My Excuse Is Not a Hurricane

My 92-year old aunt lives with her daughter and son-in-law in Houston, and we got word a few days ago from Dave that the ladies had headed for the hills, as it were. Rita was coming, and any hill, small as it might have been, further inland in Texas was better than being a dozen feet above sea level and a few dozen miles from the coast. They went up to somewhere around Dallas to stay with family while Dave stayed behind to "batten down the hatches". By the time he was ready to leave, the mayor was telling people to hunker down somewhere safe where they were and not try to evacuate. Dave had already figured out that the fuel issue was a big one, and decided to weather the storm.

He wrote four e-mails describing his preparations at various stages, including the first clouds that belied the intensity of what was to come. This was the last message at 6:30 p.m. or so. He said he was waiting for the power to fail, and it apparently has. I'm certain he's fine...just "powerless" to let us know so. Houston and Galveston seem to have missed the worst part...good news for some, but not necessarily for those a bit further east. Sobering events of nature.

The clouds have thickened to the point it seems sunset has occurred an hour or two early. The winds continue off and on as the storm bands move across the area. The trees are beginning to sway quite a bit. No more than most of us are accustomed to seeing during a summer thunderstorm so that's not really a big deal. Of course its only a preview of what will come overnight. According to the radar we should begin to get the rain within the next hour.

I'm still finding last minute things to do around the house. Since there's nowhere for the rainwater to drain from the backyard (totally enclosed by privacy fence) I've propped the gate to the back yard open so the rain can escape, hopefully without getting so deep it comes in the patio doors like it did when Alisen hit a couple years back...we got 18 inches of rain that time. I managed to lift the freezer on the patio in order to get a couple of 4X4's under it to keep it out of the water as long as possible. And I have parked the car (garage too full to put it inside) parallel to the garage door. If anybody passes by I suspect they will do a double take since it looks pretty weird parked at that angle. If the Community Association compliance people were to come by I'm sure I will get a letter telling me I am in some kind of violation for parking my car that way. I think I'll blame it the storm winds :-)

I had anticipated things would be worse than they are by now. But I'm not complaining. The extra time has given me the opportunity to get a little better organized. All I have to do now is wait for the power to fail...and hopefully...come back very soon.

Hunkered Down Dave



Here, the weather has been very good. And the power hasn't gone off, so I can't blame the utility company for my not blogging. This morning, I did finish the last of the translation work I had on hand, though, so maybe I can get to some further bloggable items next week. Jackie has gotten her reports, but she hasn't gotten to see the doctor yet for his interpretation of them. We'll keep you posted on that, and I have not forgotten that I still have the report of the last few days of our trip to Ukraine to post. With no Katrina or Rita or their next of kin due here, I'm thankful that's one excuse I won't have if I don't post.

UPDATE: Just in from Dave:

Just got power back a few minutes after 5pm this afternoon. It was a looooong night but I actually slept through some of it. There's going to be a lot of cleaning up to do but aside from that no damage. I'll try to say more later when things calm down a little.

Delighted Dave

Mestre Necas and his legacy

"Mestre" is the Portuguese title given to craftsmen of various trades, perhaps something on the order of what Paul was writing to Timothy about when he said we should labor so as to receive God's approval of our work, as "workmen that do not need to be ashamed." Necas was a mastercraftsman, a mestre, and the cabinets in our kitchen are evidence of that, but from now on we will look at them as the legacy of a craftsman. Necas suffered an aneurism last Wednesday and never regained consciousness. He died Saturday night at the age of 56.

We have been friends of Necas, his wife and boys for almost 20 years, and although he never made any outward show of faith towards Jesus, his wife, Belita, felt he would have wanted me to say a prayer at his funeral. He never came to our church, but then he never went to the Catholic Church, either. The village priest didn't like the idea of me having any part of a graveside ceremony, and Belita said that was OK. She asked me to say a few words at the hospital chapel before the body was taken out to the village for the main funeral services. There were 70-80 persons in the chapel, none of whom had ever been in a "Protestant" church, and most of whom had never attended a funeral conducted by an evangelical pastor.

I hear that they are still talking about the "strange" words they heard. Basically I said that we all leave legacies behind, and we are judged by others as to whether our lives were good, or not. Did we lead honest lives? Raise a good family? Build good furniture? Men judge those things. But there is a legacy we take with us, a spiritual legacy that only God can judge. Have we built our lives on the Rock or on the sand? Have we served the Lord with wood, hay, and stubble, or with gold, silver and precious stones? When the works of each are tried by fire, will ours survive? (Mat. 7:24-27; 1 Cor. 3:10-15)

Death came suddenly and unexpectedly to Mestre Necas. It could come that way to any of us, to you or me. May the legacy I leave behind be honoring to God; may the legacy I take with me be pleasing to Him.

Stephanie

Stephanie has been on the list to come to the Bible study at the prison for several weeks, but today was the first time she came. I think I had heard she got caught carrying drugs; that's what most of the prisoners I work with are there for. (A couple of the men are in for manslaughter or assault with a deadly weapon, but they're nice, calm guys. They're also sober, since they have no access to alcohol in the prison, and their crimes were committed when they had been drinking.)

Back to Stephanie. I had also heard she's Belgian, and when we met at the Bible study today, I told her I didn't feel right saying, "Welcome to this prison!" She thanked me for that thought. I did tell her that while she is in the prison, though, she's welcome to come to the studies. She thanked me again.

As usual, when people join the group, I ask if they have a Bible, and those that don't, I ask what language they prefer. One of the men is from Curacao, and his Bible is in Papiamentu; he brought that one himself, but over the years I have arranged Dutch, Ukrainian, French, Portuguese, Polish and English Bibles. One of the latest arrivals in the men's meeting is from Senegal or some other Central African country. He brought his own Bible: an English Gideon Bible that looks to be 40 or 50 years old.

Stephanie said she didn't have a Bible. In fact, she said she's never read the Bible, and never been to church. She did recall a story from the Bible about a boy thrown in a pit by 9 brothers. She remembers hearing it when she was 6 years old in the first grade. I got the impression that her basic Bible knowledge begins and ends right about there. We read a passage from the gospels, and she asked what the word "disciple" means, and it's not because she's not bright. She has a degree in Portuguese; this is simply her first direct contact with the Bible and its language.

Stephanie asked for a Bible in English. I will see that she gets one. Would you pray that she reads it, and that God would use me to encourage her to take a new direction in life, guided by that Word? Prison is not the kind of place one feels "welcome" in; the Bible, however, tells us of a heavenly Father who welcomes all who come to Him in faith. May Stephanie encounter that glorious welcome.

UPDATE: I took a Bible to Stephanie this week (Sept. 19), and I asked her if she hadn't ever been to church. She said, in fact, she had been: she was baptized as a baby, took first communion at 6, was confirmed at 12, and got married in the church. I'm curious to see how much of the Bible she will read this week.

Still "blogged" down

It has been just as I said in my last posting: while I was busy turning out translation work I already had in hand, more came in every day. Even if no more comes in over the next few days, it will take me all next week to clear my desk. (Figuratively, of course. I think it would take weeks to clear it literally.) But I'm grateful for the opportunity and ability to work, and accept it as one of the ways God provides our needs.

Over the past week, I have received notes from several readers of this blog. Thanks for your interest and prayers.

Watch for an update on Jackie sometime next week. She has been undergoing tests, and the results should be coming back in the next few days. Jackie told us what one doctor said he expects to find, but she has decided to wait for clear test results before "going public". Confirmation of his suspicion would not be good news. Continue praying.

Speaking of "real money"

So much has happened since my last post, and in light of the damage wreaked by Katrina, 19 million dollars (referred to in previous post) is a drop in the bucket. Unlike our early years on the island, when we scarcely knew what was going on around the world, and especially the US, CNN and other networks available on cable now allow us to follow the news as well as anyone else, and better than most people who were directly affected by the storm. In some ways, the fact that a city the size of New Orleans will have to be emptied for a month or more is almost as mind-boggling as the collapse of the World Trade Center towers. Who would have believed a week ago that New Orleans would be left desolate for weeks and weeks?

There are no Biblical prophecies of this event, but I can think of many prophecies in the Bible that were unbelievable when they were given. Their fulfilment left observers in amazement. In our services at church, I am coming to the end of a series of studies through the Book of Revelation. As I said after the tsunami hit at Christmas, I would say again now, according to the prophecies we read there, "we ain't seen nothin' yet." While we pray for those currently affected, and those involved in aiding them, let us also pray that our hearts will be prepared in faith for what is still ahead.

I haven't posted this week due to a heavy workload of translations, and in the past hour, I was informed of three more jobs. If I disappear off the blog radar for a few days, bear with me.

Update:---Abbie's sister lives at McComb, Miss., and they rode out the storm. Trees were down all around them and utilities are out, but they and their house are intact. A dear former missionary and his wife, Eldwyn and June Rogers, live at Wiggins, which was right in the storm's path. Word today is that they had gone to Arkansas to visit a daughter a few days before the storm, not knowing about its coming. They are safe, of course, but they still don't know about their house.