Tornadoes, Anniversaries and Personal Blessings…
Today is a very special day for my family. It has been four years since a Category 4 tornado hit Union University in Jackson TN. In the blink of an eye my son and six other guys were buried under what first responders said was “three to four tons of debris.” When I look at the photos, I know that a miracle occurred on that night when all seven were pulled out alive. February 5th will always be a special day for us – a day to reflect on the blessings that we have in our life. I tell people all the time,”We are over-blessed!” After reading this story, you may agree.
Several days after the tornado, Tim Ellsworth, the Director of News and Media Relations at Union, began to gather the stories of the students and faculty. He later wrote a book to recount the stories, “God in the Worldwind.” While we knew that he had talked with our son Kevin in the hospital, we had no idea that he would make his story the first chapter. Tim, the Union faculty and leadership were amazing in the days after the horrible storm. They loved us and took care of us – along with thousands of affected students. I could write an entire book on how they showed the love of God for the years since. Last week I asked Tim if it would be possible to get a copy of the first chapter so I could post for those who have not had a chance to read the bool. He was very gracious and granted permission for me to post it here online. As you read the details – through the eyes of my son Kevin – my wish is that you experience the hope that my son relied on that terrible night.
“God in the Worldwind” by Tim Ellsworth – An Excerpt
INTRODUCTION
“His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.” – Nahum 1:3
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One stormy February night, the world showed up at our back door. The circumstances were not of our choosing, but suddenly Union University in Jackson, Tenn., was thrust into the international spotlight.
The original story itself was the stuff of headlines. A powerful EF-4 tornado – with winds in excess of 200 miles per hour – slams a university campus, causing $40 million in damage. It destroys 18 college dormitory buildings, leaving 16 students trapped in heaping piles of rubble. Rescue workers labor for five hours, through predictions of a second destructive storm system, until the last person is freed. Fifty-one students go to the hospital with injuries.
Nobody dies.
The disaster at Union University in Jackson, Tenn., quickly made news around the world, as TV crews from all over the country flocked to Jackson to tell the story. CNN, FOX News, Good Morning America, The Today Show, MSNBC, The Early Show, affiliates from Boston, Nashville, Memphis, St. Louis – among many others – were on campus to cover the events of Feb. 5.
Charles Fowler, Union’s senior vice president for university relations, was in Thailand when the tornado came through and watched the story unfolding as he sat in an airport in Bangkok. He later saw more stories in the Tokyo airport.
“It was just about the only story that was running on all the news channels over there,” Fowler said. “There was David Dockery and Union University on CNN International, on BBC and on Asian channels as well. The first report I actually heard was on a British television station that was being broadcast in Thailand.”
Reporters covering the story saw the extent of the damage. They saw the buildings lying in ruins. They saw the cars tossed hither and yon across the entire campus. And they marveled at the fact that nobody was killed.
Those of us at Union marveled, too. But we most likely came to a radically different conclusion than that of the media members who swarmed our campus. To most of us in the Union community, there was only one logical conclusion – that God’s providential protection was the reason nobody died. It was simply staggering to see the devastation and wonder how everyone got out alive. As the night’s events unfolded, we weren’t always sure that was going to be the case.
Union University Provost Carla Sanderson was at the hospital that night, monitoring the status of the students as they were rescued from the crumbled buildings and brought to the emergency room.
“We kept a concerned and watchful eye on those doors where the rescued would enter,” Sanderson said. “I will never forget – never – the feeling when around 1 a.m., Jason Kaspar was brought in through those doors. And he raised his hand and gave us a wave.”
Not until then was Sanderson able to take her first deep breath since 7:02 p.m., when the tornado hit.
“God had been merciful and saved these lives,” Sanderson said. “It was obvious some surgeries and ICU admissions were forthcoming, but every single student was awake and responsive, every one had some degree of movement and sensation in every limb, nothing was going to be permanent. It was then that the tears came. Those boys were all going to be OK.”
Not only should people have died in the wreckage – dozens, if not hundreds, of people should have died. In fact, when firemen first arrived on the scene and saw the massive destruction, they notified the local hospital to prepare for 100 deaths.
For some reason, however, God in His sovereignty delighted to spare us. No, He didn’t spare everyone elsewhere. Dozens of people died from the tornado’s blast in Tennessee and surrounding states. But He did protect us. We don’t know why. We just know that He did.
Maybe God knew how Union University students would respond to His protection. One of the most encouraging e-mails I received in the days immediately following the tornado came from Fred Shackleford, a pastor in Paris, Tenn. One of his church members had sent him this message:
“What a compliment to the Union students! I think God looked the world over and said, ‘Here are some kids who will demonstrate their faith and speak for Me to the world. I will give them a platform of national TV to speak of faith and My unlimited grace and power.’”
Could that have been one of God’s purposes for the way in which He delivered our students? Maybe so. But since we’re not privy to the mind of God on such matters, any such surmising would only be conjecture. You’ll have to come to your own conclusions. All we know for sure is that God protected the lives of everyone on campus, and for that He deserves our praise and gratitude.
Following the tornado’s sweep through campus, the story at Union continued to gather steam for a few more days. Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff even visited Union to see the destruction for themselves.
Many of us at Union had been talking in recent months about ways we could increase the university’s national profile. This wasn’t what we had in mind – but as the news and media relations director for the university, I had all the news coverage I could have desired. Union had been the subject of more than 4,000 newspaper articles and 2,000 television broadcasts around the world by the time things finally settled down. Our story had appeared in almost every major metropolitan newspaper and on every TV network in the country. The blogosphere was abuzz with the reports. Some technology folks cited Union as an example of what organizational communication should be in a time of crisis. ESPN did a major story about our women’s basketball team and the tornado.
Throughout the ordeal, the Union student body was a collective finger pointing to Christ. Consider just a few examples:
n On NBC’s “TODAY” show, sophomore Sarah Logan said, “We just felt God’s hand of protection over us. When you look at the desolation and destruction on our campus and realize there were 1,200 students here and not one single fatality, you can’t help but say that is a miracle and God was here protecting us.”
n On CNN, senior Aaron Gilbert said, “We really felt the hand of God. One thing I noticed is where all the people were trapped, there were little pockets keeping anything from harming them or falling on them. It was definitely the grace of God.”
n On FOX News, senior Claire Hamilton said, “At the time, I was just so calm. God just really calmed my nerves. We were so thankful to be alive afterwards.”
n In the Los Angeles Times, freshman Amber Campagna said, “I know God kept everyone at this school safe. I don’t know why God let it happen – but I really believe he was testing every student here.”
n In the Tennessean, senior Candace Cross said, “I realized that I am not in control. I realized that Christ is totally in control. He protected each and every one of us.”
n In the Fort Pierce (Fla.) Tribune, sophomore Alyssa Bantz said, “There’s really no physical explanation why we weren’t killed. It really was God’s hand over us. It was like God put bubble wrap for protection over us. He didn’t protect all the structures in one big bubble, but every single spot where there was a student, He had his hand over.”
This is only a small sampling of the kind of quotes you could find from Union students in reports and articles all over the world. Even while he sat in the airport in Bangkok, Fowler met a couple who asked him where he was from. When he told them he was from Union University, “Their first comments were, ‘We saw on the television that your school has been hit by a tornado. We have never been more impressed with students as we have been in listening to your students’ testimonies,’” Fowler said.
In addition, you had the consistent testimony of Union University President David S. Dockery, who was quoted countless times in the media as saying similar things to what he told Memphis’ Commercial Appeal: “As painful as this is, it has united the Union community in new ways and deepened our sense of shared identity and purpose. I can’t begin to describe all we’re experiencing, but I can point to the overwhelming grace and goodness of our God.”
In short, God made much of Himself and His providence through this ordeal, and it pleased Him to use Union University to do it.
In his book “The Mystery of Providence,” Puritan John Flavel writes:
… if the admirable adaptation of the means and instruments employed for mercy to the people of God are carefully considered, who can but confess that as there are tools of all sorts and sizes in the shop of Providence, so there is a most skilful hand that uses them, and that they could no more produce such effects of themselves than the axe, saw, or chisel can cut or carve a rough log into a beautiful figure without the hand of a skilful artificer?
For Union students that night, God used tools like couches and gumball machines, 2-by-4s and chainsaws, firemen and bathtubs, to preserve life. He was most certainly a skillful artificer, a master composer, who orchestrated all things perfectly – even, as you’ll see in the stories to follow, down to the very inch.
In the days after the storm, we talked quite a bit on campus about the Union spirit, which triumphed through the despair and challenged us to keep going. As Dr. Dockery astutely observed just hours after the tornado’s blast, “We’ve lost the buildings, but we haven’t lost the spirit of Union University, and that’s what will carry us forward.”
Indeed, it did.
When the campus lay in ruins, the Union community burst into action. Administrators, faculty, staff, students and community volunteers alike worked long hours to salvage as many of the students’ belongings as they could. They picked up debris, cleared away storm-tossed cars and found ways to make university life at Union work again.
On Feb. 19, the Union community gathered on campus for a worship service in the G.M. Savage Memorial Chapel. That service proved to be one of the most significant and most moving events in the history of Union University. The next day, just two weeks after the tornado that wiped away 70 percent of our campus housing, rendered one academic building entirely unusable and turned the Union parking lot into a giant salvage yard, classes began again. Few believed it could be done. But with wisdom and guidance from God, Union’s academic leaders shifted schedules, moved offices, changed classroom locations and found a way to pull it off. This accomplishment was as much God’s work as His protection for the students during the storm was. Most assuredly, we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.
But make no mistake. This “Union spirit” is not some mystical, undefined abstraction that gives us all a glow and makes us feel warm inside. It’s not some nebulous impulse of confidence in our own abilities and sheer determination in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Not at all.
Rather, the Union spirit is a confidence in the sovereignty and providence of a gracious God who has protected us thus far. It is faith in the redeeming sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and a hope that God’s purposes will be accomplished through us for His glory. That is what binds us and makes us a union.
That is why we pulled together in a spirit of cooperation and community – because we are brothers and sisters in Christ who have a united interest in God being glorified above all. That is why our students risked their lives to pull their friends from the wreckage of shattered dormitories. That is why our students – unprompted and unscripted – boldly testified before millions of people on international television about their faith in God and His protection over them. That is why they gladly pitched in and worked hard to help clean up after the storm. That is why they were flexible and gracious in accepting accommodations and arrangements that were less than convenient. That is why Union is indeed a grace-filled academic community, as Dr. Dockery likes to describe it.
But the main intent of this book is not to sing the praises of Union University. Nor is this book intended to be an exhaustive chronicling of the events surrounding Feb. 5 and the days thereafter. It doesn’t tell the story of so many Union administrators, faculty, staff, trustees, students and friends who have given of their time and supported the university in so many ways.
Instead, the stories included here are designed to exalt and magnify the God who sheltered our students under His wing. They are but a small window into the larger Union community, and a sampling of God’s amazing grace in the life of Union University.
In the pages to follow, you’ll read stories about how the tornado of Feb. 5, 2008, affected all kinds of people at Union in all kinds of ways. Some of them are stories of miraculous protection – of the difference between life and death being a matter of mere inches. Some of them are stories about how the tornado led to God working in the lives of lost friends and family members and bringing them to faith in Christ. All of them are stories about how God has changed lives and acted providentially in the affairs of Union University.
To quote from Flavel again in “The Mystery of Providence”:
If Christians in reading the Scriptures would judiciously collect and record the providences they shall meet with there, and (if destitute of other helps) but add those that have fallen out in their own time and experience, O what a precious treasure would these make! What an antidote would it be to their souls against the spreading atheism of these days, and satisfy them beyond what many other arguments can do, that “The Lord he is the God; the Lord he is the God” (1 Kings 18:39).
The stories to follow are those that have fallen out in our time and experience. And what a treasure of God’s grace they are.
Taken by themselves, these testimonies don’t necessarily mean that much. Lots of people invoke God’s name during times of trial and difficulty. Lots of people pour into churches the next Sunday after disaster, confronted afresh with their own mortality and the fragility of their lives.
But taken collectively, these testimonies do communicate the reality of Christ’s pre-eminence at Union University. The accounts you’ll find here aren’t simply survivor stories. They are stories of faith in the midst of the tornado. They are stories of how God had His way in the whirlwind and storm. And they are potent examples of how a loving God protected the helpless, and used imperfect, sinful people to showcase His miraculous power and His saving grace to the entire world.
Chapter One – KEVIN FURNISS
Junior, Bartlett, Tenn.
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” – Jeremiah 29:11
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The most frightening night of Kevin Furniss’ life began in the Watters commons on the Union University campus, where the 20-year-old was playing ping pong with friends.
Kevin and six of his buddies were in the commons riding out the storm that raged around them. Furniss, a Christian studies major, decided to run back to his room to get his wallet, and by the time he returned to the commons, the tornado was upon him. He raced into the men’s bathroom in the commons – the designated shelter area in times of severe weather. Three of his friends were hunkered down in that bathroom, with another three friends taking shelter in the women’s bathroom right next to the men’s.
“I don’t remember anything from there until it was on top of us,” Furniss recalled. “I don’t remember who was behind me or how we got in the door or anything like that. It all happened and then everything was on top of us.”
By “everything,” Furniss means the entire commons building, which had collapsed and trapped him and his friends under tons of rubble. They didn’t know how deeply buried they were, so their first instinct was to push up in an attempt to escape. Furniss and his friends soon discovered the futility of those efforts.
His parents, meanwhile, were frantic. Kevin’s father Bob was in Las Vegas on a business trip, and he got word from his wife Susan about the tornado. They had both been trying to call Kevin, with no success.
“If you knew my son, we’re in constant contact,” Bob said. “For him not to answer was a pretty big deal.”
Bob started getting calls from friends expressing concern. They had heard about the tornado hitting Union. Was Kevin OK?
Bob didn’t know.
The first hour passed with much screaming, much chaos and much panic for Kevin and his friends. They tried desperately to get someone – anyone – to hear their cries for help.
Shortly thereafter, Jordan Thompson, one of Kevin’s friends, managed to free himself from the debris and simply sat in a cave-like opening in the darkness. He began talking to Kevin and his friends, encouraging them in their distress.
“We started praying and reciting the Scripture,” Furniss said. “I sang a little bit. Jordan joined in.”
Part of the reason Kevin’s demeanor improved was because he wasn’t in pain anymore. He had gone numb. Their spirits lifted, the young men began joking around with each other. They talked about what they had done that afternoon and where they were going to eat when they got out. After the second hour had passed, Jordan got out of the collapsed building entirely.
When that happened, Kevin said things got worse – because there was no one with them to encourage them. By that time, however, Kevin could feel the emergency workers getting closer with their equipment. It didn’t bring the hope that Kevin had expected.
“The sledge hammer and the chainsaw were the worst, because you could feel the sledge hammer jamming everything tighter. And you could hear the chainsaw,” Furniss said. “The scariest thing was not the tornado. It wasn’t being trapped and thinking I was going to suffocate. It wasn’t being afraid I was going to have broken bones. The scariest thing was that the chainsaw was going to go into my back.”
He no longer had feeling in his legs. He questioned whether he’d ever be able to play tennis again. He feared for the safety of his friends who were also buried just a few feet away.
Sometimes he even hoped that death would come swiftly.
“I actually told myself that if they weren’t coming quick, I wanted my lungs to lock up,” Furniss said.
But God had other plans for him, and the rescue workers knew what they were doing. Slowly and skillfully, they finally removed enough of the debris – in part guided by Kevin’s verbal instructions – to allow Kevin to punch his hand out through the sheet rock above him into the cold night air.
“A firefighter actually grabbed it,” Furniss said. “It was hope, and it was life. It really did feel like he gave me life just by touching my hand.”
For Furniss, the feeling brought back memories of another time in his life when he needed to be rescued.
“It felt a lot like when I prayed to receive Christ,” he recalled. “He pulled me out of a lot of sin. As deep and hopeless as I was, Christ pulled me out. In the same way, it felt that way when the firefighter grabbed my hand and pulled me out.
“When I reached my hand out and started waving it around, I was hoping for someone to touch it, or feel water on it, or something that wasn’t underground,” Furniss said. “And then out of nowhere the guy – I couldn’t see, I didn’t know who he was, but it was another life, and he squeezed my hand and told me that they were there. He actually tried to let it go, probably to help get me out, and I wouldn’t let him let go.
“It felt like I was underground and had no hope and no future. I was 25 feet deep, and the moment he touched my hand it was life.”
His memories grow hazy at that point. He remembers getting placed onto a stretcher, and he remembers how comfortable it felt. About this time, his mother finally got word from paramedics that Kevin was alive, breathing on his own and en route to the hospital. She relayed the news to her husband, who was boarding a flight home.
At the hospital, Kevin also remembers getting the word that all of his friends had been rescued. Though some of their injuries were serious, all of them were alive and would ultimately pull through.
“That was news I didn’t ever think I’d hear,” Kevin said.
In the hours ahead, while lying in his hospital bed, Kevin’s thoughts turned to his friends – especially his best friend Jason Kaspar, who would spend several days in intensive care. He also began to ask a perfectly normal question: Why?
But the question was not the one typically asked by those with little faith: Why did God allow this to happen to me? Instead, Kevin’s question displayed a healthy understanding of God’s sovereignty and providence: Why am I still alive?
“I really didn’t understand why I was alive, because I really shouldn’t be,” he said.
His injuries kept him in the hospital for six days, but they didn’t weaken his trust in the Lord. Through it all, Furniss has found peace in clinging to the Savior who lifted him from his sin and gave him new life – spiritual life, which Furniss knows he can never lose.
The next morning at about 9 a.m., Kevin’s dad finally arrived at the hospital.
“It was a very long 14 hours,” Bob said. “He looked much better than I expected. I hugged him. …”
Bob fought back tears as he recounted the moment.
“The times that are hard, as a dad, are when you get quiet and realize how close he was to death,” he said.
Though hurting, Kevin gladly granted all kinds of interviews to the media. He spoke to FOX News’ Greta Van Susteren, to the CBS Nightly News with Katie Couric, to Memphis’ Commercial Appeal and to The Jackson Sun, among others. He took every opportunity to talk to the world about the Lord.
“The reason I kept doing interviews was because those other guys couldn’t, and I wanted the gospel out,” he said.
He was discouraged at times when producers axed the most potent statements about his faith. The CBS account was stripped of almost everything Kevin said about Jesus Christ. But, he quickly points out, there were five people on the crew in his room who heard what he had to say.
His acknowledgement of God’s work did manage to make it out in other ways. In the Commercial Appeal, Furniss was quoted as saying, “This was the first time in my life that I’ve ever prayed when I was in trouble. I knew this was something I couldn’t fix myself, and I had to rely on Jesus Christ to get me through it.
“It’s uncomfortable and I’m hurting, but I couldn’t be happier,” he continued in the story. “I’m alive. We all are. This is nothing short of a miracle.”
And in The Jackson Sun, Furniss had this to say: “I have so much trust in God’s will for my life. He must have something planned for me.”
Upon his discharge from the hospital six days after admission, Furniss and his family drove straight to the Union campus. Kevin wanted to see where he had been trapped. At first, when he approached the pile of rubble that had enveloped him, a policeman reprimanded him.
“Hey, you’re too close. Get away from that,” the man said.
But then someone explained to the officer who Kevin was, and the man’s demeanor changed. He helped Kevin walk onto the top of the pile, where days before Kevin and his friends had been buried alive.
“I sat up there with my dad,” Kevin said. “We cried a little bit, and we prayed.”
Seeing the extent of the devastation for the first time caused Kevin to wonder at God’s mercy in sparing him, and in sparing everyone else on campus.
“I don’t know why no one was killed, much less myself,” he said. “I don’t know why hundreds of girls weren’t killed.”
The only thing he could think was that God had a reason for him to be alive – that God somehow would glorify Himself through the events of Feb. 5. Kevin didn’t have to wait long to see what he considers to be at least a part of God’s purposes in allowing the tornado to happen. Only a few days after the tragedy, one of his close friends, Chris Lean, became a Christian.
“He realized he didn’t have what we had, and he is now a believer,” Kevin said. “To hear that news, it really made it all worth it.”
After having some time to process it all, Kevin also had some better insight into what the calamity meant for him personally.
“It really gives me a better understanding of my salvation, the fact that I’m alive spiritually,” Furniss said. “It compares greatly with why I’m alive physically now. I’m amazed by how awesome God is, how powerful and in control he is.
“God could have been doing a bunch of other stuff that night than climbing down in a hole and sitting down there with us. But Christ was down there with us by His choice. I don’t understand the love Christ has. All the attributes you read about Christ really came true for me that night.”
Kevin Furniss thinks about his time trapped under a collapsed building every time he walks into a new room. Upon entering, he thinks to himself, “What will I do if this room collapses?”
It’s an understandable reaction, given the three hours Furniss spent wondering if he’d live long enough to see another day.
But he knows these are only lingering effects from his entrapment. And in days and weeks after Feb. 5, he found the words of the prophet Jeremiah especially meaningful: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
You can purchase the entire book on Amazon here: “God in the Whirlwind“
You can find out more about Union University here: Union University
Several days after the tornado, I started a blog to track the events and share our story with friends and relatives. You can read more about the details through the eyes of a father in the days after the event: kevinstatus.blogspot.com
Passion Produces Passion
Filed under: Engagement, Leadership, Management, People, Relational Leadership
I recently had a conversation with one of my colleagues in the industry. We talked about why one company struggles with turnover and low morale while another company flourishes? We came to the conclusion that the answer is often leadership! As we continued to talk, this story unfolded.
He told me a story of how a CEO was recently talking to a group of his customer service folks about how important they were to the success of the company. After the meeting, one of the frontline people approached him afterwards and was “beaming.” She told him that he made her want to run from the meeting and solve all customer problems. I asked him what the CEO said that would have that kind of impact on an employee. He said it was pretty basic – in fact, the CEO said he was sure he had said much of it before in other management meetings – but that somehow the message was not getting through to the frontline.
He said that in the meeting he discussed how important every customer interaction was to the success of the company. He thanked them for their attitude of service and challenged them to do even better.
The employee said that she had “no idea how passionate he was about customers” and that she just felt so special now.
Wow – let’s think about that for a moment. The CEO did not give the agent a raise, he did not change any policies, he did not adjust her work schedule – he just spent some time talking about his vision and his thoughts about how important customer service is to the company.
Ask yourself this, how long has it been since you told your people how important they are? How long has it been since you found a way to show your passion for the customer first-hand? It does not matter if you are CEO or a frontline supervisor – your vision – your passion for excellence is a motivator like no other. It is important that your people feel the passion – that they WANT to follow you… that they trust their leader…
Schedule some time to share your vision with your people and don’t be afraid to show your passion for excellence!
People are Valuable
Filed under: Engagement, Leadership, Management, People, Relational Leadership
About 15 years ago, I had a manager tell me that I would never go anywhere because I cared too much about the people that worked for me. He said that I needed to pay more attention to the business and less attention to whether people were happy. Well, here I am 15 years later still espousing the concepts of “loving people.” I have worked in the call center industry now more than 30 years (which is really hard to believe). And, throughout all that time, the one thing that is a constant for all successful managers is this one concept – “they loved their people!”
If you are new to the customer service or call center industry, and either a new manager or thinking about becoming a new manager – ask yourself this question – do you love people? Do you love watching them succeed? Do you love the feeling that comes with a successful coaching session? Do you love the people part of your job? If not, it is not too late to find another profession…
As a buddy of mine likes to say, no one walked to the front of the room in 2nd grade holding a headset and telling the class, “when I grow-up I want to work in a call center.” But if you find yourself there now, I believe you are in one of the most rewarding jobs in America. I don’t care what my manager named Ravi told me 15 years ago – you cannot love your people too much!
Bob Furniss
As founder and President of Touchpoint Associates, Inc., Bob Furniss has more than 25 years of experience in the customer service field - assisting organizations to increase productivity and profits by bringing out the best in their people. He has shared his experience in the areas of leadership and service with some of the top companies in America - companies like FedEx, Corporate Express, DePaul University, Delta Airlines, Hanley Wood and more.
Click here to email Bob direct
