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As expected, internet connection has not allowed the live video broadcasts while I am in Kentucky helping with disaster relief and cleanup and now my laptop computer has died so even posting stories is a bit more difficult.  Nonetheless, I will try posting some “Jesus in the midst of disaster” stories as I get the opportunity.

Here is one from this week:

Memories In the Rubble

As I was out looking for people who needed help, I was given an address to check out and was told the homeowner would meet me there as the house was currently not livable. I arrived in an area that appeared to have been a nice old neighborhood with tree lined streets and shade filled back yards prior to the tornado coming through. Now it was still a tree lined street, only the trees were in piles along both sides of the roadway. The primary work she needed help with at this time was the removal of a pile of debris from the backyard . . . a pile which had once been a storage shed until a large tree landed on it.

One of the first things noticeable to me was the end of an old snow sled sticking out of the rubble. I gently uncovered it and, to the thrill of the homeowner, found it to be completely undamaged. I commented on how it looked just like the steel runnered wooden sled I grew up with years ago. It ended up that her daughter is my age and the sled had been purchased when the daughter was a child. As the IDES volunteers arrived to help clean up the mess, we gently went through the debris and found a variety of items which had survived. As I walked with this sweet 80 year old lady around the end of her home, I noticed a teddy bear on top of a small pile of debris. We talked a little about the bear, who had been living in her attic for years until the tornado lifted the corner of her roof and sucked a few belongings out with a portion of the end of her home. What a joy to spend time sharing together about the hope we have in Jesus through the midst of any chaos of life.

In prayer,
Tom