On Sunday, April 15th at 12:15am my phone received a text, but I
didn't hear it because my phone was on vibrate and I was snoozing in my
bed. My friend Karen had texted us to take cover because a tornado was heading our way. Again she texted around 12:30am to see if we were ok. This text actually woke me up and we realized we had no power. I tried to get on FB and see what was going on, because of course when you have no radio, tv, etc, you turn to FB. I only saw one post from a friend and she said their family was fine but pray for Woodward.
I called her and when I heard the concern in her voice, I knew something bad had happened. As she told of the tornado that ripped through our town I immediately got sick thinking we had slept through the whole thing and two of our five babies were upstairs with us the whole time. HOW SCARY! Then I began thinking of the path it took and texted all my friends to see if they were ok. Cory got dressed and tried to go see if he could help and I talked to neighbors outside for a bit.
I also called home to report that we were ok and that I was just a tad freaked out that it hit less than a mile away and we had been sleeping. I am so thankful for our friends that warned us first! That's the last time I go to sleep in bad weather with my phone off!
Sunday morning when daylight hit, we realized church would be anything but normal. I hunkered down in the nursery so parents could figure out what to do next. They spent most of the morning praying, sharing stories,and making a plan of how to help. A few teams went out that day to clean up. Caden and I went to church that afternoon to make snack packs for the rescue workers and clean up crews.
On Monday we were still in shock and many people were trying to figure out how to help. They canceled school so I kept my 5 plus 7 others that day with a friend so my friends could go help aid in recovery. We had several friends receive damage to their homes, a few homes of people we know were totally lost. The children that were killed and injured were members of our AWANA program at church and one was in Caden's class at school.
This has been a trying time for our community, but we are all reaching out to each other and learning to lean on God a little more and for that I am thankful! I am humbled by the outpouring of friends and family from out of town and the way they want to help people here in Woodward that they don't even know. I am proud that my boys came home from school Tuesday and were eager to help victims in their classes. A great lesson for being the hands and feet of Christ!
Here are a few crazy pics from FB and the audio from our local hero covering the tornado...CRAZY STUFF!
Marty Logan, our local storm spotter for Channel 9, was the town hero.
Listen to his audio of the storm spotting and tell me if you don't get chills!!!
This photo is from a friends house...the tornado ripped the roof off but left the bible and laptop on the counter.
An overview of the storms path from a local photographer.
Although we weren't directly affected...it hurts to see our friends
and community hurt. Thank you all for your well wishes and prayers!
Keep them coming!
