April looked uneventful but turned out to be a nice break from the chaos we have been facing. We finally took our vacation! We travelled to the beach for a couple of days and lounged on the beach in perfect weather. It rained the day before we left, and started raining the day we returned home. We were so grateful for sunny, 85-degree weather and nearly empty beaches. We returned much better rested and focused. We got several projects done and worked on a few church renovations. Our church now has walls to separate classrooms! We also took our youth group out to a trampoline park for a couple of hours. They absolutely loved the event. And then last Sunday, it started storming…and it still hasn’t stopped. Five days of storms has caused some damage. Dams are breaking; embankments are collapsing; schools are closing. It is a mess! We are safe, and fortunately still have electricity and water. This forecast is set to continue until Monday. Please be praying that we and our members continue to stay safe. For right now, everyone we know of is doing well, but we really need these storms to stop.

We are currently stuck on our property. Normally we have three exits. Our primary, direct exit is completely flooded by our overflowing river. Our secondary exit has been blocked by fallen trees. Our third exit up a steep hill is now full of deep mud and trenches from the rapidly descending water. We had a wedding and a Mother’s Day event planned that we have currently had to postpone, and depending on the rain today, we may need to exclusively live-stream our Sunday services from home if we still cannot leave our property. Since we live on a rural road with only four families nearby, we are lower priority compared to the damaged being repaired downtown. Please pray that they will come to dig us out very soon.

But this also presented a small opportunity! Right in front of our gate, a car got stuck in the mud. We were able to help a young man, his wife, and daughter get to safety, and even personally drove them to their house (before we were completely blocked in). Turns out, we had just left tracts at their house just last month! Hopefully they will visit our church now! In difficulties, God often opens up opportunity.

That’s basically it for this month! We feel well recovered, we got projects done, but now we are bunkered down until this weather passes. Please pray for our members. Many have been in the hospital recently and need prayers. There are nasty flus passing around as well. Pray for safety, health, and for our church to continue to grow.

Thank you and God bless you!