tablets of human hearts

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

Day 18

This morning I drove over to Hancock School District office to verify the start of school. All the Hancock schools north of I10 will be starting September 30^th. The office did recommend that we drive the kids the first day, as the schools will still be figuring out the busing situation. I also stopped by Jonny’s after school daycare. Unfortunately, they will not reopen and their space is already leased to someone else. So we’ll have to look for after school care for him again.

As I drove through the Kiln (the town to the northwest of Diamondhead) I saw more hurricane damage. A mobile home that once sat in an open field looked like it had been rolled across the field and smashed to pieces in the woods across the road. A storage place had been flooded and people were starting to pull out their ruined items and piling them next to the road. Further down, a housing area on the bayou had flooded. The houses were built on ten foot pilings and still had five or more feet of flooding in the homes. Along side the road, I saw a boat and a car in the woods, where they had been washed up. There is still so much to clean up.

Our house is making progress. Jonny’s room and our room are ready for floating sheetrock. Saturday, I plan on going to Home Dept to start getting paint for repainting. I’ll also be dropping of Daniel’s trumpet to be cleaned and fixed. We found it in the flooded trunk of Heather’s car. A Navy working crew came to our house this afternoon and made some progress in getting a lot of the trees cut up. We had three trees in our yard blow over and one leaning precariously toward the house. Two other trees in the empty lot behind us decided to blow over into our yard as well. Privacy fences do not fare to well when huge trees fall on them.

Rocky decided to give us a heart attack. He told us he could take down the leaning tree and he did. He climbed up as high as he could (which was pretty darn high) and started cutting branches and topping the tree. He kept at it (while we watched and prayed really hard) until he had it short enough to cut down. I don’t know how he handled the chainsaw and ropes and still hold on to the tree himself. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera to get any pictures.

When I was driving back and forth in Diamondhead today, it occurred to me that I’m “getting used to” the destruction and mess. When the kids return, I’ll get a chance to see it afresh, through their eyes, as they see the devastation for the first time. It made me think again of the analogy of sin. Sometimes, we’re so “used to” our sin, we fail to see the horrible and sad mess it really is. Initially, we may be shocked by it and its affect on our lives, just like I was initially shocked by the hurricane destruction when we first returned to the coast. However, if we’re not careful, we can become numb to the sin and the destruction it causes in our lives. We’ve seen it so much it almost becomes normal. Just as I have seen the piles of debris and damaged homes so often in the past week, it seems like it’s always been that way. Not until someone new reopens our eyes to the heartbreak each pile and each damaged home represents, do I remember that Diamondhead is not supposed to look this way. In the same way, we daily need a fresh look at our sin through God’s word, so that we might see our sin for what it really is, not what we’ve learned to believe is acceptable. Once we see the sin as the destructive mess that it is, we can then begin allowing the Lord to clean it out of our lives, and restore us to the beauty He intended.

May God touch your hearts in a mighty way today.

Grace & Peace

Day 17 Part one

It’s morning as I write this. A dear friend from church, Deborah, has allowed me the use of her computer so I can email all of you. Thank you Deborah. We’ll spend another day of clean up today. I think I’ve done more loads of laundry than I have ever done. Thankfully, I’ve only had to throw a few articles of clothing away. I still have more to wash, though, because I want to make sure I get out all the mold spores that collected during the days the house was still boarded up.

I’ll continue this entry later tonight, but just wanted to let you know we are doing well, all things considered. Thank you for you continued support, thoughts and prayers.

I’ll try to get the rest of the week’s posts out Sunday or Monday.

God is our refuge in times of trials.

When we are weak, He is our strength.

Grace & Peace

Day 17 Part two

What is amazing and kind of sad to me is that it took a category five hurricane and a devastated coast to get us talking to our neighbors across the street. We’ve always been on waving terms (you know, waving across the street whenever we see each other) but now I stop by and say hi to Ethel each day, before starting to work on the house.

I’ll be reporting for work Monday morning. I’m not sure what I’ll be doing, but my command is very supportive of us trying to get our lives back together.

Rocky and Nette came over to help today. Nette helped me clean Jonny’s toys while Rocky helped Jon and Bob pull out more sheet rock. I was close to tears when they had to pull out our garden tub so they could get to the sheet rock and wet insulation. I knew we were going to have a lot of work to do, but when they pulled out the tub, it kind of underscored the fact. I was close to tears again when Jon’s Sante Fe was towed away. The guy who towed it away was also willing to come back to tow away Heather’s Elantra. Maybe he knows someone who can actually clean it (the smell inside is horrible) and fix it. If so, great, at least we’re not being charged for towing and disposal.

Tomorrow, a working crew is supposed to come from the base to cut trees and clean up our yard. It looks like a war zone. Ironically enough, I used to complain that there was too much shade in our yard and we were unable to grow grass. The trees that shaded the yard have either snapped or fallen over.

Blessings

Grace & Peace