Jesus is the Master Even in the Disaster

Walking through a nearby neighborhood, I came across a wooden sign which read, "Jesus is the Master Even in the Disaster". How true!

Work continued yesterday and today as we continue to clear out some lots in the small city of Holt, Alabama. Although we continue to find pictures and a few personal items, we are mostly down to the debris left over from trees and fences. Trees, branches, fence posts, and barbed wire have become one as a result of the tornado, and we are using pitch forks, hard rakes, clippers, sawzalls, and chain saws to separate them.

The weather is HOT!!! Today was in the lower 90's with 65% humidity. We started working at 7am and were spent after 6 hrs. I drank 5 16oz water bottles by lunchtime, and I am usually not a good water drinker.

At lunch, I had the opportunity to meet a woman named Kenya. Kenya had just delivered her newborn baby girl Sykya on Good Friday, 5 days before the tornado. The baby arrived prematurely and was kept at the hospital while Kenya was allowed to go home. You can imagine the anxiety and emotions she was feeling as she and her older daughter and husband rode out the storm in a hallway in their home, not knowing if the hospital where their 5 day old baby was being taken care of would be a victim of the tornado. She said her husband was watching the tornado approach their home as it appeared to split into 2 funnels, one heading in one direction, and the other heading in the opposite direction. Amazingly, their home only suffered some roof damage while their neighborhood was completely anihalated. Even after the tornado passed, all phone lines were down including cell phones, and she had no way of contacting the hospital, no way of knowing whether or not her baby was safe. Praise God, within a day, she was able to contact the NICU and confirmed that her little Sykya was absolutely fine. God is good! She is still amazed that she can see from one end of the city of Holt to the other - few trees, and few homes remain.

Just a reminder, the tornado was 26 miles long (that's a marathon for all you runners!), and 1 mile wide. We encourage you to go outside, take a one mile long walk and reflect on how destructive this tornado was.