House Hit in Storm

Sunday morning I woke up before the alarm. I had a nightmare about some guy chasing me with a pencil, intent on killing me! I was running with Sophia in my arms - stopped at a gas station to change her diaper - then went biking to get away from this killer. It was awful.



It was so early in the morning. (I usually get up at 5:00 a.m. on Sundays so I can have some time in the Word and in prayer before going to church by 7:00.) I was so tired. I wanted more sleep so I argued with myself that I could skip my devotions. We live in an age of grace. It isn't like I wouldn't be listening to a sermon at church. But as I lay there, I couldn't go back to sleep, and anyway, I LOVE my time reading the Bible. I love how God's Word refreshes and renews my soul!



I got out of bed and decided to shower in the basement so as not to awaken Allen. I really love the shower down there. It has 2 heads and the water pressure is soooo good! I get it really hot and steamy. After my shower, I went upstairs to make a pot of coffee. My eye caught the clock on the kitchen wall. WHAT???? 4:15???? Good grief! I had done this one other time....when I set the alarm clock, I accidently hit the time and it went back one hour. Well, I was wide awake. I wasn't going to go back to bed at this point.


I had a sweet time reading, praying and also began my lesson on Daniel. I read Daniel 10, where Daniel encounters Christ. The description in verses 4-6 are so similar to Ezekial 1:25-28 and Revelation 1:12-16 and I could just envision "seeing" Him! And the most awesome thing is that our Lord, so majestic is the same Great High Priest who ever lives "to make intercession for you" Hebrews 7:25. I could not help but just worship Him and my heart was filled to full in wonder!



After church, we had a potluck luncheon with the Sunday School team. Wonderful food! I took some pictures of the great food we had but something is either wrong with my SD card or camera because even though it shows in my camera, sometimes some pictures won't download onto my computer. Do those SD cards go bad after a while? We had a whole table of desserts and the entire island in the kitchen filled with main dishes. Yummy! Here is a picture of Vicky Siebert's home made pizza!

Some of the GCC Sunday School team

After our potluck, we had a great time of sharing. We shared triumphs and struggles. Val told us that she had 3 children receive Christ into their lives!! One struggle I have each year is worrying about filling positions. I already know that I have 3 teachers I'll need to get for the summer. And only 2 teachers coming back next year as some are going to older grades, or becoming a one-on-one helper, or whatever. But God promises that He will meet all our needs. I know I have to trust Him, believe Him, but sometimes my guts just get upset thinking about it rather than realizing it isn't about me "getting" people to come work in the nursery. And really, it is exciting to see how He accomplishes this - always!!

I got home at 3:30, just as it was starting to storm. Oh my goodness the rain was horrific! At one point the winds were whipping up around 70-80 mph! Our front door couldn't even hold the rain back as the rain was smashing against our house. We had to put towels down in our "gen-kan" (Japanese for "front entryway"). Some of it leaked to the basement too.

Then we looked out in our back yard and it was so sad.....

Our purple martin house could not stand up against the storm and it fell down. Allen found 3 eggs inside the nests. Look at these sad little birds. We will need to find another pole - a stronger one.

Sophie has been wanting me to sing "The wiseman built his house upon the rock...."a lot this past week. (Matthew 7) This storm has reminded of that. To withstand the storms in our own lives, we need to have Christ as our foundation, or we'll just crash, just like that purple martin house.

Here is a picture of the flooding in the back yard. Luckily, it has never come up to our house, for which we are grateful.

My parents called to tell me that their bradford pear tree got hit by the storm. Half of it fell over onto their drive way. Here is the "before" picture and the "after" where the crew at Kidron Bethel is having to cut it down and mulch it.

Isn't it so sad? But we are grateful that no one was hurt. When the sirens went off last night, I was downstairs, but Allen doesn't do that. He goes outside or stands at the windows to watch the storm. Do your husbands go to the basement with you?