tablets of human hearts

Day 46

We’ve had just a little excitement over the last couple of days.

Monday was a holiday and we spent the day working on the house. Daniel and his friends moved a huge pile of tree debris to a spot beside the road. Thankfully they were able to get everything moved because Tuesday, the debris removers showed up. The tree debris was removed and they also started on the household debris. Around eight in the evening on Tuesday, as Jon and I were relaxing, we received a phone call from our next-door neighbor (we’re still living on the other side of Diamondhead).

He wanted to let us know that the workers had been working after dark, and in doing so; they managed to break our water main with their big pieces of equipment. Obviously, they stopped working, but we had a twenty-foot geyser in our front yard. Our neighbor had called our neighborhood security, but they weren’t much help.

Jon went over to investigate and to make sure the water wasn’t running toward our house. Just what we needed: to be flooded again. While he was gone, Jonny and I said a prayer that we would be able to get the water stopped and that it wouldn’t flood our home. Jon was able to direct the water flow so it wasn’t spraying toward the side of the house.

When he returned from the house, he called the water company with a number I found on a recent water bill. There was an emergency contact on the after business hours voice message and Jon was able to talk to someone. A crew from the water company came out right away and fixed the break.

The next morning, we drove by to see if the water was off. It was, but there is a huge muddy mess in our front yard. The debris removal crew was in the middle of removing our debris (and tearing up our yard) when they hit the water main. I’m assuming they finished the job on Wednesday, but we’ll find out this evening when we go over to the house.

It’s weird, but part of me feels a sense of loss with the removal of our household debris. I know it was ruined, I know we had it piled by the road to be disposed of, but in a small way, once it began to be removed, I felt as if our earthly treasures were being ripped away again. It seemed as if the wound of loss had been reopened.

We didn’t go over to the house last night, but went to church instead. We left the boys at home, but when we were at church, I was wishing we had brought them. The service consisted of Jon and I and the pastor and his family. But that is okay. There was such a sense of spiritual sweetness among us. It felt like home, like this is exactly where God wanted us to be. We discussed the things that are going on in our lives, sang some worship songs, discussed Psalm 95, and petitioned at the Throne of Grace for wisdom, guidance and direction.

Psalm 95 tells us that “In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his, for he made it and his hands formed the dry land.”   I am reading a book called A Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel.   If you are interested in science and want to read about respected, award-winning scientists discussing the evidence for intelligent design, this is the book. The Psalmist was so right when he described the Lord’s fingerprint in everything: the depths of the earth, the mountain peaks, and even the seas and land. The evidence for a creator actually overwhelms the idea of evolution.

What is even more amazing is that the Creator of the universe desires to be intimately involved in our lives. He has a plan for each and every one of us. We are told in Psalm 95, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts…” May we each seek Him in the quiet places. May we hear His voice and may our hearts be soft enough to consider His words and to obey Him.

I know I was supposed to write about the Saturday portion of Beth Moore’s simulcast, but we’ll have to save that for another day.

May God bless you as you go about your busy daily lives.

Grace & Peace

Day 43

Three day weekends. I love them.

Ladies, let me tell you about a wonderful weekend. I think I’ve mentioned to some of you about a couple of Bible studies that I’ve participated in. The studies are by Beth Moore, an incredibly gifted, hilariously funny and obviously anointed gal from Houston Texas. She has about a dozen Bible studies and books published. Well, Friday night and Saturday morning, her ministry, Living Proof Ministries, conducted a simulcast, broadcast via satellite from New York. Churches around the nation and Canada were able to tune in and participate in the broadcast. The Gulf coast had been advertising the event for months. Because of the hurricane, Lifeway Bookstore hosted the simulcast for free for those of us here on the Mississippi coast. What an incredible event. It was refreshing, convicting, uplifting and inspiring.

Let me see if I can capture a bit of what she covered. I hope you get a portion of what I was blessed with this weekend.

Friday Night

We focused on the passage Psalm 126 – a song sung by the Israelites as they returned to Jerusalem from captivity.

(See Ezra 2:1 for the historical time frame of which the Psalm is thought to be written)

Captivity does not have to be a physical prison. Captivity is any sin, stronghold, addiction, bondage, fear, or anything else in our life that carries us away from the prosperity of God.

By prosperity, I mean spiritual prosperity, not physical or monetary (like the name it and claim it teachings).

Ephesians 1:3 “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” These blessings are our spiritual prosperity found in Christ.

Job was in the captivity of grief so overwhelming; it consumed him for a season. Each and every one of us has experienced captivity to one degree or another. But God wants to bring us through any captivity to draw us back again to him and to bring us restoration.

Psalm 126:1-5 recounts a song of pilgrimage. A pilgrimage not experienced alone. Throughout the passage are the words “we, our, and us”. The Israelites returned to Zion together. Let us return to our God together, as sisters in Christ. Let us not walk alone.

Ezra 2:64-67 counts the number of Israelites returning to Zion: about 50,000. There were approximately 60,000 simulcast viewers (mostly women) signed up in hundreds of churches across the country. What amazing things God will do with hearts that are humbled before Him.

In the King James Version, Psalm 126, Job 42:10 and Micah 7:18 all use the word “again”: Again turning the Israelites from captivity, again restoring Job’s wealth, again having mercy on us. We have an awesome God of “agains”. No matter what our captivity, He wants to restore us again.

Down here on the coast we are dealing with a captivity of destruction from Katrina. We are experiencing a season of grief and loss. But God wants to restore us. Praise God, we are not walking alone. The sisters in Beth Moore’s simulcast prayed for us and refreshed us in praise and worship. Churches around our country are reaching out to us, supporting us in any way they can: with prayers, with workers to rebuild, with money, with food distribution, with encouragement. Many victims and survivors shake their fists at the government and insurance companies, but they cannot save us. Thank God we live in a country where our government is equipped and willing to help. But it is not meant to be our salvation and our crutch. The Lord is. In the New Testament, we read about Christians helping other Christians in need. How it must delight the Lord that His people are still responding in the same way. With Paul, we can say as he in did in 1 Thessalonians 1:2 “We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.”

I’ll recount the teachings from Saturday morning in my next email. This is probably enough to chew on for today. Friday night’s teaching was very comforting and encouraging. Saturday’s teaching was a whammie of conviction.

“May the eyes of your heart be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.” Ephesians 1:18-19

Your sister in Christ

Grace & Peace

Day 38

It gets harder and harder for me to feel sorry for myself, when I see the progress we’re making on our home. Granted, we don’t have flood insurance, so we’re paying for all the repairs and replacements out of pocket, but maybe we’ll be approved for a low interest loan from FEMA. Sure, we have to do a lot of the work ourselves, but we’re learning a lot. And when I look back over the pictures of our house, as compared to many of the homes I’ve seen, it puts our damage into perspective. Of course, I pass some homes that sustained little to no damage, and wonder why that couldn’t be us. Ah well.

I’m sending some pictures along, attachments to a few emails. I finally managed to download them off of my camera. There is much I haven’t taken pictures of, but I’ve included a few that will give you an idea of what our lives look like.

I’ll include a brief description of each picture. Please excuse my poor attempts at humor.

Katrina 1 – Isaac’s Storm is one of the books I was reading as I prepared to write our CAT V (Five) story. The book tells of the 1900 storm that hit Galveston, killing over 6000 people in the storm surge. Ironically, it was at my bedside and was ruined in the flood waters.

Katrina 2 – A picture of our house when Jon arrived home on his reconnaissance trip. It looks pretty good from the outside, until you see the water line on our garage door.

Katrina 3 – One of the three trees in our yard that blew over. Three other trees fell into our yard and two trees were leaning precariously and needed to be removed.

Katrina 4 – Our redneck hot tub in the back yard. Actually, Jon and a crew of men had to remove our garden tub from our bathroom, to get to the wet sheet rock and insulation behind it.

Katrina 5 – The front of our house as it looks today. We’re still waiting for FEMA refuse removal to come down our street. Debris in the front yard is in vogue on the coast this year.

Katrina 6 – A view of the woods down one of our streets. It seems that literally every other tree in Diamondhead is either snapped or blown over. If a tree still stands, its limbs were ravaged by the wind and water.

Katrina 7 – Another view down one of our streets. Everyone who was flooded had to put their ruined furniture, belongings, sheetrock and insulation somewhere. It makes driving around the neighborhood quite a challenge, because the debris starts spilling over into the streets.

Katrina 8 – Another picture of our neighborhood. It would make an interesting reality show: Dodge the Debris.

Katrina 9 – One of the washed out houses in Diamondhead. The angry thirty foot storm surge roared through the neighborhood, ripping out everything inside.

Katrina 10 – Another washed out house in Diamondhead.

Katrina 11 – Jon and I took a very heartbreaking drive down to Bay St Louis. The big oak has a sign that reads “Tranquil Oaks”. Behind it is the remaining foundation of what used to be the home.

Katrina 12 – A home in Bay St Louis that was completely washed out, with the roof remaining on top of the foundation.

Katrina 13 – A common view for miles along the coast water front. Homes completely washed away, with the rubble washed inland and left behind.

Other observations.

Driving south on highway 603, cars are tossed about in the ditch like toys. People who live in the low lying areas are known to park their cars along side the highway, on high ground, before storms come through. Normally, their cars are fairly safe. Katrina’s storm waters surged right over them.

Driving through Waveland, we saw a boat in the drive through of Burger King, where the storm surge left it.

I was surprised at some of the buildings/homes that are left in Bay St Louis. But they were all under water and I’m sure are no longer structurally sound. I thought about all the antique stores that were down in the “Historic Downtown” – the merchandise ruined in the storm surge.

As we drove through the destroyed neighborhoods, the remaining trees had debris hanging from their limbs, up to thirty feet. How does one clean that up? I saw a little girl’s pink jacket hanging high on an oak branch.

We tried to find the remains of the Bed and Breakfast that we stayed at last year on our anniversary. The owner was on CNN shortly after the storm. She and some others survived the storm clinging for life in one of the old oaks, after the house crumbled in the storm surge. We thought we found where it used to be located, but couldn’t tell for sure, with ten-foot high rubble piles.

Life is still far from normal. Traffic is horrible where ever we go. Many businesses and restaurants are still not open (those that are repairable) and the ones that are open are short handed (many employees never returned to the coast), packed with customers and have limited hours. People have started to move out of the shock phase and into the angry, frustrated phase. This can be seen in people’s stupid driving and their rudeness in the stores. Everyone is tired, stressed and just wants to return to life as it was before a storm named Katrina blew into their lives.

“To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul; in you I trust, O my God… No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame… My hope is in you all day long.”
Psalm 25:1,2a and 5b

God bless

Grace & Peace