Church Responds to OK Neighborhood ‘Wiped out’ by Tornado
Missionary delivers sermon on supporting global mission work — with direct application to disaster relief.
ENID, OKLA. — An EF4 tornado cut a 9-mile swath of destruction just south of this city of about 50,000 people last week. The funnel measured 500 yards across at its widest with winds up to 175 mph, the Associated Press reported.
The tornado destroyed more than 40 homes in Enid’s Gray Ridge subdivision and damaged nearby Vance Air Force Base.
The storm “wiped out that entire neighborhood,” said Doug Boyle, an elder of the Garriott Road Church of Christ who lives just south of Gray Ridge. “It’s just like a war zone,” the combat veteran said, “trees snapped, houses gone, nothing but rubble.”
As the funnel cloud touched down, multiple church members called or texted Boyle.
“My phone was blowing up on Thursday,” the elder said as he addressed the congregation after Sunday worship, thanking them for their concern.
One call came from Bret Moore, a church member in Edmond, Okla., who works with Alabama-based Project Unify. Moore and Boyle rounded up volunteers and helped storm victims recover personal items from the debris. Boyle said he was impressed by Project Unify’s emphasis on serving victims’ physical and spiritual needs.
The Garriott Road church’s Sunday bulletin had a special insert titled “Emergency Safety Instructions.” The flyer told church members what they should do in the event of an active shooter, a power outage, a fire and, finally, a tornado warning.
Garriott Road Church of Christ bulletin with an insert about emergency procedures / Photo by Erik Tryggestad.
The timing was coincidental, said Dan Biby, leader of the church’s newly formed safety team. But it emphasized the need for Christians to know what to do in an emergency, he said, especially in a state known for deadly weather.
“This was the fastest-building storm I’ve ever witnessed,” Biby said of the April 23 tornado. He grew up on a cattle ranch in the nearby community of Nash, Okla., and remembers a 1964 twister that sprung to life after midnight and destroyed his family’s barn. He was 3 years old, and back then “the only tornado warning you got was when the power went out.”
That’s not the case in 2026. Warning sirens abound in most Oklahoma municipalities, and TV weather forecasters can pinpoint the “hook echo” of a tornado-producing supercell down to the nearest cross streets. Most Oklahomans have easy access to storm shelters. Despite the damage, no deaths or serious injuries were reported after the Thursday storm.
The Sunday service focused on the Garriott Road church’s global outreach. Guest speaker Alex Coloma preached on “God’s Mission is Our Mission.” Coloma, a former missionary on the island of Guam, is finishing a degree at the Memphis School of Preaching and will soon return with his wife, Brenda, to their native Philippines. The couple plans to stay at least seven years planting churches in the South Cotabato province of Mindanao, a southern island in the Philippines.
Gray Ridge neighborhood in Enid sustained heavy damage from EF4 tornado on April 23, 2026 / Photo via Project Unify FB page
Jesus “does not wait for people to find him,” Coloma said. “He came to earth to seek and save the lost.” He urged church members to pray fervently for lost souls in the Philippines. He also asked them to send encouraging messages to mission workers, to make short-term trips to see the work and to give of their earthly wealth to support the mission.
Those also are good principles for disaster relief, Boyle said.
“If you know anybody that lives in (Gray Ridge), reach out to them, give them the words of encouragement that they need, especially at a devastating time like this,” he told his fellow Christians. “Think about how everything was lost, we’re talking even the basics. They’re gone. They have absolutely nothing.”
Boyle prayed that God would meet the victims’ short-term physical needs. “But we also pray for an influence in their lives, a godly influence, an influence that will touch their hearts spiritually,” he prayed.
“Heavenly Father, let them know that you are there and that you are God and that you’re the one true God and the Holy Father, that you love them and that you want what’s best for them.”
This story was originally published by The Christian Chronicle.
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