Devastation!

Today…I can say for 100% certainty…you don’t know, you really don’t know, until you “Live it!” After October 4, 2015… I will forever respond differently when disaster hits…another state…or anything that I know about. The very least I will do…is send money. I will definitely pray.

I have found myself…in the very center of devastation where nothing that I have lived around for the last 30 years looks the same and God has given me a “different set of eyes!”

Years ago…I traveled to New Orleans after Katrina hit. Our family stayed a week in a church gym that was covered by tarps…to help serve the needs of New Orleans. It was one of my most memorable experiences…but somehow when devastation comes to your neighborhood…

…and the people you have done life with for years are devastated….
…your heart gains so much weight…that you feel that your lungs are being crushed.

You seriously feel as if you cannot breathe. I have watched the television footage on national TV and I “kind of” recognize areas…where I
grocery shop,
bank,
take my dry cleaning
and buy potted plants…

>>all under water<<

The bridge that I cross every Sunday when I go to church is out. I’ve sat in my living room and seen my friends on national TV… CNN, ABC, FOX, CBS and NBC. Many have lost everything. It paralyzes you for a bit. I just thought I knew what overwhelmed meant until now. I sat in my Dad’s sun room and watched…immobile…unable to do anything but watch the news until we could get through the road blocks to get back home.

Driving into Columbia on a route I have NEVER taken to get to my house, I wondered what it was going to be like. All I could think about was the movie “Left Behind”. The closer I got to our home the more of a “war zone” I saw.

Today there is no direct route to anywhere. As I drive to our church to volunteer, I have to drive down one of the streets that was hit the hardest (my new route to church) because it is one of the very few routes open.

On the path where I do life….it took me an hour to get one mile yesterday…horrific devastation to my left and to my right. National Guard troops everywhere. Helicopters hovering. Cars and trucks lining the streets. Tear-stained faces everywhere. If you glance up at all, you see muddy trash in trees. Flags are still flying in yards where homes are gone. Hard to find specific houses because there are few mailboxes left and front doors have been knocked down.

Today, every time I see a truck or car loaded down with supplies …I cry. My heart “loses a pound” of the weight even though…it still weighs…at least 2 tons…and I think it will for months to come.

I didn’t lose my house……but it feels like it. A third of my contact list in my phone lost everything….:(((((((

In the days to come…I will write as I have time….but I have to move…to serve…no one in the area where I live…has time to read….too much to do. Too many people that need physical help.

So this post is to ask you to help.

If you think my heart is heavy…it is nothing compared to others who are left shocked and dismayed with nothing…..no phones, no cars, no homes and no clean water and their young children look to them to supply their needs!!!!!

These people are totally dependent on people who will MOVE TO HELP. I can tell you the people who live here who can help…are tired. They are working 15 to 16 hours a day….helping, housing….etc. It is going to take more people willing to come and help…to roll up their sleeves and get dirty.

So I kindly ask you, with a grateful and expectant heart, to HELP. I am not asking for me…I am asking for others. There are heavy hearts everywhere. Every time you give or help…just know you are “lightening the heart” of a soul that is burdened….

I love my city. I love my state…and I love my neighbors. I know God is hovering. He, even through this terrible disaster, is doing great things in our hearts and in others. I trust Him completely. I especially trust Him to move in the hearts of those not living here to reach out and help.

Philippians 2:1-4, “Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”

Pray. Give. Help. All of it matters.

Thanks in advance!