The Return to Normalcy

It is Friday morning. Power finally came on at church yesterday afternoon and this morning we are back to work. We are working toward having the building and ourselves ready for a regular
Sunday this Sunday.

I will be back to preaching on God's Expectations. We have a baptism scheduled for Sunday morning and our first choir rehearsals for our Christmas musical begin this week.

I look forward to returning this blog to "musing about ministry" instead of "muttering about meteorology". Thank you for your interest, concern and prayers for Eunice, LA.

God bless you as you prepare to lead and feed your congregation this Sunday.

Life After Gustav -- Wednesday Night

Power is slowly returning to our town. Our house got power back yesterday afternoon, but as we went to bed yesterday it was reported that 91% of our town was still without power. We sort of felt guilty for having power when so many others did not.

Meanwhile, our church still has no power. This afternoon the staff met at church and using a small generator for lights and gas to cook, we cooked up everything in our church freezer then delivered it to folks still without power.

But this lack of power, this 19th century life, is not all bad. In the aftermath of several storms I have witnessed a very unique bloom of community. Having been cooped up for several days and now without electricity people emerge from their homes. Neighbors seeking breeze begin to shoot that same breeze with one another. They check on each other and seek to help in any way possible. Damaged roofs are tarped even when the homeowner has evacuated and is not home. Generators are shared. Yesterday a neighbor whom until this week I have only waved to from my driveway to his, walked across the street to invite my family to take showers at his house since he had functioning hot water. It is really a wonderful thing to watch.

Then the power comes back on and we return to our cocoons.

We have begun to hear some sad stories in the wake of the storm. We have had several fatalities from tornadoes following the storm. One of these, a twenty one year young lady, is related to several folks in our church. Another church member worked with a man who was killed cutting down a tree in advance of the storm.

Tomorrow we will continue to address storm issues and also begin to think past the storm.

Cleaning up after Gustav

We are back home now. Gustav was a messy guest. We still are without power but that is to be expected. Just got cell phone service back.

We were very safe at church. Felt secure enough to sit by the windows and watch the winds. On the way home we did see some fairly large trees down. But the ones we saw fell away from homes. We almost got lost a couple of blocks from church because things were so unrecognizable!

But we are safe. A church came by with a generator and small room ac. We are very grateful today.

Now we get busy cleaning up home and church. Thank you for your prayers.

(As soon as we get power I will post some pictures.)

Not much more waiting now -- Gustav

Via handheld.

No more Jim Cantore. I mean for us...I assume he is still fine. We lost power about an hour ago. From texting other people it seems that half of folks have power, half don't.

Wind is really starting to pick up. I am glad that for now this is a daytime event...though we are just getting started.

Still feeling quite safe, but knowing it is going to get interesting before we are finished.

Waiting for Gustav in SW Louisiana -- Monday Midday

Our little storm posse stands at 9 people here at the church.

Outside the rain is getting heavier and the we expect to really see some weather deterioration in the next hour. The really rough stuff comes later. Forecasters seem to be telling us that we are going to get hit harder by the backside of the storm as it comes through.

Inside, we have a pretty good little spread of snack foods. Seems like the thing to do. Folks have also brought little "busy work" projects to keep occupied. I think we are going to start focusing on lunch and anything else that we can do while we still have power.

The wind howls every once in a while and the lights flicker.

Still waiting. But not complaining.

Top 10 Things to Do Riding Out a Hurricane at Church.

It is going to be a long day here at the church. So here are some the things our family will be doing to pass the time.

1. Play capture the flag in the youth department.

2. Put the cry room to good use.

3. Take a bath in the baptistery.

4. Mark yourself present for the next quarter of Sunday School.

5. Finally teach yourself to play the drums.

6. Read the entire Mitford series in the church library.

7. Don’t worry what ye shall wear tomorrow – fresh choir robe as needed.

8. Find all the storm related hymns in the hymnal.

9. Snack on all the circle cookies and apple juice in the preschool.

10. Watch Jim Cantore on the sanctuary screens.

Waiting for Gustav in SW Louisiana -- Monday Morning

It is early, but we have arrived at church. We announced that the church would be open if anyone wanted to ride out the storm here instead of on their own. I do not know if anyone will show up.

The most recent forecast is that later today our town will experience 80 mph sustained winds. Right now it would still be considered breezy, but it is picking up. I think there are predictions of high rainfall amounts, but maybe not as much as would TS Fay left in Florida.

I drove down the main drag this morning on my way to church and it is pretty quiet out there. Many businesses were boarded up. People here seemed to wait longer to board up than they did when we lived in Florida. For a while we were amazed nobody was boarding up. I did not get our house boarded up, since I figure this far inland people didn't do that. Then all of a sudden out came the plywood. Oh well. We expect to learn a bunch from this experience.

If nobody else is coming to church, I think we would rather be at home. But I don't want to "close the door to ark" too soon or wait too late to get back home. We'll play that by ear.