Sept 26, 2009 The Flood

Saturday, September 26 in my daily Bible, it reads,

“Save me O God, for the floodwaters are up to my neck….But I keep right on praying to you, LORD, hoping this is the time you will show me favor. In your unfailing love, O God, answer my prayer with your sure salvation. Pull me out of the mud; don’t let me sink any deeper! … Don’t let the floods overwhelm me, or the deep waters swallow me, or the pit of death devour me.” Psalm 69:1,13-15

We knew there was a storm coming in, just a “tropical storm” and not a typhoon. No problem! What we didn’t know is the amount of rain that would accompany it. We have experienced knee deep water so many times in our driveway that we have gotten a bit relaxed with the possibilities of our home flooding. After a lot of rain during the night, I checked the driveway about 9:00 am and saw that the street our driveway connects to was already running with water. We decided we probably wouldn’t be going anywhere for a while. By 10:00, Eric went out to check a drain in the driveway and the water was already to his knees. The rain was not letting up at all and we decided the water might come inside the house. We directed the kids (praise GOD we were all home together!!!!) to start taking stuff upstairs to one of the bedrooms. We started with food and water and moved to electronics and books and whatever else we could salvage

At 10:45 the water took up residence in our home, waltzing through the front door. 11:06, the water came over the gate to the back yard and started filling up the yard inside our wall (that protects us from floods….all the other floods that is).
11:11 Most of us were upstairs, but Andy was in his bedroom on the landing trying to get a few thing up, just in case it got in there (none of us thought it could possible get that high). At 11:12 there was an eerie rumble and very loud crack followed by the sound of rushing, turbulent water. Our neighbor’s wall that we park next to had broken and all the water behind it burst into our yard, forcing a wall of water over our protective wall and into our house.

The water level reached it’s highest at about 3:00. We praise the Lord that it didn’t get any higher, because about this time, we started noticing there was a current going through our house and out our back gate. We rejoiced as we noticed the level dropping about an inch, then four inches, and we were beginning to feel a sense of relief that the water would soon run off. Unfortunately, we didn’t know that all the waterways in this entire area were flooded, the water had no where to go. We went to bed(earlier than normal because we only had one candle upstairs) knowing that all of our belongings were floating around below us. I kept trying to talk myself into thinking about all those times as a kid that I slept on the lake J No matter how I tried, it just wasn’t the same.

The sun rose and the water was still 3 or 4 feet deep. We thought we would just wait out the day, knowing that eventually the water would recede. The boys decided that it would be fun to try fishing off the roof. We watched from the windows and from the roof as underwater life rose to the surface of the water leaving its tell-tale rings. There are a lot of fish and fresh water eels that end up in this type of flood. One of our neighbors was seen tossing a one foot long fish out of his belongings J

We had no idea what was happening all around us. It is a strange feeling knowing that so many people’s lives are being completely altered all at the same time. I was simply thinking about our immediate neighbors, not for a minute was I thinking this was such a wide spread disaster. We knew that there were probably people being swept away in currents, never to be seen again. We knew that the squatter houses along the water ways were being demolished. We knew that our neighbor was praying fervently for his sisters two boys who were missing. The water that yesterday seemed so hostile, today seemed so calm, almost soothing, but it was contributing to an eerie silence, a silence that was void of roosters, tricycles, jeepney horns, and other motors.

However, through the silence, began the chatter and laughter of our neighbors. Despite the horrors of the day before, I heard singing. I heard laughter. I heard conversation. I heard the hope of a new dawning. As the sun rose in the sky, I was so happy to have the light back! I was reminded of Isaiah 60:20 “The LORD will be your everlasting light. Your days of mourning will come to an end.”

As the boys were fishing, Tata (one of the employees in the Field Office) waded into our yard and told us he was here to fetch us. We gathered a few items and waded through thigh high water to dry ground. It was very devastating walking through the house and seeing the very thing I was imagining upstairs. The disaster of the home we have tried to establish over these two years was demolished. There was mud and muck on every surface.

We are staying with our Field Strategy Coordinator and his wife. We do not have any answers yet to all of those questions floating around just like all the rubbish on the water. We are just taking it a day at a time and letting the LORD guide and direct our paths.

There has been an incredible number of people coming in and helping us clean up. Every day I am just dumb founded when students from the kids school come in and spend the day helping. We have had meals brought in. We have had people taking laundry to clean. We have had people who have been there every single day. We had one guy who went without sleep for 36 hours so he could spend the day helping us. We have had some of our kids from the youth group come and help us. It has been overwhelming!

The kids have not been back to school. The whole area has taken the entire week off for clean up. The students from our school have been grouping together and going out to the myriad of families affected and helping with clean-up. It is an amazing, dirty job. Fortunately, most homes are made of cement walls and floors, therefore, the cleanup is much easier than in a wood home with dry-wall. We give praise to God for that!

We will keep trying to give you info. Please keep praying. There are still places that are waist deep in water. We love you all and are happy to tell you that your brothers and sisters in Christ here have been so gracious to us!

We are the body of Christ!!!!