‘All I could see was destruction’

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

SULPHUR, OKLA. — After a monster tornado hit this southern Oklahoma town late Saturday night, the Vinita Avenue Church of Christ swung into action.

With power out Sunday morning, the congregation — which counted 38 worshipers on a recent Lord’s Day — canceled the regular assembly and focused on helping storm victims.

“All I could say was, ‘God is good,’ because everyone helped everyone,” said church secretary Linda Mitchell, whose home sustained broken windows and tree damage. 

Volunteers from the church and Project Unify — an evangelistic disaster relief ministry associated with Churches of Christ — mobilized to provide physical and spiritual assistance.

“We just came and went into the destroyed areas and just handed out Gatorade, water, snacks,” said Project Unify’s Willie Franklin, a Texas-based evangelist and former National Football League player. “We just prayed with people and were looking for those folks with the big, big questions, like, ‘Why did God let this happen?’”

Churches of Christ Disaster Relief Effort dispatched a tractor-trailer rig full of food and emergency supplies to Sulphur, a town of 5,000 about 90 miles south of Oklahoma City.

Volunteer Andy Miller made the 700-mile drive from the ministry’s Nashville headquarters. 

Miller left Tennessee about 4 p.m. Tuesday and arrived at the Vinita Avenue church about 2:30 a.m. Wednesday. He slept in the rig’s cab for about six hours before volunteers arrived to unload the boxes about 8:30 a.m.

“It’s neat to watch how people come together … and just fulfill the needs of what people need,” said Miller, whose regular job is serving as family life minister for the Southern Hills Church of Christ in Franklin, Tenn., south of Nashville. “Because I came in through where the tornado hit, and it’s just torn all to pieces.”

The Sulphur tornado struck about 10:30 p.m. Saturday — part of an outbreak of severe weather that killed four people and injured about 300 in Oklahoma. One of the deaths occurred when the roof collapsed at a bar in Sulphur.

The EF3 twister ripped through Sulphur’s Chickasaw National Recreation Area before destroying a big chunk of the town’s downtown area and striking a neighborhood.

“This is definitely the most damage, since I’ve been governor, that I’ve seen,” Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, the state’s top elected official since 2019, said at a news conference. “What I saw downtown Sulphur, it’s unbelievable.”

“This is definitely the most damage, since I’ve been governor, that I’ve seen. What I saw downtown Sulphur, it’s unbelievable.”

‘Faith-based FEMA’

The so-called “faith-based FEMA” immediately rallied to help as a variety of denominations — including the Calvary Baptist Church, across the street from the Vinita Avenue Church of Christ, and the nearby Expectation Church — worked to serve neighbors.

Danny Stewart, the Vinita Avenue preacher, had trouble sleeping Monday night.

The minister grappled with how to let storm victims know about the truck that was bringing 300 food boxes, 252 cases of water and 144 personal care boxes — among other items with an estimated total value of nearly $80,000.

Finally, he decided to go to Walmart and spread the word Tuesday.

“I never got so many hugs in my life at Walmart,” Stewart said. “I was basically telling everyone what we were doing and asking, ‘Would you please promise me to tell everyone you know, especially those that can benefit from this?’”

An employee named Bo Nashoba asked if he could film a video of Stewart’s request and share it on social media, and the minister welcomed the opportunity.

“Anything that you need that we have, we want to share it with you,” Stewart said in the video, with the frozen vegetable aisle in the background. “Just come by, drive through, and we’ll load you up.”

---

Related: ‘Momma, I can see Jesus’

---

‘I’d like to do what I can’

A steady stream of appreciative residents showed up at the church Wednesday.

“They’re very thankful, very nice, appreciative,” said Vinita Avenue member Glenda Lewis, who held a clipboard with the names and other relevant details of those helped. She said the church collected the information in hopes of providing additional assistance to those needing it.

Stewart said the church prays “that doors will be opened so that we can sit down and study the Bible with people and welcome them to come and be loved on here.

“We’re not very big, but boy, we love on people,” he emphasized. “If a visitor comes here, they have to work pretty hard to get out without somebody talking to them and telling them how much we appreciate them being here.”

Georgia Cagle, an 80-year-old church member, relies on a walker to get around.

But that didn’t stop her from volunteering.

“I’d like to do what I can,” she said.

Cagle has attended the Vinita Avenue church since 1995.

“We’re a small congregation, and we’re an aging congregation. Until recently, I was a part of the youth group,” joked Cagle, who wore a lime green “Churches of Christ Disaster Relief Effort” T-shirt.

“We’re a small congregation, and we’re an aging congregation. Until recently, I was a part of the youth group.”

Lost in her own neighborhood

The tornado struck the homes of three Vinita Avenue church families, including Joe and Linda Mitchell. All the member residences can be repaired.

“By the grace of God, my husband is still here,” Linda Mitchell said.

As the storm hit, she asked him a question from their bedroom. Unsure what she said, he left the living room to go inquire about it. That’s when they heard glass breaking.

A tornado siren sounded earlier, she recalled. But at that moment, the Mitchells did not know a twister was about to wreak havoc on them.

“If I hadn’t asked a question, he would have been sitting on the couch where a window had been blown out,” Linda said. “And glass just shattered all over the couch — big pieces — and so I know that that was God.”

The moment dazed them.

“You know, the wind and the rain — it was coming in the window,” she said. “It was just so dark. It was just so eerie. I don’t know how to explain it. And it was just so — just the noise and the wind and everything else.”

On Sunday morning, she replied to a group text about the canceled church service with a simple message: “We need help.”

Fellow Christians — along with neighbors, some of whom sustained their own losses — hurried to help.

Real-life angels came to clear debris and remove a large tree that had fallen against the house.

“This is where I get really emotional,” Linda said in sharing the story. 

“I can’t believe all the people,” she added before pausing for several seconds as she fought back tears. “People were just coming and helping anyone and everyone.”

Still without power, Mitchell made a five-minute drive to church Monday to prepare a meal for all the volunteers.

Her return home took over an hour because she got lost.

“I couldn’t get home because I couldn’t find my home. I couldn’t find my street. All I could see was destruction — and no homes and no trees and no fences.”

“I couldn’t get home because I couldn’t find my home,” she said with a choked voice. “I couldn’t find my street. All I could see was destruction — and no homes and no trees and no fences.

“And I just had to stop and pray for people that lost so much more than I did.”

BOBBY ROSS JR. is Editor-in-Chief of The Christian Chronicle. Reach him at [email protected].

Filed under: Churches of Christ Disaster Relief Effort community outreach deadly tornado National natural disaster News Oklahoma tornado Project Unify Top Stories Tornado damage tornado relief