On April 27, deadly tornadoes tore through southern Oklahoma. Marietta was hit by an EF-4 tornado with wind speeds clocked in between 165 to 170 mph along its 27-mile path according to the National Weather Service. This was the strongest tornado the state has seen since 2016, leaving Marietta heavily damaged and resulting in one death.
Before the tornado hit, Marietta, Eastside assisted 40-50 individuals per week with food through their food bank funded by the Mercy Health Love County foundation. The local hospital in Marietta hosted the food pantry, but it was destroyed in the tornado along with Marietta’s Homeland and Dollar Tree warehouse. These were vital stores of the community where most got their groceries.
“It went through the west part of town along the interstate,” said Eastside, Marietta Pastor Brett Alberda. “We lost some homes. I don’t want to minimize that. It took out about a dozen homes, and we went and helped them clean up.”
The Dollar Tree warehouse alone employed over 400 people and is not planned to be rebuilt. After the tornado hit, the food bank was helping nearly 250 people a week. As a result of this increase, Eastside and the Marietta community as a whole needed assistance in providing food.
Major corporations and Disaster Relief volunteers from across the country began assisting the community through boxes of food and cleanup efforts. Utilizing a fair barn, the Marietta community created a drive through area where people could get supplies.
“It was really a community effort,” said Alberda. “Churches coming together along with the community to help the needs of the people.”
Even with outside assistance, the need for supplies was still massive. Eastside reached out to Oklahoma Baptists and asked if they could help their community with a great need for food. In response, $20,000 was used from the Edna McMillan State Mission Offering (SMO) fund and given to the community to assist Eastside, other sister Baptist churches and the food bank in Marietta to help people in need in this devastating time and to advance the sharing of the Gospel.
“The money is there to meet whatever need we see to help maintain the food bank and to help families in need,” said Alberda.
During this process, Eastside and the other churches began to see needs in the community that were previously unknown to them. Alberda now regularly visits a couple who tend to keep tothemselves. He delivers food to them and checks up on them, making sure to meet any needs they have.
“We have a couple of families who have started coming to Eastside just from us going door to door,” said Alberda. “Eastside is a ‘small c’ church. First Baptist is a ‘small c’ church. We needed to come together as the ‘big C’ Church to help the community and show them we were united.”
When Oklahoma Baptists give to the SMO, the funds are used to provide necessary resources and support for various mission endeavors. These funds go to associational camps, crisis care, foster care, global missions and various other ministries and relational programs.
