Hope Springs

We went to the site of Plaza Towers Elementary School where seven children were killed by the tornado. 

Here is an overhead view of the area prior to the tornado

 

and after 

 The destruction was just so complete and terrifying. It's amazing that anyone survived inside that crushed building. According to a CNN story, many of the students who survived, survived because they were huddled and protected underneath their teachers. First responders pulled a car off one teacher, only to find three children under her. Another teacher kept an entire wall from crushing her students, and not without injury. Although I have lost the source now, I recently read a quotation in the Moore Monthly Newpaper from another teacher that went something like, "When the roof came off, I felt myself being sucked up. I knew that if I went, all the students under me would go too. So I just held on. I held on for dear life." I can't imagine the terror that these teachers, students, and their families experienced.

The message traveling throughout media coverage and conversation is one of hope, and you can see evidence of that in the photos above.

"If calamity comes upon us, whether the sword of judgment, or plague or famine, we will stand in your presence before this temple that bears your Name and will cry out to you in our distress, and you will hear us and save us." 2 Chronicles 20:9

As we prepare to finish our work here, it is evident that this experience has been a blessing to so many. God is glorified in the heroic acts of of his people during the disaster and the disaster recovery. I am so impressed by the faith of this entire community, and so thankful to be a part of it.