When four tornadoes ripped through the neighbourhoods of New Orleans, Louisiana earlier this month, God was there — miraculously saving lives and bringing comfort to the victims.
The tornadoes damaged hundreds of houses, caused dozens of minor injuries, and left 10,000 homes without power, USA Today reported.
But miraculously no lives were lost, "but many were impacted in a mighty way," the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association pointed out.
Right after the calamity, crisis-trained chaplains from the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team were sent to the badly affected areas to offer emotional and spiritual care to the victims. Workers from sister ministry Samaritan's Purse also came to help in the recovery effort.
Some of the tornado survivors recalled how God saved them from death.
Al New, chaplain coordinator with the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team, said one of them told him that he was driving "when the tornado came up and picked him up in his van, spun him around and slammed him about 15 feet away."
The unidentified motorist said his van was completely destroyed, but, "Bless God, I didn't have an injury nowhere."
The man said the experience made him want to know God personally for saving his life. He then decided to accept Christ as his Saviour.
"I am going to go to church Sunday at my cousin's church, and I am going to testify to what happened to me in the storm and to what God has just done for me here," the man told New.
Another survivor told the chaplains that he had just returned home from his job as a truck driver when the tornadoes struck.
He said he saw the approaching tornado from his bathroom window. The man told New, "I know God wrapped His arms around me because the whole house was up and gone, but nothing touched me."
New said he and the other chaplains are doing their best to bring hope and comfort to the survivors
"You just try to bring them hope and comfort and tell them that they've been through this before; you know that you came through that," he said. "And with God's help and with hope in Him, they're going to come through it again."
