Churches in tornado recovery ?for the long haul?

Toby Jenkins at First Baptist Church in Henryville / Matt Stone photo

Larry Platt was driving west on Ind. 60 on the afternoon of March 2, trying to make it home as the tornado warnings got increasingly urgent, when he saw the funnel over a treeline.

It stopped. So did he.

?My first thought was, ?Which way are you going to go? Because I?m going the other way,? ? recalled Platt, pastor of Daisy Hill United Methodist Church in Borden, Ind. He doesn?t know how long it hovered before ?it did a real small turn and started to go behind Daisy Hill Road.?

Platt made it safely home, as the tornado was chewing up farms, trees and buildings in New Pekin, Borden and other neighboring communities.

Within two hours, local volunteers arranged with Platt to convert the small basement kitchen of his church into a feeding assembly line.

And more volunteers came in from around the country in the coming days.

?I would bet within that in five-to-six-week time period they probably served four to six thousand meals ? in the basement, not counting sandwich deliveries, Platt said.

?We didn?t care where (the volunteers) were from, we didn?t care who they were, we just asked them three questions,? Platt said. ?What can you do? Have you had your tetanus shot? Have you had your safety briefing??

Based on their answers, ?Whoever was in charge sent them out to do stuff.?

The same scenario was repeated itself all over the tornado-stricken communities in Southern Indiana and Kentucky on that fateful day six months ago Sunday ? houses of worship turned shelters and relief hubs.

Many will mark the six-month point on Sunday with moments of silence or the ringing of bells. Thirty-five people died in Indiana and Kentucky, and injuries and damage were widespread.

At First Baptist Church in Henryville, Ind., on March 2, the church had opened its doors to anyone needing shelter. More than 200 people crowded into the basement, the children in the safest part ? the windowless bathrooms.

They were singing ?Jesus Loves Me? at the top of their lungs to try to mask the fearsome roar of the twister that was following Ind. 160, sucking the bricks away from the church and wrecking everything in its direct path, pastor Toby Jenkins recalled.

Members lost homes and possessions, and the church became one of the clearinghouses for food aid and other supplies. And that?s continued. In July, the church postponed a scheduled foreign mission trip and held a weeklong program dubbed ?To Henryville With Love.?

It was a ?mission trip to our own community,? Jenkins said. The church?s goal has been to ?use every penny we get to show people the love of Christ,? he said.

Worshipers now gather in the basement as workers expand the sanctuary and replace the brick siding, windows and other things damaged in the tornado. Jenkins said the spiritual revitalization in the congregation has been dramatic. Some are still in counseling, he said, but many show a firm resilience.

?You preach this stuff and you always wonder, are they getting it, that your hope is found in Christ?? he said. ?? I can stand with a family who?s lost their home, their vehicles, everything is gone, and yet they still have a smile on their face.?

Down Ind. 160 at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, the tornado slammed a chimney into the rafters and shook some bricks loose, even as it was destroying the nearby public school and other buildings. The parish?s plans for a Friday evening Lenten fish fry were forgotten as relief workers quickly set up at the church.

?It was overwhelming, in terms of the sacred trust that was given to us,? said the Rev. Steve Schaftlein, pastor of St. Francis Xavier. The church and a sister parish, St. John the Baptist in storm-struck Ripley County, are ?here for the long haul,? he added.

?We have to realize that everybody?s got their own way of healing and own pace of healing,? he said. ?Some have healed enormously and been able to move on.?

Others ?just process things slower,? he said. ?The anniversary will be a difficult time.?

Churches in August hosted a series of ?Sharing Our Stories? sessions in which survivors and rescuers could talk about the March 2 experiences and the aftermath.

At Henryville Community Presbyterian Church, worshipers last month returned to their sanctuary after repairs to the roof and other damage, but replicas of the blown-out stained glass windows are still in the works. The congregation had been worshiping with members of Mount Lebanon Presbyterian Church, also in Henryville.

At the first service in the restored sanctuary, members of Henryville Community Presbyterian recognized ?we had been given it back for a reason, to use it for God?s work,? said the Rev. Alex Becker, pastor of both churches. Members of the two congregations have drawn closer, he said, and have held intense conversations about the role of God in a disaster.

Most, he said, conclude that in some form, ?God was present. That?s a comfort even when we don?t know all the answers.?

In March, Becker was still a student pastor, preparing for ordination and finishing up a degree at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

Do seminaries teach students how to handle this sort of thing?

Yes, said Becker. He cited his chaplaincy training at University Hospital, the region?s main trauma unit, and through a course in practical theology in churches. It included lessons on congregation-wide trauma, whether through natural disaster or other causes.

?I was so grateful I did feel prepared,? he said.

So was Jenkins, who is studying at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Just the day before, a professor had said that every pastor can expect to face a moment when they?re called on to take a leadership role, ?being a voice? in the community.

Jenkins said he decided not to get his hail-dented pickup truck fixed as a conversation starter on the spiritual impact of the tornado response.

?Everywhere we go, people ask us about it and we?re able to tell about it,? he said.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/courier-journal/DqbI/~3/rze5x3X6LMY/

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