Friday Foto Friends-The Calm Before the Storm

Psalm 46

  God is our refuge and strength,

A very present help in trouble.

2 

Therefore we will not fear,

Even though the earth be removed,

And though the mountains be carried 

into the midst of the sea;

3 

Though its waters roar and be troubled,

Though the mountains shake with its swelling. Selah

4 

Beauty Berries

There is a river whose streams shall make glad 

the city of God,

The holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High.

5 

God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved;

God shall help her, just at the break of dawn.

6 

The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved;

He uttered His voice, the earth melted.

7 

(This birdbath was a gift from our neighbor just this week. I can see it from my bedroom window and the sunporch. Very peaceful and calming.)

The Lord of hosts is with us;

The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah

8 

Come, behold the works of the Lord,

Who has made desolations in the earth.

9 

He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;

He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two;

He burns the chariot in the fire.

10 

Be still, and know that I am God;

I will be exalted among the nations,

I will be exalted in the earth!

11 

The Lord of hosts is with us;

The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah

New King James Version (NKJV)

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.

I could stop right there and not say another word...This is my "calm before the storm".  As I am sure you all are aware, right now the State of Florida is preparing for a very huge Category 5 Hurricane Irma to descend upon our land in a couple of days.  People are evacuating the state as quickly as possible...which isn't very quick if you look at the highways headed north out of Florida.  We are thankful that we live in a more inland and north central location not prone to flooding, so we are not in the mandatory evacuation zone.  However, we do live in the middle of a national forest, and there are many trees that most likely will create chaos with our  power lines and possible damage to property, roofs, etc.  So that is our main concern...the loss of electricity could last for many days and even weeks in this area.  And since most people in this area also get their water from a well, without power there is no water! Therefore we have been preparing as best we can.  My pictures today will reflect some of the calm before the storm as well as our preparations:

 Our home before the storm. Praying it will still look like this after the storm.

 My oil lamps are trimmed and filled with oil...and we have many candles ready for us as well as flashlights and batteries.

 We splurged and bought a Coleman camp stove so I can boil water, make coffee and tea!! (and cook meals!)

 The red buckets are for the bathrooms...to pour water into toilets for flushing. The water for this will come from rain water.  The charcoal is for cooking if needed. (If we run out of other fuel).

 We have bottled water for drinking, plus I have been filling our own tap water into bottles and freezing, as well as making lots of ice and storing it in the freezer.

And the biggest surprise and miracle "gift" was the purchase of this generator.

After last year's brush with Hurricane Matthew (click HERE for THAT story) we learned what it was like to be without power for quite a few hours, and we said we would not do that again! But generators are expensive...and hard to find when there is a storm brewing. 

So last week when we first heard about the possibility of Hurricane Irma coming our way, we decided to start looking for a good deal on a generator.  We checked a couple of places, and didn't see anything we could afford.  But then someone told us about the new store "Ollies"... a discount bargain store...and we heard they might have generators.  Well, as we explored the store, there weren't any generators in plain view, but upon further exploration of a stack of boxes of something in the middle of the store, we discovered a box with a generator buried on the bottom of the stack.  So we called a clerk (Assistant Manager) over to ask about the price, and she examined the box and quoted us a price that seemed way too good to be true.  So we had her look at it again, and she reaffirmed that the price she had quoted us was the price.  Well...I won't tell you just how good the price was...but let me tell you it was so good that we said "We'll take it!"

As she arranged for someone to come help us get it into our vehicle, I went up to the front to pay for the generator.  When the check out clerk pulled up the sku number in the cash register, the price was considerably higher than what the we had been quoted. The Assistant Manager was called over and asked to double check the price. When she looked at what the price was in the computer, she realized she must have made a mistake somehow, but she said, "Well, I have quoted the customer this price, and we will let them have it at that price!" And she signed a note in the computer giving us the discount that she had given us!

Let me just say that it was miraculous. It was so miraculous, that I felt guilty accepting this "gift"...but we have prayed and asked the Lord to bless this woman for her kindness, and also prayed that she wouldn't suffer any reprisals from her supervisors...and we came home with this "gift" from the Lord  (and from Ollies).  

So now we are ready and waiting, and praying that even though we feel well prepared, we wouldn't be the least bit unhappy if Hurricane Irma decided to just go out to sea.  Right now the forecast is so bad for our state...and especially for those in the coastal regions...we really need a miracle.

I looked back over what happened last year with Hurricane Matthew...and what a miracle that was...and I can't help but believe that God is still in the miracle business today...

Won't you pray with me today?

Peace Be Still 

by the Gaithers.

I will be back after the storm.

Thank you for your prayers.

Now go on over the Breathing in Grace to see what others are sharing for Friday Foto Friends today.