We are safe!

 Thank you to those that prayed for our family as Hurricane Helene approached our area.

As the storm approached, it looked like it was going to be quite close to our area. It's always hard to know exactly what to do. We live in an older mobile home that isn't really rated for high winds. After watching the forecast, we all decided to head to my mother-in-law's since she has a sturdy brick home.

It made it even more comforting for this momma's heart to have all of her adult children evacuate there as well. It was nice to be all together.

We got there right after dinner time. At first it was a breezy evening and we all laughed and played and just spent some time together. It was really quite nice!

Then the wind picked up and the power went out. We put everyone to bed and tried to rest.

It got quite loud as we heard lots of wind and debris flying around. We were praying pretty hard!

But Helene was very fast moving. Whereas other storms seem to move very slow and stall and wreak a lot of havoc, Helene moved through very quickly. After a few hours it was done. And my husband grew very antsy. About 1:30 in the morning he said he had to go check on our home. So I jumped in the van with him and Josh to drive and look at our place. Looking back we realized it was way too windy for us to be out and about. As we drove to our house there were several trees down. They brought the chainsaw so they could cut our way home. Once we got closer to the house we had to pull the car over the side because they were trees blocking that we could not cut with our little chainsaw. We were thankful to take a quick look at our house and Joshua's house and see all standing and well. Praise the Lord!

After we saw that all was well, We jumped back in the car and went back to Denise's house. There we slept for a couple hours and as soon as the sun came up we went back home.

We have lots of debris and branches on the ground and a couple trees that fell but no damage to our home, our property, or animals, Praise the Lord! It's amazing!

Since we were without power for several days, and our church building as well, we had church in our yard.

 It was a very sweet service as we all came together to praise the Lord for protecting our families. 

Patrick preached a message about being thankful for protection and safety. But also remember to trust God even through the storm. Sometimes storms cause damage and loss of life. We don't pretend to understand at all. But we do choose to trust in God through the storms.

Clean up has begun and we've been trying our best to help our community as well. Our church has started a gas and gospel ministry and delivering trucks of free gas to areas still without power and with more destruction than we have. Our goal is to present the gospel. Praying for lots of fruit!