First the news, because a 20-death disaster doesn't get much attention anymore: At least three tornadoes, with winds possibly as high as 165 mph, hit an area 50 miles north of Orlando, Fla., on Feb. 2 between 3 and 4 a.m., when few people were awake to hear tornado warnings on radio and television.

Then the reaction: By noon that day, numerous teams from churches and the Christian Contractors Association were on the job. By nightfall the next day, some 130 volunteers had already completed 38 jobs, which included material help and spiritual comfort.

The volunteers each day came back from the field with tidings of comfort and grace:

-- One team drove down a dirt road and saw a distraught woman bolting out of a damaged house. Four Shetland ponies, along with chickens, cats and dogs, were running loose. Fifteen minutes later 30 volunteers were rounding up the animals, tarping the roof and cleaning up. When the woman asked what brought the volunteers together, a pastor sat down with her and talked about God.

-- Otto and his wife (I'll use only first names to protect privacy) lost a car, so a church secretary called a salesman at a local dealership. He talked a woman buying a new car into donating her old one.

-- Lou sat in a chair in front of what used to be her mobile home. She had a dislocated left shoulder but was grateful to be alive -- her husband Larry had dug her out of the rubble. The frame of their mobile home had landed on their van and crushed it. One person loaned them a pickup truck and a second offered a travel trailer for temporary lodging. Another person found what she thought were Larry's dentures, but they turned out to be someone else's, and a dental clinic provided new ones for free.

-- A tree that fell on Lillian's mobile home saved her life by working as an anchor, holding it in place while the tornado shredded other mobiles and left the pieces (and sometimes people) pinned up against trees. A church member with an extra bedroom took her in. Continued...