The photo of the 2 vehicles was taken along the coastline. The house that was there no longer exists. Both of these vehicles were placed where they are by the storm and both are crashed into trees. You can see how the white van is mired down in the dirt. Both will wait for insurance settlements before they can be removed from the property. There are displaced vehicles like this all over the place.
The other photo is taken inside the church we are working from, Bethel Assembly of God. This stained glass window is in the center of the ceiling and is absolutely beautiful when the sunlight shines through it. I love going inside the sanctuary in the daytime, leaving the lights off and seeing the beauty of the light coming through this. It survived the storm intact!
We attended church here this morning and heard our friend, Tim deliver a wonderful message. He spoke on "The Lord will Provide", quite appropriate for us and for the victims trying to rebuild their lives. He talked about how God provides the right thing (just what we need), the right place (we need to go the extra mile as that is where the blessing is) and the right time (His time is always perfect). He closed with words that a woman he knows uses to close each one of her prayers, "Lord, knowing you like I know you, I consider it done!" A great way for all of us to close our prayers.
Sunday dinner was an awesome homecooked meal at Jake and Carol's house! It's been a long time since we enjoyed a home cooked roast with all the fixins! Thank you both so much for your hospitality and for your warm welcome! (not to mention some more great peach cobbler)!!!!
Later in the afternoon we took the dogs to a small park we found earlier this morning. There are a couple of ponds on it and both were filled with geese, ducks, a sandhill crane and sea gulls. We took some popcorn and had a blast hand feeding a couple of the ugliest ducks I have ever seen! We should have photos tomorrow. These things look like a cross between a duck and a rooster! But they loved taking the popcorn right out of my hands! This park will be a great place to escape into some peaceful devotion.
We had about an hour back in the trailer and it gave me the opportunity to call my parents and see how things are at home. My grandmother is doing better and so is my brother. Looks like my brother will be facing surgery to his injured leg soon so I would like to ask for prayers for his quick healing so he will be able to do the farming this spring.
We then headed to the edge of town to another church for evening services. This is the church I told you about the other evening, the one who lost everything, the building and everything in it and they are meeting in a tent. They weren't kidding, they are meeting inside a tent, along with the knats and mosquitos that, as they say, are so big that one landed at the airport and they had filled it with 50 gallons of gas before they realized it was a mosquito! (they're not kidding). Let's say its the first time I have been to church where one of the most important things you wear is bug repellant, and if you forgot, the cans are available at the door! Pastor Hart's service was fantastic! He taught on "No pain, no gain". It was all about stress and how we deal with it. He made a statement in the beginning that made me stop and think. He said that when the devil is squeezing us with so much stress, what is being squeezed from us? It should be Jesus as it is at those times in our lives when people are watching us and we don't want to deprive them of maybe seeing Jesus for the first time! He also stated that if we can trust God with our souls we can surely trust Him with our money! Some really thought provoking words! He had an entire outline ready to cover but time didn't allow it. He asked that we continue with the rest of it as our devotional material for this week.
Being at this service was a blessing for us like we have not seen before! It's like I have said before, we have come down here to hopefully be a blessing to the people and God takes it and multiplies the blessings back to us! It sure did bring me to tears, and this time they were almost uncontrolable! God never ceases to amaze us and we are so thankful to Him and so thankful to the people at New Life Church. We were invited to Taco Bell for dinner after the service and it gave us the opportunity to visit with the Pastor, his assistant Pastor and their wives. There is no doubt that we will be attending this church every Sunday evening!
As I sit and reflect back on today and all its blessings it makes me realize something. Every day we are meeting people that we call strangers. God has a way of stepping in and making them friends! Each one touches a place in our hearts and in the end draws us closer to God Himself! An example is the phone call Monty received from Dean, one of the Minnesota crew that left this weekend. He called to say how close he felt to Monty and that he missed him already! And we knew these people for a week?? God is such an awesome God and when he brings people into our lives they are truly our brothers and sisters in Christ! (we miss you too, Dean) (ok, we miss the rest of you too!) :)
During this next year there will new people becoming new friends each and every day. It is our prayer that God will bless each and every one of them as He is blessing us! We ARE all one church serving one God! He deserves all of our praise and thanksgiving, no matter what our circumstances are! Alleluhia and Amen!
PS. I would like to ask for prayer as my "Katrina" cough is not getting any better and may need to see a doctor tomorrow. Thank you!
Until tomorrow....we love you all and thank you to everyone at New Life Church!
Blessings, Susan and Monty
No comments:
Post a Comment