Pierce City residents keep the faith after last week's tornado

PIERCE CITY, Mo. -- On the move as a truck driver for 40 years, J.B. Dalton said he was never a churchgoer. But on Sunday, one week after a tornado ravaged Pierce City, Dalton joined hymn-singing by the displaced congregation of tattered First Baptist Church.

"I always heard there was never an atheist in a tornado shelter," said Dalton, 67. "Well, I was in my neighbor's shelter last Sunday night. I thought I should come to church today."

He was among about 120 worshippers gathered Sunday at the high school cafeteria, a makeshift sanctuary for First Baptist Church, which lost its steeple and part of its roof in the tornado a week earlier.

The twister ripped apart the downtown business district and many homes in the city of about 1,400. Just down Washington Street from damaged First Baptist, the First Congregational Church's shattered belfry was covered Sunday with blue plastic sheeting.

And the metal cross atop First United Methodist Church was wind-bent -- but not broken.

"God, this community has been hit hard this week," the Rev. Greg Bunn of First Baptist said in Sunday morning's opening prayer. "Families have been hit hard. But God, we know you have not abandoned us ... as a community of faith, we need to be looking for you."

Churches and religious organizations have played a major role in helping tornado-battered communities like Pierce City cope with weather disasters -- suffering that puts preachers at pains to justify in theological terms.

The Salvation Army rolled its mobile feeding units to town. St. Mary's Catholic Church opened its gymnasium as a disaster assistance center, distributing donated food, clothing, supplies and hot meals.

First Assembly of God distributed hundreds of sacks of groceries after Sunday services, items delivered by the denomination's Convoy of Hope relief service.

"It was an evil wind that blew through here," said Penny Smith, helping to lead singing for First Baptist. "But God has been faithful."

Bunn said Sunday that chaos and disaster have beset humankind since man's biblical fall from grace in the Garden of Eden. He suggested prayer and faith as the antidote to fear and uncertainty -- and commitment by Pierce City's churches to caring for the survivors.

"We've had a lot of horizontal connection this week," Bunn said, referring to person-to-person help in clearing debris, accounting for the dead and missing, comforting neighbors and strangers alike.

On Sunday -- Mother's Day -- Bunn said storm-beaten communities needed to connect with God.

"Come on Pierce City! Pray! Pray!" the minister exhorted, then invited worshippers to kneel at the makeshift altar on the cafeteria's stage. Many did, some hugging one another in tears.

Deborah Taunton, whose husband, Dale, was Pierce City's only tornado fatality, said the service helped her deal with her loss.

"It gives you hope. I know Dale's in Heaven," she said.

Bunn titled the service "A New Beginning." First Baptist already had planned a fresh start even before the deadly storm, launching construction on a new church north of town. Located on higher ground far from downtown, that unfinished structure was mostly untouched by the tornado.

Jeff and Brandy Taylor appreciated the notion of a new beginning.

Their video rental-and-pizza store downtown was wiped out. With Brandy overdue to have their second child, the couple spent the day after the storm cleaning up what was left of their business. Showering and then tumbling exhausted into bed that night, Brandy said she began feeling labor pains. They rushed to the hospital in Monett, and Landon Taylor was born at 1:11 a.m. Tuesday.

The baby was swaddled in a quilt and held close Sunday by his proud parents.

"Yes, we lost a lot, but we didn't lose lives in our family, and we have a new life that came to us after the tornado, so we are blessed," Brandy Taylor said.

"We are so blessed."