Dear Members of Kappa Delta Pi,

Following the aftermath of the EF-4 tornado that hit our campus, I do not have adequate words to begin to say thank you to everyone who walked this journey with our chapter. The e-mails, phone messages, gift cards, monetary, and clothing donations for our chapter and campus-at-large have been an extraordinary effort. For those who have helped, encouraged, prayed, supported, and offered service to our chapter, we are most grateful.

Less than a week into our spring semester, a powerful EF-4 tornado, with winds in excess of 200 miles per hour slammed into the university campus February 5, 2008 at 7:02 p.m., causing $40 million dollars in damages. It destroyed 18 college dormitory buildings, leaving 16 students trapped in heaping piles of rubble. Rescue workers labored for more than five hours, through the predictions of a second storm system, until the last student was found. Fifty-one students were sent to hospital with injuries. The destruction on our campus was extensive. We lost 70 percent of student housing, with the need to move 800 students off-campus; one academic building was left entirely unusable, and the Union parking lot turned into a giant salvage yard.

The faculty, staff, and students came together as volunteers to do whatever they could to help with the initial recovery efforts, including the retrieval of student belongings from the dorms. Union University became the subject of more than 4,000 newspaper articles, and 2,000 television broadcasts around the world. Just two weeks after the storm, the Union community gathered on campus for a worship service to restart the spring semester. Union’s academic leaders shifted schedules, moved offices, changed classroom locations, and found a way for our students to begin classes again. This accomplishment was as much God’s work as His protection for the students during the storm.

One of the most memorable moments for me was driving into our parking lot the first day we were able to return to campus. We still had no electricity or phones, but we wanted to make contact with our undergraduate students, as well as make new accommodations for our graduate students to continue with their classes. As I sat in my car, I couldn’t help but notice a man picking up debris. He walked very slowly, methodologically picking up whatever he found with what appeared to be a walking stick, and then returning it to the pile of broken tree limbs, 2 x 4’s and twisted metal. It took a few moments for me to process what I was seeing: this was a blind man; despite all of his physical limitations, he had come to our campus that day to be the hands and feet of Jesus. As tears streamed down my face, I was overwhelmed with a sense of how God blesses us through others. That man will never know how much his presence meant to me that day. And to all the Kappa Delta Pi chapters across the United States who supported the students of Union University, you will never know how much your contributions meant to the School of Education; we are profoundly grateful.

God has brought renewal out of rubble, for our confidence and our hope have been in the matchless providence of God. Please know of our heartfelt gratitude for each of you. May the Lord’s blessings be yours.

So to Serve,
Nancy Atkeison-Cherry
Associate Professor
KDP Omega Lambda Chapter Counselor
Union University, Jackson, TN