St. Mary's in Joplin

This was how St. Mary's Catholic Church

in Joplin, Missouri looked a week ago.

This is how it looked after the tornado.

The following is a quote from the News-Leader.com based in Springfield, Missouri :

The Rev. Justin D. Monaghan is the priest for the parish, which serves nearly 650 families. Monaghan, who lives in the church rectory next door, sought safety in a bathtub when the tornado hit.

The residence was severely damaged, a spokeswoman for the Catholic diocese said, but parishioners came and helped dig their priest out. Monaghan was not injured and spent the night with a church family ...

One week before our Tornado Recovery Collection raised $3,924. That same day, in their bulletin ...

... they suggested that every family ought to have an emergency plan and an emergency kit. That way, if anything ever happened, they would be prepared.

At St Columbkille, Gretchen Reid has been suggesting that the parish ought to have a disaster plan in place so we can hep the community in case of an emergency. If you are interested in helping with that effort, contact the parish office and we'll put you in touch with Gretchen.