Excerpt from a song written by the late Squire Parsons, 'Master of the Sea' ~ When He reaches out his hand, Billows cease at His command; Wind and waves obey His will, When He says to them, "Be Still." "What man is this?", They all did say; "That the wind and sea obey?" He's the one who sails with me, O, He's still the Master of the sea. ~

Our nephew Derek and their home, before/after Westlake, La.; family safe! Amen!

It's Friday, August 28, 2020, and, while the damage from Hurricane Laura has been significant, I think most are thanking God that it wasn't of even greater impact.  Thus far, there have been at least 6 deaths and we are still getting reports as people report in. Here is a posting from one fellow over in the area of Louisiana where we are from, posted on Facebook: "Yall keep the Louisiana people in your prayers a 14yr girl was didn't make it. A tree went through the roof crushed her while she was asleep." Same area from another lady on Facebook: "Pray for my Mama.... a big tree limb just came through the roof on her." Yesterday morning I was walking Mr. Bentley and I met a fellow who was jogging. We exchanged hello's and he then said "I guess we dodged a bullet this time." I said, "We were blessed." He then said, "I am concerned for my folks across the way in Louisiana." I told him, "Me too, that's our home state as well." As he picked up his pace, he hollered back at me, "I am from Zwolle." I answered, "I am from Hornbeck, Louisiana." You never know who you might meet as you go along life's way or even when you are out being pulled around by Mr. Bentley. One of the comments the man made was how he hoped those in Texas would be willing to help out those in Louisiana like they did during Harvey. 

As I think about the impact of storms like Laura and for us, Ike, I am reminded of how difficult the spiritual and emotional impact is to deal with. Here is a blog I wrote a few days after the devastation we experienced during Hurricane Ike.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

It's a good day to praise God for His blessings!

Welcome to Monday and it is now September 22, 2008. I mentioned last Thursday that our little Alexander Benjamin celebrated his 3rd birthday. Because of the hurricane aftermath with all the outages and other issues at hand, his parents had wanted to delay any official celebrations until later. Poppy’s response: "Not if he can do anything at all about it!" I had my wife find him a gift and then we went about finding a place where we all could meet, eat, and sing the birthday song to him. We did find a Pizza buffet and we did have a great time. His mom was very resourceful in making him a cake out of twinkies with icing and his name inscribed. He is currently into Diego the little guy that works with Dora the Explorer to find endangered animals. All of his main gifts were Diego stuff. He was so excited. Several of the toys had a voice and he knew all the comments by heart. As he listened to one of the alerts coming out of the backpack, he leaned over to me and said breathlessly, “Poppy, an animal is in distress, I must go and find him!” To see a three-year-old captivated in that way, well, it doesn’t get much better than that!

We finally are ‘treeless’ now in terms of that big bad boy that was an intruder in our home. Early Saturday morning a crew of professionals arrived and with the help of a 90-foot crane they carefully extracted that huge pine tree. Our eldest went to work to tarp over the opening and he also did a very professional job. Now we are left with the process issues involved with the forth and back dialogue with our insurance company. This we must do along with millions of others who are also in there trying to get their world put back together. The power is supposed to be turned back on today in our son’s home where we stay at night and that will be a huge blessing. The cooler weather has faded and we could sure use the A/C but we had generator powered fans last night and made it just fine. It was good to know I didn’t have to worry about my grandfather getting up and turning off the attic fan before we could get to sleep. Whenever I’m feeling a little low about all of this, all I have to do is look once again at those photos from Galveston and the surrounding coastal communities. Tree or no tree, we are blessed!

Our congregation came together yesterday for a brief service outside our facility because the power is still off. What a time we had filled with testimony, prayer, praise, worship, and reaching out to each other. Our pastor reminded us that while our building may not be functioning, our congregation is the living part of Church and we continue to be the Lord’s very own people regardless of the storms that come our way. After Church, my wife and I came to my workplace to use the computer and spend time on the phones with our insurance contacts. All in all, it’s not like it was just a handful of days ago, but it’s very workable because of our family and so many others who are standing with us. We continue to pray for those dealing with what for them is a life-altering event, especially those who have lost family members. It typically takes me 30 minutes to get to work; now it takes an hour and 15 minutes but here I am doing my blog since 4:45 a.m. God is good all the time. All the time God is good. Have a blessed week! Amen. …..More later.