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Unfortunately, we had a major storm on the campus this past Friday night, and it caused a great deal of damage to our trees and grounds.Obviously, we are saddened by the destruction on our beautiful campus where
centuries-old trees were uprooted and snapped to make the campus look like the aftermath of a tornado.When Polly and I arrived on campus Friday around 10:00 PM, the place looked like a war zone with most of the streets impassable.Early Saturday morning when I came in, our maintenance guys already had the streets cleared and were working hard to get the power lines uncovered in order for CPW to be able to get the power restored.Unfortunately, we still were without power from 9:30 or so Friday night until around 8:00 on Sunday morning.The church still did not have power restored by then, so the Easter service had to be called off, and our kids went to other churches.We worked hard to see that the
children got proper housing and food during the power outage.We placed some in motels and others went to their cottage parents’ off-campus homes.Since it was Easter weekend and spring break from school, we only had about 20 children left on campus at the time.
We all owe a great debt of gratitude to our maintenance crew for their hard work already and for many days of clean-up still ahead.They already were hard at work early Saturday morning, along with alumni, Brady Hudson and Nolan Tolson.I appreciate their dedication and efforts to get this mess cleaned up.
We were greatly blessed in that no one was hurt nor did we have any major structural damage to our buildings.The roof at Vass has a hole from a limb, some gutters and awnings were torn off at Eason and the church, a carport was bent in, the Food Center has large limbs on the roof, and the horse barn at OASIS had a tree fall on it.Otherwise, most of our buildings and structures had trees and limbs fall near them but not directly on them.Included in this special edition of Family Album are some pictures that Miller and I made of the aftermath.
We are bent but not broken.God has spared us from extreme damage that could have occurred.Keep the ministry in your prayers as we work to get back to normal.
Dr. Ben Davis
President and CEO
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