After the Storm

Hurricane Irma has officially passed through and I am back in the Orlando area. My last update was written in 10 minutes while in the middle of packing and getting ready to hit the road for the trip to Atlanta. I wanted to sit down and share a more robust update about the hurricane, our travels, and life after the storm.Over the past 5 days, my friends and I have been staying in a small town in the suburbs of Atlanta. Our co-worker, Trey, has family from the area, and they opened up their home to us who were seeking sanctuary from the storm. Ironically enough, we ended up getting hit by Irma on Monday when it had downgraded to a tropical storm. The very thing we were running from ended up following us. (but that’s a topic for another blog)A big thank you to the Rogers’ family who, for five days, let us totally crash into their lives. Over those five days we were part of game nights, a birthday celebration, and family meals. This family really gets hospitality and I could not be more thankful.Early Tuesday morning we left Atlanta and arrived back here in Orlando.  As I write this, many of my friends are still without power, and countless people are dealing with property damage of some kind. Here at Canterbury, the ground has been littered with branches, Spanish moss, and leaves. Several big trees fell on property as well. Fortunately, only one landed on a building.When we first got back to the property a sense of anxiety fell on us. Looking at all the mess that needed to be cleaned up it felt like too much for us to handle. However, two local churches jumped into action and answered the call. Action Church and Antioch Church had volunteers picking up sticks, shuttling loads of wood, and chain-sawing down limbs. I once again cannot express how grateful I am. After two days of work the property looks amazing! There still is a lot to do, but we could have never gotten through this without them. Thank you so much!Here we are. Life for me sure has felt strange. The past week of my life has been completely put on pause.  Last Tuesday, the hurricane became more real as talks about evacuating started. Wednesday we spent the day prepping the property and packing, and Thursday we left. Everything was put on hold. I stopped support raising to focus on being faithful to hurricane prep, and future planning of Emmaus was put on hold till the hurricane passed. Now I’m finding myself in between picking up the pieces from the storm and entering back into “normal” life. The transition is awkward and uncomfortable for sure. But in it all, God is present. I’m excited to see how God begins to work all of this for his glory. And I’m excited to be a part of God mending and fixing Orlando and Central Florida.Over the past few days a Mumford and Sons song has been stuck in my head and I think it speaks tothose who have gone through this storm. In the song ‘After The Storm’, the chorus is:

“There will come a time you’ll see, with no more tears and love will not break your heart, but dismiss your fears, get over your hill and see what you’ll find there with grace in your heart and flowers in your hair.”

I can’t help but think about how well this reflects our eternal promise - God’s promise to one day wipe away every tear and undo every injustice. While we might not see a full picture of that here in Orlando after this storm, I really do believe that over the next few weeks we will see God give us a picture of this eternal reality.Please join me in prayer as many people on the coasts of Florida have been hit really hard by Irma. Many people on the coast and on the islands lost everything. This is a reality that I honestly cannot even begin to comprehend. Please pray for God to reveal himself to the people affected by this storm.