"APRIL 15, 2020
It Is Written Spared from Tornado Days Before Global Evangelism Initiative
Strong winds caused destruction around both sides of the ministry headquarters....

A tornado touched down just feet away from the It Is Written ministry headquarters in Collegedale, Tennessee, United States, early Monday, April 13, 2020. Reports of power outages, missing persons, and deaths filled local news reports that morning.

The It Is Written offices were running on generator power Monday. When staff arrived to check on the building, they were met with debris across the parking lot and scores of trees snapped in half around the building. Power was restored to the building on Tuesday, April 14.

"Miraculously, the building was spared," said John Bradshaw, It Is Written speaker and director. "It became clear when we looked at drone footage that tornadoes had come through on either side of our ministry home. They flattened trees along two distinct paths before lifting just yards short of a nursing home and a dental practice. We?re extremely grateful to God, and we are praying for those families and businesses that have experienced devastating loss. We were spared from what would have been a disaster. Literally, a few feet in either direction and things would be very different today."

The storm came just days before It Is Written is set to begin ?Hope Awakens,? a virtual online evangelistic series. More than 24,000 people have registered for the live event, which begins Friday, April 17, at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, and registrations continue to pour in.

"We are trusting God to get us up and running in time for the meetings," Bradshaw said. "God knows how urgent it is that people hear hope and certainty when there is so little in the world right now."...

https://www.adventistreview.org/chu...days-before-global-evangelism-initiative

I was going over with people on the strange number of tornadoes and the level of destruction it was causing. I missed one by hours when I went to Dallas, which left cars with holes the size of my fist and then left Nashville just before the nasty tornado that hit the north side. Then the waves of tornadoes kept happening in the South, so I asked people who were near the path if this was typical and even they felt it was a bit over the norm. So I checked and came across this interesting information...

"The preliminary tornado count from 2019 is among one of the highest annual totals on record....

One of the Most Active Years

2019 was one of the most active years on record for tornadoes in the U.S., but there was a small silver lining to the news.

NOAA's Storm Prediction Center estimated 1,520 tornadoes occurred in the U.S. in 2019.

This was the fourth highest yearly total on record, behind 2008 and 2011 (1,691 tornadoes each), and 2004 (1,819 tornadoes). 2019 also had over 300 more tornadoes than the 2010s annual tornado average of just under 1,200."..https://weather.com/safety/tornado/news/2020-01-28-2019-tornadoes-state-records