Stained glass windows damaged by tornado

We breathed a sigh of relief at St. John Evangelical Protestant Church in Cullman, Alabama when one of the devastating tornadoes hit our city on April 27, 2011. Our precious stained glass windows were spared.

Other churches were harder hit. Just one block north, Christ Lutheran was almost leveled. First United Methodist lost its stained glass windows, as did First Baptist. East Side Baptist's sanctuary was leveled. Many other churches, businesses and homes were leveled or suffered serious damage, so we at St. John's were thankful that the giant trees surrounding our church fell all around the building, but didn't land on it.

So when we walked inside the sanctuary this morning, almost three months later, we were surprised to see some of our windows gone. Pastor Bob Kurtz explained that an expert was brought in to give them an inspection and found that five of them needed repairs. They'll be out for 10-12 weeks.

I shot picture at top of a piece of tape on one of the windows near where I usually sit. I thought it odd that it said "Grace" on it, but liked the symbolism. After I called up the picture on my computer I saw it actually says, "Brace" -- which makes a lot more sense -- but still carries good symbolism.

Below is a shot I got of some of the missing windows, with a shot below from our wedding three years ago. The window you see in the bottom picture is one that is out for repairs. It is the far left blocked-out window in the picture below: