Ways to pray for Union University
February 7th, 2008Here are some specific ways in which you can pray for Union University during this time of hardship:
1. Pray for the continued recovery of students who were injured.
2. Pray for wisdom for President David S. Dockery, the Union trustees and the senior leadership team. So many decisions have to be made, and those decisions will affect so many lives.
3. Pray for the students who suffered significant losses in their dorm rooms, and for faculty members who lost items (like books) in their offices.
4. Pray for patience and understanding for security and law enforcement personnel, Union staff, students and parents as we try to coordinate efforts for students to retrieve their belongings.
5. Pray for God to move the hearts of people to help in the recovery effort. Most significantly, we’ll need massive financial assistance for the students and the university.
6. Pray for those of us involved in getting Union’s story told. Pray that the spotlight now upon us will result in opportunities to share the gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost world.
7. Pray that God will demonstrate His power and sovereignty to the world by raising from the rubble a university that is more excellence-driven, Christ-centered, people-focused and future-directed than it has ever been.
Tim,
I’m so glad that you’re safe. We had special prayer at our church last night for many of these requests. We will continue to pray.
Steve
Tim…through the news outlets and your personal reporting through this blog, we’ve learned much about the destruction to UU. Can you give us any idea about damage to residential areas in Jackson? Or was the storm localized mainly to the university?
Here are some aerial shots of the damage done to the community. They were provided by Jeff Gray.
j razz
“Pray that the spotlight now upon us will result in opportunities to share the gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost world.”
Judging by the above, it sounds as if this disaster is being used as an opportunity to proselytize. Cheap advertising, I guess. I can understand the need for financial aid, medical assistance, and generosity but no one at Union University was killed and 51 people where killed in other places. Was Union University “spared” because they are Baptists? If that’s the thinking, it’s quite selfish and senseless. Rendering aid to those in need is commendable. Using the misery and suffering from a meteorological occurrence to shill for Jesus is not.
“Rendering aid to those in need is commendable. Using the misery and suffering from a meteorological occurrence to shill for Jesus is not.”
Why in a universe where there is no God is one of these things “commendable” and the other not? “Commendable” according to whom?
Cineaste,
How do you account for no one dying after viewing the pictures? I know your answer is different than mine, but I believe it takes more faith to believe it was by chance than to believe that God chose to protect them.
I don’t believe it has anything to do with being Baptist. It has everything to do with God choosing to protect. All Tim and the Univeristy want to do is give recognition to whom it is due: namely God and the staff God placed in authority over the students and the students who obeyed their authority which results in God getting the glory.
j razz
Cineaste:
You have a cold, hard heart. I suppose it’s just your true colors. I follow your comments with interest and now I am just sad for you…..
“Cineaste: You have a cold, hard heart.
Indeed, that’s why I’ve donated money to help the victims, though not to Union University but to the Red Cross.
Cineaste,
I realize that you don’t get Christians, nor do you understand how we view the work and Will of God, but right now is clearly not the time to criticize Tim or anyone else who has been involved in such a tragedy. Atheists always complain when religious leaders pronounce judgement during tragedies. It would be nice if you acted in the same way you claim Christians should in the midst of tragedy.
If you honestly want to know how we view such a tragedy in light of the Gospel and glory of God, then ask. But if you just want to criticize, I ask that you refrain for now.
Fair enough.
Tim,
I read your site often and enjoy your insight. I appreciate you taking the time to update your site. After I heard of the tornado hitting UU, I came to your site, but realized you were probably very busy… duh?!?!
I serve in Kazakhstan with the IMB and shared your request with several of my friends here. We are praying for you all. Continue being the light…
Cineaste,
You bring up some very good points here. Does the storm hitting Union show a sign of God’s wrath or is the fact that no lives were lost a sign of God’s grace? I guess it depends on how you look at it. I’m sure that some will argue both sides.
I am reminded of those who, when confronted with a blind man, asked Jesus “Why was this man born blind? Who sinned, this man or his parents?” The assumption was that bad things happened because someone disobeyed God. The flip side of that thinking was that good things happened because someone obeyed God. Jesus cuts right to the heart of the matter, “Neither,” her replied “this happened so that the glory of God could be revealed.” Jesus then healed the man. My prayer is that the glory of God will be revealed in how we respond to the hurting in this situation. God’s grace is being revealed through you and your compassion.
Good stuff, Joel.
Good post - and good job Tim on all your hard work covering this story for everyone. Keep us posted on how we all can help…
I know that some (me included) have had questions about where Luther Hall is (the meeting place for volunteers and the drop off point for supplies).
Here is a map to it.
j razz
Joel,
“Does the storm hitting Union show a sign of God’s wrath…”
No.
“…or is the fact that no lives were lost a sign of God’s grace?”
No.
In my opinion, the storm hit Union and others because the meteorological conditions were right for tornadoes. Not, because God was angry and not, because it’s a sign from God. The notion the tornadoes had a divine purpose is too superstitious for me to lend any credence to. Donate to help these poor people. That’s commendable. By all means, do so! But my thought is, don’t exaggerate and don’t use tragedy as a platform to proselytize. Some people survived and others died. Lets see what we can do to help, okay? That’s the important thing! I don’t need to believe in God to realize this.
“…this happened so that the glory of God could be revealed.”
I think it happened because those people were in the wrong place at the wrong time and there is nothing glorious and revealing about 51 people dying because of high winds. This is not a criticism. It’s the fact of the matter. Their 51 deaths don’t point to God’s greatness. There are 4 possibilities…
1. The weather can’t be controlled by God.
2. God chooses not to control the weather.
3. God controls the weather, thereby killing 51 people with the tornadoes.
4. There is no God controlling the weather.
Which is it? Again, I’m not criticizing, I am pointing out facts. I’d like to pursue j razz’s contention that God protected Union students (from himself) because they were Christians, but I told D.R. Randle I wouldn’t criticize even though I think such notions deserve criticism. I give Tim kudos for his heroism. But none to Jesus.
Cineaste,
I think you misunderstood what I said above.
Regardless, can we wait to discuss this issue in a few weeks?
Thanks.
j razz
Thanks for your thoughts and prayers. I’ll post another update as soon as I can.
Cineaste,
You’re doing your typical misquoting again. Jrazz didn’t say that God protected because they were Christians. He just said that God protected.
You’ll never understand until the Lord changes your heart. I’ll certainly pray for that.
Otherwise, it’s time to be quiet for a while since all you’re doing right now is picking a fight.
After seeing the destruction on TV, and yet, an interview of a student (young lady) that held her head high and smiled through it all, DESPITE, I thought “what an atypical reaction or display of emotion”. Needless to say, it hit me that Union University is not going to let this tragedy get the best of them. We’d love to help as much as we can . . . we have several young men’s shirts, pullovers, polos, etc. slacks, ties, whatever that are in excellent shape and certainly “in style”. Versus making a monetary donation, we’d like to donate clothing and other items to some of the students, we just don’t see an avenue that makes this possible . . . we do see the Credit card link for donating monetarily online. Will clothing and other items be acceptable? Please let us know how to donate . . . Thanks, and we are praying for you all!
“…all you’re doing right now is picking a fight.”
Wrong.
Ben, I don’t know if this is what you’re looking for but Tim linked to this on another post…
https://www.uu.edu/Union2010/giving/creditcard.cfm
Here is the mailing address Tim provided. Is this for non monetary donations as well Tim?
Union University Disaster Relief Fund
1050 Union University Drive
Jackson, TN 38305
I guess so, Cineaste. We’d really prefer gift cards or monetary donations if at all possible.
Tim, so glad you’re back online. Even so far away, I’ve been quite emotional about all this. I praise God for your family’s safety. I’ll give you a shout sometime next week as a few things start to slow down for you.
Cineaste - it’s #3
(see Luke 13.1-5 and Joel Maners above)
Oh and here is something really important that *could* help you understand, but I’m not sure whether you can grasp it: the praises for God’s mercy in sparing lives even while it is God’s who is sovereign over the storms being created and sent is based on seeing us all as deserving immediate damnation in the torments of hell. Since we all deserve condemnation, anything short of that is grace. Even though many Christians may have difficulty articulating this basis, the response itself is natural to our regenerate spiritual condition.
We do not impugn injustice to God for sending the storms, but rather trust that He can and will bring great good from it. Instead, even in the event of the storms, we praise God for restraining them by not granting a great loss of life.
See the first 3 chapters of Job and how though God allowed Satan to strike at Job, He nevertheless set a boundary and would not allow Satan to kill him. That boundary was God’s mercy and was worthy of praise.
Your questions, Cineaste, do raise some important issues. The philosophical “problem of evil” is perhaps the most substantive question in the darkness of human groping. I may take these comments and develop a post along these lines over at my blog.
Well, when you do Klay, I might hop on over to comment. Nick emailed me with something similar so maybe he could join the discussion. If the answer is #3 above, then who is God protecting people from but Himself? To me it just seems that this kind of thinking allows for any atrocity, from the Holocaust, to the tsunami in Malaysia, to the starvation of generations in Africa. So, no matter what happens, you can always just say, “Oh, a billion people just died… isn’t God great?” So, you’re right, it doesn’t make any sense to me. But, I’ll elaborate when you write your post. This is one of the things that fascinates me about religion in general. Believers don’t give Allah and Jehovah credit for a wave that kills two hundred thousand people but they do give Allah and Jehovah credit for catching a touchdown pass, winning the lottery, or for surviving a natural disaster. I see a disconnect there and I wonder why believers don’t see it as well. I’ll look forward to talking with you about it, Klay. Peace.
Now, just to bring this post back to the topic at hand, I’ve asked my family and friends if they would also donate to the Red Cross for tornado relief. Hopefully, that aid will get to the people who need it most.
That means Union University as well, BTW.
I like you Cineaste. It’s ready.
“Believers don’t give Allah and Jehovah credit for a wave that kills two hundred thousand people but they do give Allah and Jehovah credit for catching a touchdown pass, winning the lottery, or for surviving a natural disaster.”
I agree with you here Cineaste. Job clearly gives God praise for the good in his life, and there was a ton of good. But he also lays the disasters at God’s feet as well. You are incorrect though to make such a blanket statement about “all believers” though. Read Jim McGuiggan’s book Celebrating the Wrath of God and John Mark Hicks’ Yet I Will Trust Him. Both are very good books. I’m looking forward to Klay’s post.