Teachers take children to safety after a tornado destroyed Briarwood Elementary School in Oklahoma City on Monday.I'm writing to bring you up to speed on our Heartland response to the tornadoes here in Oklahoma City and the devastation left behind.

1. One family in our conference has lost a nine-year-old son. We have one child in our conference family that remains unaccounted for. Please continue to pray for these families.
2. We have families in our churches whose homes are a total loss and some that are partial loss.
3. None of our Heartland churches are damaged.

Our Response

We are working in cooperation with our denominational disaster relief program (DRUSA – Disaster Relief USA), honoring the policies they have in place.

• Would you consider receiving an offering this Sunday to assist families that have no insurance or are underinsured. Please send your checks to the conference, notated as "Tornado Relief."
• We are encouraging our churches to send water, Gator Aid, toiletries, and non-perishable food items.
• DRUSA does not encourage sending clothing.
• We will be using the camp ground auditorium as a holding facility for the items requested.
• We are establishing two distribution centers to get the supplies to people in need: The Crown Center (John Youell, Pastor) and Southgate PHC (Lynn Ice, pastor in Moore). Both pastors have opened their facilities, and want to serve. Lynn Ice's # - 405-659-2212; John Youell – 405-520-1147. You can also contact these brethren directly and deliver your items if you choose.
• Pastor Steve Ely (Passion Church) has also volunteered his church as a drop off area if anyone in the NW area of the metro would like to drive by and leave items there. He will accept responsibility to get them to the retreat center.

I will plan to get back with you as things progress and try to keep you informed.