Tornado hits Sharon baptist Church in Savannah, TN

On Tuesday night February 5, a devastating tornado struck my home church, where mom and dad still attend and work, Sharon Baptist Church. Visiting on Wednesday was very emotional for me. This is the church where I was saved and baptized. This is the church where Cynthia and I were married. Praise be to God that no one was killed or even hurt at the church. There was a couple there when the tornado hit. There's more about that story further down. Cynthia and I attended a service last night at the high school in Savannah with about 450 members of the Sharon Baptist/SCA/KIDS family and we all left very encouraged. It was basically a big "pep-rally" for the church, school and preschool. It is amazing to see all of the churches in the community that have offered their facilities to the church and school on a long term basis. Please be in prayer for their church staff as they seek God's will about what needs to be done for rebuilding. It will be a long process of probably 18-24 months. Bro. Greg, one of the associate pastors, reminded the congregation last night that we will not have a building next week.

God is good and He has a perfect plan. The church is excited about building a new facility that is everything they have wanted, but haven't been able to have. Praise be to God!

By the way... Cynthia and my Alma Mater, Union University, also suffered major damage... more can be found about that at www.uuemercency.com

Tornado hits Sharon Baptist Church - 5

A canvas banner was caught in a bush in front of the worship center. These used to line the walls of the worship center with the names of God. This name is "Jehovah Jireh, the Lord our Provider". It comes from the scripture where Abraham was going to sacrifice Isaac and God provided a ram that was caught in the bush. Isn't it ironic that this name speaks to the fact that God will provide for us AND the banner is caught in a bush! I think this is a clear sign from God. He is SO good.










This is what's left of the playground and the baseball field. You can see one support post still standing from the backstop on the baseball field.










The student center (old sanctuary). The building is literally falling apart.










A wide picture of the 3 new buildings (the worship center, the SCA building and the Preschool building)










A wide picture of the old building.

Tornado hits Sharon baptist Church - 4

The worship center at Sharon is gone. You can see the stage and what's left of the chairs piled up to the left.










Dad looks at the organ. He could not find their brand new digital piano, but he found a few pieces of it.










A pile of chairs that was formed by the tornado. A couple was in this building when the tornado hit. He was editing the television broadcast, when they heard the winds kick up. He said the doors swelled open and then relaxed and he realized then that they were in trouble. They gathered themselves in the middle of the room around some of the chairs. He said they winds moved them all over the room for 20 seconds or so and when they quit moving they looked up and there was nothing above them left. It is a miracle they are alive without even a scratch.









The pile of chairs where the couple ended up.










Their car ended up in what used to be the women's restroom of the worship center. Nothing is recognizable at all.

Tornado hits Sharon Baptist Church - 3

The main entrance to the new K.I.D.S. preschool building. They opened this building last August. So they got 6 months of use out of it.













The back of the Savannah Christian Academy. Total destruction.










This is the end of the SCA building. You can see the church van is destroyed.










The church van is destroyed. You can see the SCA building in the background.










The front of the SCA building. It will be amazing if anything can be salvaged.

Tornado hits Sharon Baptist Church - 2

This is the hallway outside of dad's office. Amazingly, nothing was touched in his office. He said it looked just like it did when he left Tuesday afternoon.












The stairway outside dad's office. It led to the children's Sunday School rooms. You can see an air conditioner sitting at the bottom of the stairs.










This is the ceiling outside dad's office. It was a 2 story tall foyer with a big chandelier. Now, the ceiling has caved in and there is a huge hole.










A shot of the gym from the back of the property. You can see the children's rooms upstairs. Clearly no roof left.













The room from the gym was piled up outside of dad's office. It appears that it slid off onto the sidewalk.

Tornado hits Sharon Baptist Church - 1

This is the entrance to the old sanctuary. I was baptized just inside. The building is still standing, but will need to be demolished. It is by no means safe to enter.









The old sanctuary with a whole in the side of it.










Driving up Cravens Road. The view is much different. All you used to see was massive buildings.










This is what's left of the gym. This is where we had our wedding reception. Notice the basketball goals are still there... the backboards are gone, but the frames are still standing.










Massive trees have fallen in the parking lots.