Remember Union University in Your Prayers

Tuesday evening a band of fatal winter thunderstorms and tornadoes ripped through several Southern states. Among the tornado victims was Union University in Jackson, Tennessee. Union is Baptist college. Union's President, Dr. David Dockery was one of my seminary professor's when I attended Southern Seminary in Louisville. Dr. Dockery is one of the most humble, godly and authentic Christian leaders I know. He is also a gifted scholar. Close friends of ours have a son attending Union. He was on the lower level of a dorm underneath a mattress when it hit. He lost all his possessions and his car was totaled, but he escaped unharmed. Thank you Father for taking care of Drew! The devastation on the small West Tennessee campus was brutal. These pictures are from damage on the campus.

According to the AP: The university's main dormitory complex of 13 two-story apartment buildings was damaged beyond repair.
Some buildings collapsed, and others were missing walls and roofs. The complex parking lot was strewn with wrecked cars and small trucks, many flipped on their backs and other stacked in small piles here and there.
"I've never been through anything like that before — the noise. Your ears pop. It makes your skin kind of crawl. It's really creepy," said Andrew Norman, 20, who huddled with seven friends in the bathroom of a dorm room during the storm.
The college, which is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, has about 3,200 students, with 1,200 living on campus.

Amazingly no students were killed although the campus looks like a war zone. Again from the AP:
Danny Song bolted for cover as a tornado tore through the dormitory complex at Union University — then the ceiling came crashing down on top of a couch that was wedged against him. For the next hour and a half, he lay pinned in the rubble.
"I was in a fetal position," the 20-year-old junior recalled Wednesday. "I tried to lift up but I couldn't. I was thinking I would lose my legs. I couldn't feel them for a long time. I just felt really helpless."

Rescuers ultimately dug him out, along with 25 other Union students who were stuck behind jammed windows and the wreckage of walls, floors and furniture — damage wrought by the violent weather that swept across five states Tuesday.
The storm left more 50 people dead across the South. Remarkably, no one died here.
About 50 Union students were taken to a hospital, nine of them with injuries classified as serious, said Tim Ellsworth, the school's news director.

Though the small, private college was heavily damaged, school officials said students escaped life-threatening injury primarily because they quickly took shelter in dorm bathrooms and other interior spaces.

This isn't Union's first brush with twisters. Tornadoes damaged the campus in 2001 and 2002. A tornado struck downtown Jackson and killed 10 people in 2003. It's unclear whether or not students and professors will be able to resume classes and finish the semester. Imagine trying to come up with housing for this many students in a town of 60,000!

We need to pray for Union University and her leadership, faculty, students, parents and the 50 who were hospitalized with injuries. In addition, if you feel led please send a contribution to the school. As a private, Christian college, Union does not benefit from state support. The Board of Trustee has established a fund to receive recovery funds. Just mark your contribution "Tornado Relief" and make it payable to Union University. Send it to : Union University Disaster Relief Fund, 1050 Union University Drive, Jackson, TN 38305.