I'm alive - praise God, I'm alive!  For those of you who saw the news coverage, thanks for your calls and emails. 

In a nutshell.... I was not only in Atlanta for the Hinman Meeting, I was in the tornado.

What an entirely frightening event.  I am blessed to be alive, sore but not a scratch on me.  I had returned earlier to my room, since I was speaking the next morning.  I had spoken seven hours that Friday, and typically, I turn nothing on.  I like the silence.  But that night, I turned the TV on to watch the KY Wildcat basketball game to be played just down the street in the GA dome and was lying on the bed, flipping through the Hinman catalog. 

"A mindless night," I thought.  The satellite dish went off &, just like I do at home, I stood up to try to change the channels.  Nothing.  Then, I heard the wind and thought, "wind on the 15th floor?" and heard what sounded like thunder in the wind.   Odd.

What happened next is the hardest to explain but I felt overwhelming pressure pushing on my body from all sides.  That is the strangest physical feeling ever.  My hair stood up and I ran to the bathroom as I heard glass shattering and things hitting the walls behind me.  I've replayed this scene over and over in my mind and there was only, at the most, 1.5 seconds between understanding the sequence and being severely injured or killed from the falling ceiling or flying debris/glass. 

The building was moving worse than the Sierra Madre earthquake I was in.  I'm from Tornado Alley in Central Texas.  The Bank One Building in Fort Worth had to be torn down because of the structural damage it incurred in a tornado.  Remembering that, all I wanted to do was get on ground level.  I crawled to the door from the bathroom and tried to get out but could not open the door as it was being sucked closed. 

Returning to the bathroom again, I grabbed my tennis shoes and purse from the closet.  If I was going to die, I would go in true Texan form, with my shoes on.  And I had my cell phone in case I needed to call for help, or should they needed to locate my body.

The noise was unbelievable, my ears were popping constantly and the pressure was intense.   I was convinced I was going to die.  I'm on the top floor, the 15th floor, and it is moving significantly, jarring about.  These buildings are not built for earthquake intensity movement.  I hear lots of crashing.  I'm praying for the Lord to take care of everyone in the tornado and everyone I would leave behind, believing I would soon die and then it all stopped, at least for my hotel.

Minutes later, a group of us appeared in the hall but I was the only one in an outside room on my side of the top floor.  We head for the nearest exit that was impassable with roof debris.  Finding our way down another stairwell, I ended up on the CNN floor - completely abandoned and littered with glass and fallen debris.  That was eerie.  We went out another way to the lobby where others were heading towards the basement, to brace for another round of storms. 

Three hours later, we were allowed back into our rooms and those of us with damage, had to move.  The elevators weren't working, so up we trekked, the best hostess in the world and I, to my room, 15 plus floors.  After being so anxious to be on the ground floor, I wasn't real excited about going back up.  I had told my Hinman Hostess, Dr. Sheryl Henderson, about the damage but nothing prepared her for the sight of it. 

It was incredible to believe that we had absolutely no warning and there was so much damage.  We had to be careful where we walked because glass and ceiling were all over.  Part of the ceiling was on the bed, covering the book I had been reading just moments before it hit.  It was very sobering.

When I was interviewed at DFW airport by my local TV station, the reporter was trying to get me to say something deep about what I had learned.  I only had 1.5 hours of sleep, so the usual depth was pretty tired.  I told her that I learned I needed to work out because stairs, after standing all day speaking, were pretty grueling.  Then I smiled and said, "Lindsay, I already try to live life to the fullest, to be all the Lord wants me to be."

Of course, after I had time to process it, I sent her an email and included the following:

I was the lead off news story here for two days.  I'd rather have so much attention when something great is accomplished besides surviving a tornado.  Surviving things thrown at us in life seems so much more valiant. 

What else have I learned?

At dinner with my hostess and another friend before the tornado, we had discussed Jehoshaphat and Joshua from the Bible in fairly great detail.  "We don't know what to do but our eyes are on you" and "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid. Do not be terrified.  For the Lord your God goes with you wherever you go" have both taken on new and more enhanced meaning since that tornado.  

I didn't know I needed an object lesson but I now understand why the Lord told Joshua so many times to not be afraid...a little more than I wanted.  I understand "terrified" - it's a very human response to a significant event.  And as I said on my Home Page, if it was an object lesson from the Lord, I commit now to never go on a cruise!

I also need to thank my hostess for the Hinman Meeting, Dr. Sheryl Henderson.  She went way beyond the scope of hosting duties.  She saw the end of the tornado pass thru the building and was the first to call, frantically looking for me.  We kept each other intact through it all. She climbed those stairs back up with me and helped me pack up.  Again, beyond the call of duty.

He is risen.  He has risen indeed!   - Susan