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Joplin church ‘helping people like Jesus would’
Susan Mires, Baptist Press
May 26, 2011
5 MIN READ TIME

Joplin church ‘helping people like Jesus would’

Joplin church ‘helping people like Jesus would’
Susan Mires, Baptist Press
May 26, 2011

JOPLIN, Mo.

— Pastor John Swadley was still huddled in the crawl space under his house when

he began forming the plan for Forest Park

Baptist Church’s

response to the tornado.

Swadley and his family carried a radio with them as they took cover the night

of May 22. The local station soon began feeding live reports of the tornado’s

destruction. They were spared. Joplin

was not.

“I knew at that time we were dealing with a disaster of

major proportions,” he said.

Forest Park is now at the heart of

the national relief effort for Joplin.

The church is coordinating food, volunteer assignments and donations in the

aftermath of an EF-5 tornado (winds of more than 200 miles per hour) that

killed at least 125 and injured 750, with 9 rescued and an unknown number of

people still missing.

The National Weather Service reported it was the eighth deadliest tornado in U.S.

history. President Barack Obama is planning on visiting Joplin

Sunday.

Two men take a break on one of Empire Baptist Church’s red pews, some of the few items left untouched by the EF5 tornado that destroyed the church’s building and much of Joplin, Mo., Sunday, May 22.

“We are just helping people like Jesus would,” Swadley said. “We are being the

church and offering help, hope and healing.”

Forest Park’s main campus, which

runs about 1,000 in Sunday worship, is just a few blocks north of the

storm-damaged area in Joplin. The

unharmed church building is perfectly situated to serve as a base of operations

for relief efforts.

Response began just minutes after the storm as Swadley used his Facebook page

to help family and church members find each other. Church leaders determined

Monday morning the most urgent need was for food. Hot meals are being prepared

in the church kitchen. Forest Park

members are also loading sandwiches in the church van and delivering them to people

in the city.

The church’s “bus barn” storage facility has been designated the receiving and

staging area for donated items and where supplies such as diapers, toothpaste

and soap are distributed. Offers of help have been pouring in from throughout the

country.

“I’m really proud of my Heavenly Father and how He is using us for His work,”

Swadley said.

Forest Park is the flagship church

for the Missouri Baptist Convention in the Joplin

area, said John Marshall, convention president and pastor of Second

Baptist Church

in Springfield.

“They will be in the thick of it until the end,” Marshall

said. “They are very community minded. They have three campuses, so they are

well-positioned all the way around.”

Forest Park members have also

experienced great loss. Thirty-one members have uninhabitable homes. Nearly all

of them have been taken into homes of fellow members. Many members share

stories of how God protected them through the storm.

“When it says in the Bible to show hospitality, our people have stepped up and

done that beautifully to help each other and their friends and Sunday School

classes,” Swadley said.

One of the most urgent needs has been helping members get salvageable

belongings collected and out of the rain. (Wednesday’s forecast called for a 60

percent chance of rain and scattered thunderstorms.) In addition, grief

counseling sessions have been set up at the church and more support groups will

be forming. Swadley’s message on Sunday will be titled, “Where do we go from

here?”

“We’re going to try to construct a worship service where everyone can

experience God’s presence in a way so that they leave stronger than they came,”

he said.

Most debris clearing is on hold while the search and rescue operation is under

way, but volunteers are expected in large numbers soon. Samaritan’s Purse will

use Forest Park as its base of

operations, providing expertise and direction while the church supplies workers

and resources for the relief effort.

“God sets the agenda for His church. When something like this happens, we have

to set aside our plans and goals in the short term and adjust to what God would

have us do,” Swadley said.

The recovery and Forest Park’s

efforts are not short term, Swadley said, but will take many months.

“We’re going to have dozens and dozens of people who will be

unemployed because the place where they work no longer exists,” he said. “We

want to be able to help provide financial support so they’re not further hurt

in their already wounded heart. We want to do our best to cushion the blow as

much as we can.”

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Mires is a contributing writer for The Pathway, the official

newsjournal of the Missouri Baptist Convention. To donate and learn how to help

with relief in Joplin, visit www.mobaptist.org/modr.)