An Indiana church is banding together to support one another after a string of deadly tornadoes and severe storms pummeled the Midwest last week.
Members of Freedom Life Church in Winchester are now picking up the pieces and putting their “trust in Jesus” to turn things around.
Many of the church’s congregants are unscathed even after experiencing a tornado that has left a majority of the town unrecognizable.
“When we came out, we couldn’t see the road,” Whitney Smith told the Indianapolis Star. “Everything was black.”
She recounts calling on the name of Jesus as lights in the church building began to flicker and the structure began to shake.
Smith said she laid on top of her 2-year-old son to protect him as walls and beams snapped and debris whipped around them.
“While hunkered down in their church, the tornado blew through the building like a wrecking train and tore down the walls… Right on top of them,” Patrick Smith, Whitney’s husband, described. “Because of God’s good grace; Skylar, Whitney, and Thesa were able to escape the wreckage with very little injuries. Scratches at most. Fortunately, a load-bearing wall fell, right they needed it to.”
According to the Indianapolis Star, Smith vomited after inhaling some debris and was taken to a local hospital to get treatment for a foot that was injured while stepping on a nail in the rubble. Her father was also admitted and treated for minor injuries.
“God protected us,” Smith said. “I’m just thankful we’re alive.”
