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SALT LAKE CITY -- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints reports all of its missionaries in the Joplin, Mo., area are safe but a stake center is among the buildings destroyed when a tornado ripped through the area Sunday, killing more than 100 people.
The twister ripped into a hospital, crushed cars like soda cans and left a forest of splintered tree trunks behind where entire neighborhoods once stood.
According to The Deseret News, President Matthew G. Montague, first counselor in the Joplin stake presidency, said, "Even though several members of the church lost their homes in the disaster, initial assessments indicate that members are accounted for, and only a few of them require hospitalization at this time."
The Church issued a statement Monday that reads in part, "As many as one quarter of Joplin's buildings have suffered significant damage including the Joplin stake center, which was destroyed. All missionaries in the affected areas are safe and accounted for.
"Local priesthood leaders continue to assess needs and will be contacting officials in affected areas to determine opportunities to assist with response efforts. Church members have already begun to assist with cleanup. Our thoughts and prayers are with those affected by this disaster."
Senior Pastor Myke Crowder of the Christian Life Center church in Layton, Utah, grew up in Joplin. He has relatives who have lost homes there, and now plans to take an RV full of clothes, supplies, money and whatever can be mustered to Joplin.
"There's a lot of people in need of prayer," Pastor Crowder said. "And from Utah, for the most part, except for these donations we've talked about, prayer is all we can offer them."
In other religion news:
- Minnesota voters will decide whether their state Constitution should define marriage as the union of a man and a woman. The Minnesota House voted late Saturday to allow the question on the statewide ballot in November 2012. Gov. Mark Dayton calls it "un-Minnesotan."
- A California church is offering comfort to followers of religious broadcaster Harold Camping, who believed his prediction that the rapture would take place on Saturday. According to WCHS TV, members of Calvary Bible Church gathered outside Camping's Family Radio headquarters in Oakland, Calif., to declare that Jesus really will return to take believers to heaven with him, but no one can say when.
