The 14 year old that swam across the house to narrowly escape the flood waters -- they come in all sizes and shapes! And they ALL are traumatized!
This morning we welcomed our visitors from the Orlando, Florida area. Three of them, Gretchen, Susan and Timothy flew in last night to visit with us for the next 1 and 1/2 days. They will be sending teams of volunteeers to help with the rebuilding and wanted to check out the area and their accomodations prior to scheduling. We toured the city, had plenty of time for meetings and then set them free to join a family member for dinner this evening. We are really excited about this team. They sent teams to the south and train their team leaders prior to their coming. They have alot of plans to make and after today seem to be well on their way.
Tomorrow morning they will come along with us to two Long Term Recovery Meetings, one involving everyone on the committee and another with case managers. Hopefully this will give them a small window into how well the county is handling everything.
We all started our day attending the grand re-opening of the Bartholomew County Emergency Room facilities. As you know, the hospital has, and still is, closed since the flood. All patients have been flown into other surrounding facilities. The progress from all of the hard work has paid off enough to have the ER up and functioning once again. They are down to 12 beds instead of 19 and still will fly those needing admittance to other hospitals but just having the ER back is priceless! The Indianapolis news teams did a great job in covering the story. Please remember this hospital and all its staff in your prayers as they still have a long way to go!
Monty spent most of his day at Bruce's doing some of the final finish coat sanding in preparation for priming and painting. Bruce has family visiting him for the next couple of days and they have plans to install the kitchen cabinets and prime and paint. His mother was excited to see all of the progress made over the past couple of weeks! The Florida team was also thrilled to meet both Bruce and his mother!
Yesterday was the afternoon for my parent's church to conduct their free toy give away to the children affected by the floods. They were amazingly organized and prepared for however many came to choose their special toys. They did have quite a few and had enough toys to continue giving them out the rest of this week and plan on using the rest for Christmas toy drives and such. By Christmas everyone will find those lists of those needing help to be quite a bit longer than in past years so this was an added blessing! Great job First United Methodist Church -- God was smiling as He watched all of you bless those kids!
I have a special prayer request --- the "main man" for the US Disaster side of Convoy of Hope, Kary, has been struggling with low back problems for the past few weeks and just today was able to return to the office without his cane. Please remember him in your prayers and ask God for complete healing. This man, and this organization, do SO much to reach those who have suffered in disasters of all kinds and he needs to be 100% ALL the time!
Until next time . . . Susan and Monty
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