More "Severe Weather."

I feel like all the posts lately have been about some natural disaster. Well, here is another one. :)

Saturday afternoon, we decided to do our Mother's Day dinner with my mom, because Sunday's are rather difficult in the life of a minister. We went to Searcy to meet up with the rest of the family. We were at Lindsay ( my sister) and Steve's house trying to decide where to eat. After lots of back and forth and no decisions.....it was late so we decided to stay and eat in Searcy. (Partly because the weather was looking a little rough, and we didn't want to drive in it.) We decided to eat at Roma's. As we were finishing up our dinner, David's phone rang. It was our friend, Dale. (If you recall the flood post.....he is the same one who told us about the water! We would be in a world of hurt if not for Dale and his meteorologist skills! :)) Anyway, Dale told David that we should watch the weather because a "tornado like" storm was headed towards Searcy. My dad went out to the car to get his weather scanner so we could keep tabs on the storm. A few minutes later, Dale called back and mentioned that we should be seeking shelter in 4 minutes. Luckily, we had already decided that we needed to go.

When we got out to the cars, my dad told us to follow him. We were headed to Harding's Admin building. It didn't take but 3 minutes to get to Harding, but it seemed like an eternity. When we turned down the road to Harding, there sat 2 funnel clouds in the sky. I promise they weren't 100 yards away. It was then that they bottom fell out of the sky and we could hardly see the road. We DID make it to Harding, but we could already tell the pressure in the air had changed a little.....and the sky was BLACK. ( A little too familiar from the February 5th tornado.)

Needless to say, we hauled it into the basement of the admin building and ended up soaking wet and nauseous. But, okay. Fortunately, no tornadoes touched down in Searcy.

I think that I could handle all the weather issues if it weren't for my kids. They have really taken this weather the hardest. The slightest drizzle or wind, and they are at the door with shoes on ready to head for shelter. I hate that I can't control this for them. Goodness knows I would. I know mine aren't the only ones that are traumatized by the recent storms. My prayer is that God would grant peace to all those children out there who have seen, and lived through, the destruction that is caused by tornadoes.

A Peace that Passes Understanding.

A family I am accquainted with lost everything in the tornados two weeks ago. Kim and her husband sat on what was left of thier front porch and looked over the mess they had in thier yard. They talked about how they didn't know where to start or how they would even get it done. Instead of complaining they just held hands and prayed for strength. NO sooner did they open thier eyes and a caravan of cars pulled up as far as they could to the house and got out. All of them had Harding shirts and work gloves on. They introduced themselves, surrounded the area in a circle , prayed with and for the family, and then sang a song to them. This act of love touched this family so much. This family got a giant hug from God, thier prayers were answered. This mob of students (about 70 in all) cleaned up the ENTIRE yard and had all the debris close to the road ready for pick-up. My heart overflows!!!

Hundreds of these kinds of stories are popping up everyday. And for a community that has lost about 40% of thier building stuctures, we are awfully cheerful. I think it's because God has shined down on us and sent the "Lord's Army" to come and help relieve some of the stress.

I am appreciative of all those who have sacrificed time, energy and money to help give our little town some peace from such a big blow. (Pun intended!)