c. 2008 Religion News Service

Tornado rips through Tenn. Baptist college

(RNS) More than 60 students at Union University were treated for injuries after a tornado swept through campus on Tuesday (Feb. 5) and damaged several buildings at the Baptist college in Tennessee.

Union officials said at least 13 students were trapped in residence halls as more than 1,000 students sought shelter in bathrooms. Seventeen buildings were damaged, school officials said, and 80 percent of campus dorms were either destroyed or heavily damaged.

“It’s a miracle of the Lord more people weren’t injured,” Union professor Michael Chute told Baptist Press, the news service of the Southern Baptist Convention. “The damage to the residence halls looks as bad as the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City when it was bombed. Walls were just ripped off.”

Union president David Dockery said the damage from Tuesday’s storm was “15-fold” what the campus suffered in a 2002 tornado. Baptist Press reported $2.6 million dollars in damage in the 2002 tornado.

By mid-afternoon on Wednesday, some residents were allowed back into seven of the dormitories to retrieve what is left of their possessions.

More than 60 students were treated for injuries, nine of whom were kept overnight. Although some injuries were serious, none appear to be life threatening, Dockery said in a televised news conference.

Students met with faculty and staff in a shopping center across campus to be registered as safe, and were then paired with community members who volunteered as hosts, Chute said. Local churches organized buses to transport the students to temporary homes.

University officials have said that classes will not resume before Feb. 18, and a major clean-up project will commence Thursday.

_ Brittani Hamm

Pastor finds few souls in need of counsel at Pa. bar

CARLISLE, Pa. (RNS) Beyond the darts arcing through the smoky air, and apparently unaffected by the heavy bass throbbing through speakers, the Rev. Chuck Kish tapped at the keyboard of his laptop, a tall, cool glass of Diet Coke near at hand, as the Friday night crowd milled around at the Market Cross Pub.

A few tables away, Kish’s counterpart, Carol Wetzel, sat and waited through the evening, just in case somebody felt the need to talk.

Nobody did, except for a couple of reporters and photographers.

Friday (Feb. 1) was the first night of Kish’s plan to put clergy in local bars one night a month to listen to those in need.

“It’s going to take time,” Kish said. “It’s going to take time, and one person at a time coming over just to chat and learn to trust. This is going to work. I know it is.”

Kish, a senior pastor at the Bethel Assembly of God in Carlisle, set up the pilot program at the Market Cross Pub after talking to owner Jeff Goss.

Wetzel, who works as an administrative assistant at the church, signed on and has become a chaplain in the cause.

“I just felt called to do it,” said Wetzel, 55. “When he talked about it in church that day, it was like the spirit just leapt at me. I want to reach out to people. I want them to unload their troubles to me.”

Kish and Wetzel said they weren’t there to preach the gospel or go on about the dangers of alcohol.

“Sometimes when people go to a bar, they’ve got something weighing on their minds, and what they really need is somebody who is not going to be judgmental to talk to and help them,” Kish said.

“I don’t have a problem with chaplains in the bar,” said patron Mike Dean, 33. “My uncle was a Baptist preacher. It probably gives them an extra outlet for reaching people.”

Kish thinks he knows why a story about a pastor hanging out in a bar has attracted such interest.

“When you become a Christian, you’re told to burn those bridges that connected you to that world you are walking away from,” he said. “But sometimes the churches forget to tell you that once you’ve recovered and become strong, you need to rebuild those bridges so you can re-enter that world and share your light.”

_ T.W. Burger

Quote of the Day: Richard Land, Southern Baptist Convention executive

(RNS) “Where (Mike Huckabee) is from where he was is pretty remarkable, but where McCain is from where he was six months ago is the greatest resurrection story since Lazarus.”

_ Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, speaking about the campaigns of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Sen. John McCain.

KRE DS END RNS