Prayers of thanksgiving for tornado-ravaged Selma

SELMA, Ala. (AP) — Leading Sunday services on the lawn outside his tornado-damaged Crosspoint Christian church, the Rev. David Nichols shared with his congregation that there was so much to be thankful.

Selma was struck by the tornado which decimated its daycare. The tornado blew away much of the building, but it did not damage the 70 teachers and children who were huddled in the bathrooms.

“Nothing but by the grace of God that they walked out of there,” Nichols said.

Church congregations offered prayers of thankfulness for those who were saved and offered comfort for those who had lost their lives to the tornado that decimated much of Selma.

Many in this historic city are anchored by churches. Black congregations played an important role in the civil right movement. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was born Monday and led the 1965 march to voting rights starting from Brown Chapel AME Church.

The storm system was blamed with killing nine people — two in Georgia and seven in Autauga County, Alabama where an estimated EF3 tornado, which is just two steps below the most powerful category of twister, tossed mobile homes into the air and ripped way roofs. Selma’s twister ravaged the city, breaking down buildings and taking trees in half. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey stated Sunday that President Joe Biden had authorized a major disaster declaration in support of the two hardest-hit Alabama counties.

The hymn “Amazing Grace” floated across the lawn at Crosspoint, where services were held outside because of the damage to the main sanctuary. The service also honored the quick-thinking teachers who got the children to the building’s inner bathrooms and shielded them with their own bodies as the twister roared over them.

Sheila Stockman, Crosspoint Christian’s teacher, stated that they decided to take the children to the toilet when they realized the storm was coming for them.

“The walls started shaking and I told my class, ‘Lie down and close your eyes’ …. and I laid down on top of them until it was over,” Stockman said.

Stockman claimed that the teachers tried their best to calm the children while the tornado roared overhead.

“I was praying and I kept telling them, ‘It’s OK. You are OK. You’re OK. I love y’all,’ ” Shana Lathan told her class as they crowed inside the bathroom.

Stockman explained that after the event was over, they opened the bathroom doors to see the sky and other parts of the building gone. The rubble had filled the room once it was home to the preschoolers just moments before.

Congregation members distributed food, baby formula, and diapers at Brown Chapel AME on Sunday afternoon.

“There are so many people hurting here right now that there is sort of like a mutual misery, which requires a shared hope and a shared vision to help us to help each other through this,” the Rev. Leodis said.

His sermon for the day was titled “A Storm-Tested Faith.” Strong said the community’s faith is being tested because “this is an environment that we have to rely upon that relationship with God and put into practice the faith that we have developed.”

A bust of Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. stands outside the church. As the nation marks King’s birthday, Strong said King’s message resonates through the disaster recovery.

“If anything, that ought to inspire and motivate us to practice our faith and our understanding of Dr King’s commitment. So we’ll make it through this. We’re going to make it,” Strong said.

Blue Jean Selma Church is a multiracial church that teaches that everyone is welcome to come in whatever attire they like. “Even in the midst of this we have hope,” Bob Armstrong, the church pastor, said,

Church members shared stories of close calls — one man emerging unscathed from a demolished building and another who moved from a building shortly before the ceiling collapsed at the same spot where he was sitting.

Congregation member Lynn Reeves swayed to the modern gospel music beneath the church’s stained glass windows had a similar feeling of gratitude. With the destruction through the city, it’s amazing no one was killed, she said.

Reeves was able to shelter in her bathroom at the auto parts shop where she works while the tornado moved. Reeves said that her coworker was in the delivery truck of the store when the tornado landed on the roof. However, he wasn’t seriously injured.

“It’s a blessing. By the grace of God, it’s a blessing … because it could have been worse,” Reeves said.