Security in the Midst of Change

So it's week four... and so far things are going amazingly well. In fact, today was the best day of camp I've had so far. My kids were amazing today. Incredibly well behaved and just adorable. Although, I guess I can't claim them as totally mine. Penne and I are teaming up this week with the 7 and 8 year olds. Today we had 11. Out of those 11, 3 actually attend church. Three kids that are siblings (a set of twins and a younger bro) said that they attended church before Katrina but haven't been back since. Which, I must say, is pretty amazing in more ways than one.

 

Tonight we ate dinner at the Dellinger's house, and they had an amazing story to tell. They are a couple that has been married for 47 years, they're probably about 65 or 70ish, and they moved to Waveland, MS (which is where we are, btw) four years ago. I won't be able to tell their story as well as they did, but I'll give it my best shot.

 

Katrina was coming and they had decided that there was no way they would be able to make it out of Mississippi in time before the hurricane hit because the highway was clogged with cars and there was no other way to make it out. So, they closed up their hurricane shutters and waited for the storm to come. The storm came, and at first it wasn't a problem. The house seemed to be withstanding the winds just fine. But, all of a sudden, water from storm surge began to rise up around the foundation of their house. Pretty soon, the door had caved in from the pressure of the water built around it, and Pearl had gotten stuck outside. She grabbed the iron trellis on the front porch and held on for dear life. Dave was sitting in his chair, which had begun to float. By the end of the night, they had 6 feet of water in their house. Pearl was still clinging to the porch, where she stayed during the hurricane for 7 hours with 160 mph winds. They are both still alive and in pretty good shape.

 

They lived in their ruined house for 3 days because they couldn't get out of town. Their car's electrical system had shorted out during the storm. Their son drove from Mobile to come get them, then drove them back to Mobile and put them in a hotel for 4 days. They then lived with their son for 6 months while they waited to get a FEMA trailer. After that, they lived in a FEMA trailer for a year while repairs were made to their house.

 

And they have no complaints. All they said was "God wanted us alive for some reason."

 

Profound, no?

 

If only we could always say that when "bad things" happen to us. The 10,000 people that lost their homes in MS, not to mention the other homes that had to be stripped down and rebuilt.... God had good intentions in all of it.

 

"God just wanted me to experience this."