A Storm Like We’ve Yet to See!
“This disaster is going to be a landmark event.” That’s how the head of FEMA describes the devastation of Hurricane Harvey. “This is a storm that the United States has not seen yet,” he adds. (Denison Forum)
First, this storm is stalled over hundreds of miles of Texas. So, rescue, rebuilding, or resuming life as many knew it before Saturday August 26, 2017 can’t begin. Nobody’s life in that area will be the same. Nor will ours/
My brain can’t wrap around what I see or hear – so, I rely on first-hand accounts, like this one from a Houston father.
It is easy to blog about as long as I have power and coffee. But what if our comfy rancher were in Post Oak, the community where Doug made his home in Houston?
I have seen shots of seniors impacted by Harvey . . . and I realize old people have a hard time clambering into rescue craft; some had to sit waist-deep in wheel chairs awaiting help.
Storm Trials for Elderly in Houston
The disaster is not new to this weary, hurting world; it is new to America. And it comes at a time when we have been fighting with each other – we have been free with our opinion of our fellow citizens and governments, local, state, and national.
Today, we need those in authority over us to have their heads on straight, and their hearts compassionate and backbones, sturdy. And we citizens, we need to suit up and show up in the ways God enables as a new normal.
So does the church.
Like the aftermath of 9/11, or Katrina, nothing in our country will be the same.
For us, who are watching this enormous tragic event unfold, in our safe homes and communities, I ask please God intervene in big and small ways, and stir your people to help. We need solutions to problems whose proportions we don’t yet know. People in TX and LA will need our help long term in ways that will overstretch our strength and resources, for years.
Today, how will we marshal our personal finances to give? I have two piggy banks for loose change; they’ve gotten heavy – that’s a starting point, huh?
How will we incorporate the calamity Harvey created into our church mission outreach?
Congressman Pete Sessions said: make sure your tetanus shots are up to date. One concrete chore is check with docs to know what shots are necessary to go into areas where typhoid may break out. The aftermath of Harvey will be dangerous and disease spawning.
Praying now for the volunteers God will raise up to serve in the ways HE will lay upon our hearts. Volunteers were going to New Orleans to help as late as 2015!
If you are slack in the day of distress,
Your strength is limited.Deliver those who are being taken away to death,
And those who are staggering to slaughter, Oh hold them back.If you say, “See, we did not know this,”
Does He not consider it who weighs the hearts?
And does He not know it who keeps your soul?
And will He not render to man according to his work? (Proverbs 24)
Photo Source: Residents of La Vita Bella nursing home in Dickinson, Tex., were trapped by flooding due to Harvey. (TRUDY LAMPSON)