Having lived in the center of what was hurricane Rita's target only a
couple years ago now, I naturally have a special tie to the damage there.
Places of business we use to go to potentially gone or severely damaged,
what became of our friends we had there... are they all alright? Did they
make it out OK? And our church we attended as well, a new building with
another being added on at the time of Rita's temper tantrum, is it still
standing or how damaged is it? I'm sure many of the businesses and places
are damaged to varying degrees, so far from what we've heard all our
friends have done well in escaping and in fact very little damage done to
their homes, with the exception of one we hear which had a fair amount of
flooding. Being a frequenter of our churches website, I call it "our
church" because I view it as such, as well the pastor there yet my pastor.
However, before the hurricane I noticed their website was down, and I
noticed it wasn't coming up either afterwards. The website is a very
important part of their ministry as many listen in to the messages there,
both archived and live, as well has other resources there. So I knew that
it may not be a good sign it wasn't coming back on line. My wife had gotten
word that the church was in need of flashlights, workers, forklifts, phone
cards, Walmart cards, cots, and anything one could find in their heart to
offer. I was thinking things must be pretty bad there then. I knew the
prison located near the church were badly damaged. They being brick and
mortar and the church being wood construction with metal skin would be
particularly vulnerable in such storms. So naturally when I heard the news
I assumed the worst and pictured a major clean up effort and how everyone
there must be devastated, and what a job for our pastor to sort and climb
out of such a disaster leading his people who look to him for leadership in
what to do. Then I got word to the contrast that the church received no
damage, only a small bit of seepage along the walls where water was driven
in at the foundation which a crew was already on it and cleaning it. And
that the call for all the good, labor and equipment was not for the
churches clean up effort, but that the pastor offered the church as a FEMA
distribution center.
Instead of a licking wounds situation, it is actually, let's help the
community situation. God sure is good. Or in the words of an Aussie pal of
mine...
Yee-hah, gidie-up, way to go God!
Brad
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