K-LOVE’s Positive People – by Rafael Sierra, Jr. (complete podcast available) (more Positive People stories)
Danny Stewart is the preacher at Vinita Avenue Church of Christ in Sulphur, Oklahoma. When a massive tornado hit the small town on April 27, 2024, Danny knew he had to step-in to help his community out.
“We have to be the hands, and the feet, and the lips, and the ears, and the eyes of Jesus, if we’re going to be like Him. Because when we do it for one of the least of His, we’ve done it for Him”
Danny recounts multiple tornado warnings issued for south central Oklahoma, where Sulphur is located. That evening, Danny, his wife and his two small dogs went inside their storm shelter hoping to escape a direct hit that was being forecast for the small town. Thankfully, the Stewarts survived the night, but also learned their community needed help.
The next morning, Danny sent out a message to his church family wanting to see if everyone was okay. Immediately, he says, once of his members messaged back telling him, “we need help right now!” Soon after, he and a group of others made their way into the tornado zone, only to find “massive destruction,” trees on houses, windows blown out, and a true sense of despair.
For the next few days, Danny says his phone didn’t stop ringing. People and organizations he knew wanted to know how they could step-in to help tornado victims. One of these organizations, Churches of Christ Disaster Relief Effort in Nashville, sent a semi-truck full of disaster relief supplies. Behind the wheel was Andy Miller, a volunteer ready to do his part in bringing hope to people in need.
When he arrived in Sulphur, Andy remembers seeing where the tornado had gone through and the destruction the tornado had caused. But despite feeling sad about the devastation, Andy admits he felt good knowing the positive impact he was about to have with the supplies he was delivering.
As church members arrived to help unload the truck, Andy says, you could tell the relief people had knowing they had the “supplies they were going to need to not only help themselves out, but also they’re friends and neighbors.” He remembers not only seeing physical needs being met, but also emotional needs by a community “really coming together to make each other’s lives somewhat better” during a time of disaster and loss.
“What struck me the most on this trip is the way that community pulled together,” says Andy. He says, the first person he met when he first arrived was Danny Stewart, who came to him later as the truck was being unloaded and said to him, “I don’t know half of the people that are helping unload this truck” but, “it’s amazing the way that this community has pulled together during this disaster, to form bonds that wouldn’t have normally been formed without something like this happening.”
Click below to hear Danny and Andy’s full interview