Eagle and I was headed to church in Oronogo, Missouri (about 30 min. North of our apartment) with my parents. The day started off great! Breakfast with Stephanie, church with my parents, followed by lunch at Undercliff, and then searching antique stores for some furniture for the new place.
After finding a desk and night stand we stopped at CherryBerry for fro-yo, because Why not?! As we were leaving the antique store right before that we had noticed the sky started to look a little grim, and when we got in the car to leave CherryBerry we heard that there was a tornado warning and one had been spotted near 7th street. I told my parents we were fine since we were south of all of it, on 20th street, so we headed back to the apartment to unload the furniture and unpack some of my stuff.
As Momma and I were going through my clothes, Daddy sat in the living room and listened to the weather and watched from the window as the sky continued to darken. He called me into the living room twice as the direction of the flag outside the window completely switched from being blown away to being sucked into the storm. I didn’t see the significance at the time and went back to what I was doing.
Suddenly I heard Daddy yell, “Get in bathroom!”
I was clearly thrown for a loop, “What?”
“Get in the bathroom right now!”
“I’m getting my purse!” I hollered back
Momma hollered from the bathroom, “Get mine too!”
The moment I sat down in the bathroom, my ears began to pop, and Daddy ran in and shut the door. I got on the floor and he shoved me between the vanity and the toilet (because when everything else goes you still have the plumbing) and Momma was in the corner where the side of the tub and the wall met. Daddy was between us with a blanket over us to protect us from any potential debris and in the that moment he began to pray for God’s hand to blanket us and shield us as well.
All the sounds of destruction came quickly. We could feel the pressure as the winds whirled above us. Boards snapped. Pipes burst. Everything whirling and colliding against each other as the wind raged outside. There was a very real moment when I envisioned the ceiling being torn off and being taken up into heaven. The winds came to a halt and it sounded as though we had made it through, and in that moment the second wall of the tornado hit. Everything began to crash and collide above us once again and in the moments we were holding each other so tightly, I felt as though we were far from each other.
Things settled once again, and we opened the bathroom door to find complete chaos… water everywhere, my Yellowbox flipflops floating past the door, sheet-rock, cinder-blocks, blown-out windows, all the result of this storm. We walked out of the apartment only to see more of the fullness of the damage from the tornado. The gas station that once stood right beside my apartment complex had been completely leveled too on the cement slab foundation. The smell of gasoline filled the air and I watched as one of my neighbors lit a cigarette. In that moment I thought, “I just survived this tornado and now this guy is about to blow us all up.” God continued to have His hand on us though.
It was amazing how God provided means of communication during that time when all the phone lines were tied up. We were able to contact my sister while she was vacationing in Florida, and also able to speak with some of our family. A truck passed by about the time it was getting dark and we were about to carry instruments and clothes that we got out of the apartment to my parents hotel. My friends met us to take us to my old dorm where we lived for the week while we figured everything out with the apartment, collected our things, and sorted through all of mess.
It was tough. So many lives were turned upside-down and all around, but God has been using this time in my life to continue to teach me about His faithfulness. This has remained a theme over the last few years and still it rings true on the Race. Through the tornado God began to open my eyes to the reality that I have very little control in this life. I can control my choice to follow after Him and the degree in which I want to that. I can be all in and relinquish the control I feel I have or I can be lukewarm. God is showing me each day that He is so faithful when I relinquish control to Him.
On the race you decide how vulnerable you want to be with your team, your squad, and even with God. He knows all, but He wants you to come to Him and express your joys, concerns, hurts, struggles, all of it. He also wants you to release things to Him. I’ve had to release my relationships with friends and family, my “need” to be in control of well… everything haha (we’re still working on it). What I’ve found is that when I release the things that consume me into His care He is faithful and gives me a peace that only comes from Him. Me being with my family doesn’t keep them safe, I am not the glue, God is. I’m so overwhelmed with thanksgiving, still to this day, for His hand of protection over me and my family that day 4 years ago. I am also thankful for the door it opened to spur on growth and a deeper relationship with the Lord.
