tablets of human hearts

Day 26

Rain bands from Rita are whipping through the area, dumping rain on everyone and their efforts to recover (if possible) from Katrina.

The levees broke in New Orleans, flooding it again. Searches for bodies or survivors had to stop because of Rita. The interstates are clogged again with people running from a hurricane’s fury. This is what Florida must have felt like last year.

As I read the news coverage and watch radar, (no cable or satellite yet where I’m at) I find myself having the same anxious thoughts and feelings that I did the morning we arrived in San Antonio, running from Katrina. We want to pray. But for what? For the storm to dissipate or at least to weaken? While the Lord can do miracles – He is the master of the wind and the waves – the question is, will He? For no destruction? Little chance in that, with the storm surge and winds. How does one pray in times like these? We know that people will perish; homes and businesses will be impacted to one degree or another and people’s lives will be changed. As Rita moves inland, will another coast soon have a similar landscape as that of the Mississippi Gulf Coast?

We trust manmade levees and sea walls, we trust manmade buildings, thinking we built them bigger and stronger, we trust our technology and communication capabilities. However, we find out that we are not as smart as we think we are and all that we can build can also fail. I am comforted by the fact that our Lord is unchanging. He has ordained a time for everything.

Ecclesiastes 3
A Time for Everything

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

In our lifetimes, we will experience each. Many have new meaning, as I read them today. A time to die, a time to tear down, a time to weep, a time to mourn, a time to search, a time to throw away…
a time is ordained for each and we here on the coast have moved through these times. As days turn to seasons and seasons to years, we can only remember that the Lord is sovereign and He should be our refuge in all times. May He grant us the wisdom, strength and peace we need each day, whatever it may bring.

Have a blessed weekend, take a day of rest and be sure to worship our Lord and Savior, giving thanks for His many blessings.

Grace & Peace

Day 25

Whew. The days are flying by, now that I’m back to work. After getting up at 630 am, working until lunch, then coming home and working on the house until dark, I’m exhausted by bedtime and don’t have the energy to write.

The last couple of days we’ve been sweating and praying as we watched Rita work her way west. We don’t wish the storm on anyone, but I can’t imagine what would happen if she would hit here. Noone would be able to secure for the storm, because we have trees and debris all over our yards and so many houses (those that survived) have been weakened structurally. I’m praying that the Lord would just dissipate Rita before she hits anywhere, or that she would hit the least populated area. Can you imagine Houston being hit like we were? What would that do to our country? I wonder, through all of this, what does that Lord want us to learn? Have we, as a nation, not realized that some things are just outside of our control, have we not recognized His sovereignty and our need for Him? It took famine, occupation, and captivity, to name a few, for Israel to realize their sin and turn back to the Lord. What will it take for our nation?

It’s nice to have the kids back. Well, two of the three, since Heather is at college.

Daniel has been helping out at the house, along with a couple of his friends. For the most part, they do a great job. Daniel and Matthew bailed swamp water out of plastic bins I had in the garage. The smell was quite awful. Unfortunately, one of the bins contained some Christmas decorations. I was able to salvage a few things, however. Daniel has installed insulation in the entire downstairs and Matthew has helped his dad (Rocky) hang dry wall. Jon is in the process of mudding and taping. We have our bedroom and Jonny’s room almost ready for painting. There are so many details to worry about that makes the job bigger. All of the floorboards had to be ripped out and will have to be replaced. The metal stripping on the corners of walls had to be snipped, removed and replaced. Door frames had to be removed, and if I can clean them up and repaint them, they will then be replaced. We’ll have to buy all new interior doors since they all cracked and warped. Jon and I visited Home Depot and purchased a new fridge and stove. They should be delivered on October 7^th. We still have to visit the cabinet store and the floor store.

We received some stuffed toys in the mail today for the kids. A church in my hometown blessed them and sent them to us, along with some books for Jonny. My girl friend, Laura, also sent some books for Jonny. He’s been quite excited to receive the gifts in the mail. Thank you so much. Please continue to pray for the children dealing with the loss of their homes, their belongings, and their stability. Pray that the Lord would give them an extra measure of grace and would help them deal with the questions that even adults don’t have answers to.

God bless you as you pray for those in the path of Rita.
(Did you notice she has the same letters as those found in Katrina?)

Grace & Peace

Day 22

I received several emails today about the ungrateful refugees and the lack of willingness of refugees to help themselves. I’ve also read numerous articles looking for someone to blame, whether it’s local government, federal government, or insurance companies – everyone wants someone to blame.

I’ve been writing my emails to help those I love and care about connect with the tragedy down here on the coast. I’m also aware that my emails have been sent all over the place, which I definitely don’t mind, because I think it helps others to connect as well. And the outpouring of support from people who don’t even know us has been amazing.

Because my emails seem to travel so far, what I challenge all of you to do for me is to collect stories of hope.

There will always be those who complain, are ungrateful, and who want to blame someone else. But there are many, scattered across small town America, who are attempting to rebuild their lives in the wake of Katrina. If you know of stories that tell of hope, thankfulness and God’s goodness, grace and mercy displayed in the lives of people as a result of the hurricane, I ask that you would share them with me.

The depravity of the human heart demonstrated on the news through looters, rapists, shooters, complainers, and grumblers should be expected. It’s the condition of the human heart. After all, Jesus died for our sins, not because we deserved it, but because we desperately needed it.

What should be celebrated, however, are hearts that are grateful, those who are appreciative, and those who give praise to God because of the love of His people.

Check around your town. See if you can find any stories such as these to share. And I will do the same.

I reported to work today. I didn’t accomplish much besides talking to everyone and listening to how they fared. One of the civilians, who survived Camille, lost his home in Pass Christian. He now owns a slab. A military member lost everything when floodwaters surged through the manufactured home he was renting. Many had worse flooding than we did. Of the thirty some people at our command, thirteen have unlivable homes to one degree or another.  Please pray for everyone as they find places to live, deal with the day to day struggles, fight the long lines, and wait for insurance claims and assistance.

I spent the afternoon cleaning out the garage, along with the help of Matthew and Daniel. There was still swamp water in two storage bins and two storage drawers. Matthew and Daniel were pretty grossed out bailing the smelly water so we could dump it out. Unfortunately, one of the bins contained Christmas items (I think I’ll be able to save some of the table clothes and place mats) and the two drawers contained Thanksgiving items (all a total loss).

On the up side, with the assistance of Rocky, we hung our first dry wall in Jonny’s room. Yea! Progress; we’re starting to repair, rather than remove. And Praise God, our washer and dryer seem to be working (please pray that they continue to do so). We also have another praise: our car insurance informed us that we’ll be receiving more than we expected for Jon’s Sante Fe. What a blessing.

It’s time to get the boys settled down for bed. We’ll have to say thank you prayers.

God bless for all your prayers.

Grace & Peace

Day 21

Yesterday was a rough day. My emotions seemed to be raw and overwhelming, bubbling to the surface throughout the day.

Jon and I were up early and headed over to the house to pick up paint chips. I had plans of trying to pick up some paint at Home Depot. We stopped by Doug and Betty’s house on the way out. They live closer to the hardest hit area of Diamondhead and had water up to their ceilings. They are currently living in an RV parked in their driveway and have their salvageable things stacked up under an awning and the water damaged items stacked up, like everyone else, along side the street. We visited for a while and Betty shared with me some of their stories. She lost so many things but was delighted to find that, although her china cabinet was on the floor, all of her china was intact. She had her guest room decorated with hundreds of Beanie Babies, all of which were soaked in the flood waters. When Jon was walking through their house, he even found two of them up on the drooping ceiling fans.

From there we drove to Biloxi to drop off Daniel’s trumpet at the music store to be fixed. We found it in the trunk of Heather’s car, floating in flood waters. Thankfully, trumpets are pretty durable and can be cleaned and repaired. We’ll have to buy him a new case, though; the other is in the trash heap.

We stopped at Sam’s but it was a mad house so we went on to Home Depot, which was also a mad house. We tried looking at appliances, to replace the ones ruined by water, but all of their appliances were boxed up. I’m sure everyone else along the coast that still has a house standing is trying to purchase replacements for their homes. We looked at floor tile and found that Home Depot charges quite a bit for laying the tile. I told Jon, we can save a lot of money by laying it ourselves. I wanted to also look at paint, but Jon wasn’t that interested. He’s still focused on all the work we have yet to do in get insulation and walls back up.

We went over to the house to work for the afternoon. I told Jon and Bob they should try to get the DirectTV working. After all, we’re paying for that along with NFL Sunday ticket and they haven’t been able to watch it all month. So, Jon climbed up on the roof to adjust the dish, while I watched our 32 inch TV to let him know when the signal starting coming in. I couldn’t have been watching the TV more than five seconds when, POW! The TV blew. Needless to say, I didn’t handle the situation very well. It just didn’t seem fair.

Jon and I took an evening walk to talk. We discovered that we each have different ideas of how to hope for the near future. Neither is wrong, they’re just different. We just have to allow each other the liberty of having different hopes. We also need to keep praying together.

Today, Jon and Bob drove to Beaumont Texas to pick up the kids. They should be arriving here soon. I’m not sure whether or not the kids will want to go over and look at the house this evening. The Tyo house will be full tonight.

Tomorrow I return to work.

Please continue to pray for all of us. Our spirits grow weary and need refreshing.

God bless

Grace & Peace

Day 19

I think we arrived at a turning point today. Jon and Bob ripped out the last of the sheetrock. They’ve finished demolishing our home and we’ll be able to begin restoration. I cleaned Daniel’s room today; it was quite a mess. I’m still hoping we’ll find his snake, which escaped when Daniel left the cage unlatched before we evacuated. Jon and Bob will be meeting Jon’s parents in Beaumont Texas to pick up the kids on Sunday. We’ll continue to stay with Bob and Staci until our house is livable, which Jon hopes to have by the end of the month. Of course, livable means electricity with appliances.

Grace & Peace