May 1, Sunday--A day of worship and thanksgiving

It is Day #5 after the storm, but more importantly, it is the Lord’s Day and a day of worship and giving thanks. The bright, blue skies and sunshine of Friday and Saturday have turned into overcast skies with rain forecast for later today, tomorrow, and the next day. I am sure the people who are attempting to save what is left of their houses are rushing to get tarps on their roofs.

The news of this morning gave us notices of several changes. Still no power. We have lower water pressure due to the power system, and Limestone County residents have been asked to conserve water. The good signs are that some telephone land lines are working, if you happen to have one of the old-style telephones that doesn‘t require electricity. FEMA representatives are now in our area making assessments. We have been told that there are 4,000 workers concentrating on restoring power to parts of north Alabama. We understand that the dusk-to-dawn curfew has been changed to 9 PM to 5 AM, giving us a little longer time to get home from a hot shower or a hot meal.

The National Guard is no longer supervising our roads, so we can get in and out of our area without showing proof of residency. This may be because we have had two good-weather days for the residents to comb through the debris and move out whatever items are salvageable, so there is nothing of any value left for the National Guard to protect.

The National Weather Service is studying the storms and currently their thinking is that there were seven major tornadoes in Alabama. The one that went through our area has been categorized as an EF4; the one in Hackelburg was EF5. This could change as they study the storm paths further.

Someone picked up Mom and Pap and took them to worship at Hays Mill this morning. They have power at their church building. Our worship service was scheduled for 9:00, with an abbreviated service. However, we had a large crowd, and met in the dark with the doors open to the outside. Apparently it is possible to have a worship service with no lights, no air conditioning, no public address system, and no powerpoint! We sang “Count Your Blessings”, observed the Lord’s Supper, and heard a brief, appropriate, and inspiring lesson from Greg. .

It was good to see the students, especially the ones from Tuscaloosa. Nearly everyone in the congregation has had damage to their property, or at least trees down. Only one or two families have any power at their house, so we can’t be much help to each other. Individual Christians from Tennessee brought supplies to share with those affected by the tornadoes, and we were encouraged to take home supplies with us when we left the building.

Our young people were extremely upset over the loss of Marcus Smith. Marcus was a Christian, and a student at the University of Alabama. He has been missing and assumed dead since he has not been heard of since the tornadoes hit Tuscaloosa on Wednesday. There has been some confusion as to whether his body has been found or not. It has been reported that there were four students at the university with that name, and two of the four have been missing since the storms hit. Marcus’ girlfriend, Katie, grew up with our young people who attend worship services with us.

But, there is always a little good news. This morning Susan (who is currently on tour in Israel), asked Steve (who is also on that tour) to call our son-in-law, Norm, to tell him to get a message to Olen to tell Shirley that a replacement vehicle is currently being driven to Limestone County from Tennessee for Shirley! That message came halfway around the world and through several hands, but was joyous news to Shirley.

After the worship service we treated ourselves to a meal at the Sweet Pepper’s Deli, which had power. After lunch we decided to go to a fiftieth anniversary reception that was scheduled for this afternoon. We figured not too many people would be able to make it, and wanted to make sure we were there to mark the occasion. We were pleased with the turnout. As we left the reception, we drove past Athens State University where the flags were at half-staff in honor of those in the state who have perished in the tornadoes.

Our dinner plan is to again go to Barbara Jo and Norm’s house, since they are the only ones in the family with power. Daryl is preparing some of his famous “Smokin’Chief” brisket for our sandwiches. I was assigned to get the buns and cheese. This required a stop at Publix on the way home from the reception. Unfortunately, as you can see, the bread aisle was nearly bare, with no buns at all. (Everyone must be grilling the meat they have that is thawing!) However, kudos to Publix! They had set up a charging station right as you enter the store where people could go and charge their cell phones for free. They had completely rearranged the store so the charcoal, paper plates, potato chips, paper towels, cans of tuna, and other basic supplies were on the end caps of the aisles and easy to locate.

Bonny went to Wal-Mart to try to locate buns. There was no air conditioning, and there were no frozen foods or chilled items at all. An employee told her that the store was operating on a generator, and they were conserving power by turning off the air conditioning and storage cases in the cold areas to conserve power so they could stay open.

We plan to eat dinner at Barbara Jo and Norm’s house and watch “The Amazing Race” before calling it a day. While I am there, I will use some of their power to make this post. It is warm today, so we will be sleeping with the windows open again. Pray for those who are suffering and grieving.

Tomorrow is another day.