OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (BP) — Southern Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers are ministering to survivors after a second round of deadly storms killed 22 people in Oklahoma, Missouri and Arkansas last weekend.

A series of tornadoes north of Oklahoma City claimed at least 18 lives Friday (May 31), just 12 days after twisters killed 24 in nearby Moore. Flash flooding from the storms killed four in Arkansas.

Sam Porter, disaster relief director for the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, shared a story indicative of the critical spiritual support volunteers provide in the midst of meeting physical survival needs. In this instance, a chaplain and assessor perhaps prevented a suicide while visiting two women with storm damage.

As the assessor spoke with one woman, Porter explained, her neighbor told the chaplain, “I have to tell you something. I’ve been so overwhelmed by all that has happened here I was going to take my life today. But now I know God cares for me and people care.”

The chaplain prayed with the woman as she placed her faith in Christ, Porter said.

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