Sunday's Storm

Sunday morning, we drove to church through driving rain and ominous skies. As we pulled into the parking lot, Josh said, "It almost looks like a tornado sky." The clouds were so low, and so dark.

When we dropped the girls off at DiscoveryLand, we were debriefed on where they would be taken should a take cover emergency occur. That scared me, to be honest. I was (and am) so thankful a plan was in place, but the idea that today might be the day they use it, that we would be separated from our girls during that time, was pretty unsettling.

But church went on without a hitch. We heard an incredible message by Bob Goff. And then we picked up our girls and ran out in the rain and went home. Leaves were all over the road, and the rain came in waves, almost like a carwash. But no tree limbs were down, no power poles on the road.

When we got home, we turned on the news, and then we learned that a tornado had hit Washington, Pekin, and East Peoria--all smaller towns just on the other side of the river. It is one thing to watch disaster strike some unknown town on television. It's a completely different thing when that town is home to your cousins, to your co-workers, to your friends. When people you know were a half block from the devestation. When they saw the tornado go by and heard its telltale roar. When the weather reporters you watch every day are on the national news because they had to take shelter during the storm.

Yesterday, the National Weather Service indicated that the tornado that hit Washington was an EF4, with maximum sustained wind speeds of 190 mph. The destruction is unbelieveable.

Please pray for all those affected by Sunday's storm, here in central Illinois, in Indiana, and elsewhere.

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