Rain and Sunshine

We have had rain, humidity, sunshine, and flooding all in one week. The floods here in S Texas were terrible. The amount of rain we received (14 inches in some places) was so heavy and continuous that the water could not drain fast enough or had no where to go. We here at the park were not flooded – everything slopes down to the lake which is great, except that them manager just had the lake filled with water!! Luckily, the lake did not overflow, but it came pretty close. There were parks that were flooded – the streets were rivers and some even had 22 inches of water in the streets, flooding the halls. The folks with Texas rooms that were level with the ground were flooded – some friends had lawn ornaments that floated away which they had to retrieve. Streets and roads were impassible, closed off in many areas. What I cannot understand is the fact that many folks still drove into running water and stalled out their cars and even trucks. We were going to the store, but could not get out our front gate as the frontage road was totally flooded with stalled cars all over the place. We were able to go out the side gate and wiggle around on higher levels to be able to find store we could get to – by the time we bought a few groceries and retuned to the park, the water had receded and we could enter the front gate, although we had to wind around stalled out cars and vehicles trying to tow them out of the way.

the lake alost m

just one of the hundreds of cars stalled and submerged

The worst of the flooding occurred in the colnias where our folks there were in imminent danger. Not only was the whole area flooded, but the ground around the utility poles was so saturated that the poles began to lean. Because a lot of the electric hook ups were just jerry rigged, the danger was great. Luckily, everyone was evacuated and taken to the Boys and Girls Clubs on the area, but could not return home due to the high-water levels yet and the fact that the water was probably contaminated. The homes themselves were leaking and not very substantial. We could not get the needed produce on Friday, but did receive 100+ tortillas on Thursday. Ida notified everyone that she could and we made our way to her church on Friday with the tortillas, some feed the children packages, some of the pack a sack from our church in Arkansas (these packets have food items that are high in protein and nutrients) needed for a decent meal), and the beans, rice, and other commodities that we have stored at the church for emergency use. Luckily, we also had a few boxes of clothing in storage that were distributed as most of the folks that arrived at the church only had the clothes on their backs. As usual, God provided for all that came for help. Most of the water has receded now, but some areas are still flooded.

many areas still flooded after the rain

                                     if you look closely you can see a few of Ida's baby chicks

We were going somewhere (cannot remember where) when we met a house coming down the road towards us in our lane!! Construction was going on in the others lanes, so the vehicle had to use the two lanes on our side to move the house along Was a pretty scary sight at first.

We did manage to find a bit of down time on Saturday to attend a movie at Tinsel Town (the name of a movie theater near here). Some folks form Mission Bell Park wanted to see a movie and as we were going to visit the Maxons at that park we were invited to go along. The movie – Jurassic World. Strange movie for mature folks, but all in all it was not that bad. It was a nice time to relax after an exhausting week of bad weather. Even Melania trump’s visit here to the Valley to was overshadowed by the bad weather.

Pastor Robert finished the series on the 1st judge, Samuel. Do you know why you do what you do? Probably because your parents pushed you into achieving more than they did – they want you to be better off than thy were. Have you ever wondered what your legacy will be after you are gone? I have sometimes wondered what I would be remembered for in 50 or 100 years, if I am still being remembered? We all hope for a worthwhile legacy. In the story of David and goliath, how do we see Samuel reflected in David. Samuel’s faith is what is reflected in David. David’s faith let him overcome the Philistine giant, Goliath. We need to have this kind of faith to know that God will se us through our trials. The time to take action usually follows a time of prayer – we pray and then go forward with God’s help to solve our situation. If we don’t pray and then try to make our own decisions, it doesn’t always turn out well. Sometimes God’s decision doesn’t make a lot of sense to us. We are not always swayed by the wisdom of others but by God’s wisdom is always perfect, we need to have fortitude to keep going despite roadblocks – fortitude is the ability to keep going. What will your legacy be?? What are you leaving for others to remember you by??