Quite an experience...What trust they showed in Jehovah. Mena is located right at the Oklahoma state line...USA. I have been in contact with a Brother, he says they are all fine.
Just wanted to let you know that everything is OK here after the tornado that hit Mena last Thursday during the Memorial. We had just passed the bead and Brother Tilton was just getting ready to read Pauls words concerning the passing of the wine. Your brother, Richard who was watching the weather as well as trying to focus on the Memorial came up to the front and whispered into one of the passer’s ears that there was a tornado headed our way. Well what were we going to do? We had no shelter to go into. I kinda laughed and leaned over to the brother and said I wished he hadn’t said anything. About that time , the lights went out.There was a deafening noise then it got quiet. Brother Tilton paused, but the Emergency lights at the side of the Hall came on. What else could we do but go on. Brother Tilton went on with the reading of the scripture and then said the prayer over the wine (he is of the Anointed) and said lets have the passing of the wine. Parts of the Hall were dark since we only had one emergency light. So the emblems were passed with the aid of flashlights. The meeting was continued as if nothing had happened. By the time Brother Tilton had read the scripture, before the passing of the wine, things had begun to calm down outside.
While the conclusion of the meeting was going on, an unbelieving husband of one of the sisters came running in, and even I (I was sitting at the front of the Hall) heard him yell out, Lisa! She came running over to him and he said, Your meeting saved our lives. If we had been home, we would all be dead. She put her hand over his mouth before he could utter an expletive. Sure enough, the next day Eric (my son-in -law and I went out to their place and the house, although it was still standing, had been moved about 20 feet off its foundation and everything inside was destroyed. His life was saved because when he realized that the storm was headed for Mena he left for the Hall to get his wife. He witnessed the tornado hitting his house from a safe distance.
After the meeting one of the brothers who was keeping an eye on things outside said that he saw the tornado heading right for the Hall and as he was getting ready to duck inside and warn us, he said the tornado suddenly veered north of the Hall and passed us by. The next day, Inspecting revealed very slight damage to the Hall and our outbuilding.
There is a couple who I am priveleged to study with that was there and who have been attending regularly for several months. At our last study, their granddaughter (about 15 years old) was there. She started participating in the study and was thrilled that she was included in reading the paragraphs and reading scriptures. At the Memorial that night when things were getting rough she later told her grandparents that even though things were looking bad she felt so calm and safe. She told them that she wants to be one of Jehovah's Witnesses. You can imagine how that made me feel as well as her grandparents.
Well I would like to share more about our activity since the storm but I am here at work helping to get the building back in shape so I'll get back to you later