Scariest Day Of Our Lives

First of all…please know that as you view these, God worked in WONDROUS ways today. We have come up with countless ways that God has protected us more than we could’ve asked.

I know I posted these on facebook, but I know not everyone has facebook, so we thought we would post them on the blog as well. We were heading down to Louisville for the Simply Youth Ministry Conference – we are always SO EXCITED to go! We knew there were going to be some storms as we were going down, but we had no clue what was ahead.

As we were driving, we heard a tornado siren. We knew we were in trouble. We were by a bridge, but it was PACKED and couldn’t take cover there. So, we went through and were okay. Well, then we heard that a tornado had JUST hit where we went through. Well, we obviously kept going, but then we heard there was another tornado just in front of us. We happened upon the next bridge and we saw the damage – cars everywhere! Traffic was at a standstill, but then.

There was another tornado forming. The picture below is of the 1/2 mile tornado that hit Henryville, where we were. We were on the edge of it (PRAISE GOD). It moved our vehicle, but never lifted us up. Problem was that it brought over baseball size hail, which caused our windows to completely shatter. We saw someone’s back window blow out and we both looked at each other and thought “uh oh.” My window soon blew out and then a baseball-sized hail came FLYING in and nailed me in the leg (left a decent welt :)). It hurt like the dickens, but Dan was thinking SO QUICKLY. He gave me two coats to put over my head, and then put his pillow in my window to keep the other hail from hitting me in the head. The rain started to come through our sunroof that had shattered (we closed it with the cover), but it was SUCH a mess. Glass is absolutely everywhere – even in our pants – had to change those (and not because we peed our pants!).

 We are fearful that it might be totaled b/c there is really not one piece of it that doesn’t have a decent dent. But. Here are the most AMAZING God-sightings:

We were going to take our Intrepid, but we decided to take the Explorer – our Intrepid would’ve been 10x worse!

We stopped at Wendys to go to the bathroom and grab some food for lunch. They were taking FOREVER and we were getting impatient. Well, if they would’ve been 5 minutes faster, we would’ve been directly in that first tornado. Imagine.

We JUST outran the tornado in Scottsburg (wouldn’t recommend it, yet we had no where to go)

Dan thought SO quickly in so many ways – to protect me and keep me calm, considering what was happening. Things were happening (like our vehicle was swaying and moving), but he didn’t tell me b/c he knew how it would scare me even more.

We were able to make it to our destination with no popped tires and the sunroof never gave way from the fabric covering – chalk that up to God.

We just have a few scrapes, cuts, and a welt from the hail hitting my leg – that is IT.

We saw the tornado forming no joke, 100-150 yards over, but we just got the edge of it.

We were able to still drive our vehicle and get to a safe shelter (our destination)

We can laugh about it now (though the tears still come)

We know we are meant to be here today. It could’ve been a very different day – we feel very blessed to be alive.

We have been reminded again to NEVER take a MOMENT for granted. They are truly all a GIFT.

There will be plenty more to come, but until then, please continue to praise God with us as we celebrate his grace tonight.