The sky was full of sunshine this morning and there was a lingering smell of rain in the air. You’d never know a tornado had devastated Sunrise, Texas just twelve hours ago. Our house was uninhabitable as were 75% of the homes in our small community. Fortunately, we’d only heard of two non-life threatening injuries; one was a lady in the nursing home and the other was a 14-year-old delivery boy who was caught out in the storm. Two churches were unscathed—ours, First Baptist (where Caleb was part-time pastor), and First Methodist. Big coffee urns filled with Folgers were going full-blast this morning at both places to give pseudo-energy to dozens of adults who were now homeless. We’d managed to cobble together cots, air mattresses, and old-fashioned pallets (quilts on the floor) for everyone last night. Ellie had cried for Miss Bunny at bedtime—her stuffed buddy. She was inconsolable until Miss Shirley brought a teddy bear from the church nursery. She’d told Ellie, “Ellie, baby…look who I found in the nursery! Mr. Teddy was crying and needs some love. Would you sleep with him tonight?” It did the trick. I only wished I could be comforted that easily. I also wished I could have gone to sleep as quickly as the kids did. Poor babies! So much had happened so quickly. I was exhausted from loss and from trying to console my family.
There was already the sound of 18-wheelers and pickups with trailers rolling into town. Caleb had become the point man for our community. Even though so much was going on, I couldn’t help but take notice, “God, You are amazing! This is the same man who could hardly have a conversation with a stranger 13 years ago! And now…look at him!” He was on the phone and directing trucks all at the same time. Help was on the way!
The Baptist men from the Texas panhandle had shown up with their food trailer and had fed us all breakfast. They promised they’d be there for every meal. It was such a comfort to know that this basic need would be provided—because I didn’t even know if I had any pans left. Caleb found me an hour later and told me, “Jennifer and Jason have offered to watch the younger kids. I want you and Henry to go with me to see what we can salvage at the house. I also need to go feed the animals.” Jason was our youth minister. And they had two kids of their own who were the ages of the twins and Sadie. We were together all the time, so I knew the kids would love getting to play together—and have a sense of normalcy. Thank goodness the parsonage they lived in was still intact.
We took a minute just to stand and look at what was left of our house. Henry asked Caleb, “Dad, will this fall down if we try to get things out?” It did look a little precarious. Caleb told him, “Henry, you start digging outside first and see what you can find. I’ll try to stabilize things after I feed the animals. Merry, the living area is fine to dig in. Start there. Bring anything you find to this open place under the tree. And please be careful!” It sure would be nice to find the kids’ immunization records to know if Henry had had a tetanus shot!
We were dirty, sweaty, and exhausted two hours later. I’d given in to my emotions as I worked—it was heart wrenching! And our pile of salvageable things was small. We heard a pickup kick up gravel and we all turned to watch it come down our road. Three men got out of the cab and reached in the back to get their chainsaws and one said, “Preacher, we’ve come to take care of things for you so you can get back and oversee things in town. There are a lot of questions people have and no one knows how to answer. Caleb shook their hands and thanked them and then turned to me and said, “Merry, let’s head back to town. Henry, grab a few of those things and toss them in the back of the pickup.” I turned to give one last perusal to our devastated house and happened to see a pink ear lying under some boards. “Miss. Bunny! Henry, help me get Miss Bunny out from under these boards.” I pulled out a very muddy bunny rabbit with one ear barely attached. She would need surgery and a bath before she slept with Ellie tonight.
We arrived to a town we didn’t recognize. Trucks and trailers were everywhere. Food trucks, a shower trailer, a trailer with washers and dryers, trucks bearing men with chainsaws, electricians to restore parts of the town’s power, cell phone company trucks, trailers with water, port-a-potties, women cooking over 5 gallon pots, a tent going up to house a truckload of clothing. Henry exclaimed, “Whoa! Where did all of this come from?” Caleb replied, “From the heart of God, Henry. From the heart of God.”
A verse was rolling around in my head and I had to give voice to it before it left me. “I will answer them before they even call to me. While they are still talking about their needs, I will go ahead and answer their prayers!” I couldn’t have even thought to ask for all of this! As devastated as I was about losing so much, I had to stop and acknowledge what God was doing. “Thank You, God. You are good. No matter what we lost, You are good. Thank you for saving our family, our church, and our town. Thank You.”
No comments:
Post a Comment