August 16, 2010
By Pastor Vaughn White, Wadena Alliance Church
When an EF4 tornado hit the city of Wadena, Minnesota, on the afternoon of June 17, 2010, Wadena Alliance Church was thrust into an unexpected ministry. Winds of 170-175 miles per hour carved a half-mile-wide swath one mile south of the city that continued for several miles, causing great destruction and devastation.
Our church had planned a summer picnic for our 55+ seniors on that date, and we had reserved a shelter in one of our city parks. At about 4:00 p.m., I decided to move the picnic to the church because of the pending weather. Just after 5:00 p.m., the tornado struck and totally ruined the park and the very shelter we would have been in at that time.
Just moments before the storm hit, I was called to the hospital to meet with Doris Berg, a woman from our church, and her daughter. Doris had just lost her husband, Don, to a heart attack, and she was still at the hospital. As I arrived, the hospital went into lockdown mode, and we waited it out in the center part of the complex. When the storm passed, I left to check on the Berg’s home. When I got there, I found that it had been shredded. I later returned to the hospital to inform Doris that not only had she lost her husband, but two hours later, she lost here home and most of her possessions.
Two of our teens, Hannah Toedter and Mariah Wood, who are summer recreation workers, were in charge of the community swimming pool. They were warned to take the four children from the pool and get into the pool shelter building. The girls didn’t feel safe and decided at the last minute to take the children across the street to Mariah’s home and take shelter in the basement. Mariah’s mother, Cindy, had just rearranged the basement to allow for a small office, and the six young people huddled there as the tornado passed. It completely leveled the pool shelter where they would have been, and it also destroyed the house above them. But the girls and their charges were spared by being in the corner of the basement.
At least 235 houses were damaged by the tornado-many of them totally gone. The high school was damaged beyond repair; 17 school busses were totaled completely; the Community Center was leveled; several businesses were destroyed; the fairgrounds badly destroyed; the large community cemetery lost most of the trees, and tombstones were broken and strewn about. At about the same time, two more tornadoes were ravaging several farms just west of the city.
Twenty families from our congregation received extensive damage to their homes; thirteen of the twenty were totally ruined. Our church immediately began an unexpected ministry. We set up work crews. Church secretary Ruth Richter became the phone-and-response coordinator and our associate pastor, Aaron Andrews, would work with crews to run the chain saws, clearing trees and debris. Church women began serving meals twice a day to the victims, their neighbors, and the rescue personnel. The meals continued that week and the following week.
Our sister Alliance churches of Verndale, Oylen, and Staples helped with some meals and the supply of food. Other Alliance churches from Little Falls, Minnesota, to Lambert, Montana, assisted with financial donations.
Because of the Lord supplying the funds, we have been able to distribute just over $ 25,000 to assist those families in their time of need. What a privilege it has been to stand with these people in the hours of their devastation and to “weep with those who weep.”
The ministry continues with resettling; finding clothes and furniture; relocating; changing addresses and phone numbers, and counseling. But God has allowed us to touch lives in ways we would not have otherwise known. Do we see the hand of God in the storm? Most Certainly! In the Wadena tornado twenty were injured, but not one life was lost. Yes, the early warning worked, the sirens and radios were effective, but our God is the one who spared the lives and opened doors of ministry!
Learn more
Read about exciting and innovative ministries at other U.S. Alliance churches.
What you can do
Pray for Pastor Vaughn and his congregation as they reach their community with God’s message of hope.
Impact lives for Jesus; give to Alliance Great Commission Ministries.