JACKSON, Tenn. — God has brought renewal out of the rubble at Union University during the past year, said David Dockery, president of the Jackson, Tenn., school. Dockery’s speech was part of a special service held Feb. 5 to mark the one-year anniversary of the tornado that hammered the campus, causing $40 million in damage. “It was one of the darkest nights in Union history, but there have been so many good days since,” he said. “We’ve learned that God can take actions that seem so bad to us and use them for redemptive good.”
The service was designed as a time of thanksgiving, both for God’s providence and for those who helped Union in many different ways over the past year, Dockery said. More than 5,000 volunteers worked on the campus in the year after the tornado, and more than 8,000 donors contributed more than $17 million to the relief and rebuilding efforts.
Dockery cited the words of the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:8, “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” Those words have become more meaningful at Union over the past year, he said. The institution can now look forward to new opportunities in the future with renewed confidence in God’s providence.
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