Latest / Witness the Wonder Christian Podcast: Supernatural Christian Testimonies, Miracles, and God Stories / When Life Falls Apart: How to Find God, Hope and Healing in Your Storm with Jenilee Samuel and Christina Smith on Witness the Wonder

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When Life Falls Apart: How to Find God, Hope and Healing in Your Storm with Jenilee Samuel and Christina Smith on Witness the Wonder · Witness the Wonder Christian Podcast: Supernatural Christian Testimonies, Miracles, and God Stories

• 0:00
  At the end of the year, we're reflecting on the year, and I
• 0:02
  asked the boys. I said, what's been your
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  favorite part of this year? All of the boys in unison
• 0:07
  cheered. And they said Hurricane Harvey.
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  I was like, wait, what? Hurricane Harvey?
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  You guys lost everything. And they go, yeah, but God did
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  so much for us. Welcome to Witness the Wonder.
• 0:31
  I'm your host, Christina Smith. Today I'm joined by my friend
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  Jenna Lee Samuels. Jenna Lee walked through
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  something that most of us hope we never have to go through, a
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  flood. Welcome, Jen.
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  Can you share a little about your life?
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  Yes, hi, good to be here. Thanks for having me.
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  We are near pastors. I've got four boys, they're all
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  teenagers now. They were all in elementary
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  school when we walked through this.
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  I have Java with Jen podcast and I coach podcasters and run a
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  podcast in network as well. Thank you so much for being
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  here. Why don't you take us back to
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  that day? Absolutely.
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  It's back in 2017, and we live on the coast in Texas near
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  Houston. And Hurricane Harvey.
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  It was a historical flood, historical hurricane.
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  My husband had actually just gotten back in the country from
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  a missions trip on the Thursday of that week, and it was Friday
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  morning. We kind of felt like we could
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  breathe. My husband is back in town.
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  He was catching up on missed things.
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  I'm on the floor folding laundry of all my kids.
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  We had just gotten them to school and I'm doing laundry and
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  I'm watching the news. And a dear friend of mine, we
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  always message each other when a hurricane is is on the horizon
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  and they're talking about Hurricane Harvey.
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  And you know, whenever you see these newscasters, you know,
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  sometimes they use inflated language.
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  So you never know how seriously to take them as I was kind of
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  watching the news and, and they were very concerned about the
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  flooding and then the after flooding.
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  And so I just remember consulting with the Holy Spirit
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  and I said, Lord, do we need to leave for this one?
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  And the Holy Spirit said to me, he said, well, you can hunker
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  down if you want to. And I was like, does not sound
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  awesome. So as we continue to listen, the
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  concerns of the storm grew and grew and grew.
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  And granted, it was only a tropical storm when it hit us,
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  but it was such, it was such a slow moving storm.
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  And it went out to the Gulf and came back three times and it
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  dumped historical amounts of water on our on our area.
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  And so just in our church alone, we had 40 homes that fully
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  flooded and lost everything and had start over.
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  So it was a historical major time of loss.
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  That Friday morning when I was folding their laundry and I
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  decided to pack their belongings, I didn't know that
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  would be the last weekend we'd ever see our home in the shape
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  that it was. It was a brand new house.
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  We had just finished building it.
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  Oh that's so sad, you were packing your boys clothes so did
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  you go get the boys from school? Yeah.
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  So having living in kind of Hurricane Central, I have kind
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  of these these markers that determine if I'm going to
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  evacuate, if it looks like we're going to lose power.
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  And if it looks like we're going to lose water, I don't stick
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  around because with four boys, I've got to be able to feed them
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  and I've got to be able to go to the bathroom and shower.
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  And so I decided that was Friday.
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  So as I was folding laundry, I just started stacking it in
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  piles to pack. And I went ahead and decided we
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  were going to pack. So I started getting everything
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  together while they were at school.
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  When I picked them up from school, I just decided we were
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  going to go. So I booked a hotel in Tyler
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  which is about 3 hours N my husband.
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  Being a on a pastoral staff I knew it was just going to be me
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  and the kids leaving. I evacuated with a couple of of
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  close friends who also had young children.
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  We just kind of hunkered down in Tyler.
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  It looked like the storm was going to pass but it was on
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  Monday that it really started to hit and it was.
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  It was like a nightmare that you just didn't wake up from.
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  Did your husband get involved with the rescue efforts?
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  Absolutely. So when her, when the hurricane
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  hit, I just remember it moved very slow.
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  Like it just, you know, kind of hovered over our area and I
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  think we had like 4, 48 inches of water dropped in 24 hours.
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  That's 4 feet of water and that's enough to flood anybody.
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  Our neighborhood, they actually, there's a canal that runs behind
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  us and the city had released the levee that keeps the water under
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  control. So actually the homes in our
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  whole area flooded both from the storm and from the city
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  releasing the levee. So we ended up with about 10
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  feet of water in our house within just a few hours.
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  So my husband had stayed back with my oldest son.
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  They put sticks out in the front yard with like, like marker
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  lines so they could tell how quickly the water was climbing.
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  Once he saw that it was climbing significantly and he was like,
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  I'm not going to get out of our neighborhood if I don't leave
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  now. It was like the middle of the
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  night. They were picking up furniture
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  around the house and trying to get it up off the ground, not
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  realizing that was going to be a useful supper.
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  So he talked to my son, who's like 9 years old.
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  Go pack your things. So my son was thinking, oh, I'll
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  be back tomorrow. So I'll just put clothes on and
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  pack my Kindle. I'll be good.
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  Well, he didn't realize he was going to lose all of his
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  belongings, so they went to the church.
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  It was one to two weeks before we ever put foot on our property
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  again because there was about 11 or 12 feet of water in our
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  neighborhood. It was kind of traumatizing
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  being on Facebook and news is covering it and, and on
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  Facebook, people are posting all of these pleas for help.
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  We're stuck on our roof and the water's rising quickly.
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  Just seeing people's pleas for survival on in line and being
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  stuck in Tyler unable to help. It was the IT was the churches
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  and them good old Texan boys that went to the rescue.
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  The Waco Navy and the Cajun Navy that got there before any
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  government or rescue teams. So it was just people pulling up
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  their bootstraps and saving their neighbors.
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  That's how people survived the flooding.
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  My oldest son, my husband has sent him with my my
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  sister-in-law to Louisiana. I'm up in Tyler, TX and my
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  oldest son is out of reach with my sister.
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  I'm like, bring me my kid. You'd go to bed and think that
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  when you woke up, the sun would be shining and it would all be
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  over. It just wouldn't stop because it
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  was such a long, slow storm. So my husband is bouncing from
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  place to place trying to find somewhere to sleep, doing rescue
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  missions and literally pulling people off their roofs and and
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  hoping they make it into the boat.
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  My son is in Louisiana and my sister-in-law finally got him to
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  me in Tyler. I just remember when he got out
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  of the car, he was wearing rain boots.
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  He was in his little clothes. He had not packed any anything
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  but his Kindle and he had no clue what was going on.
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  I knew what was going on. And I see him get out of the car
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  and I said, OK, baby, where's your things?
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  And he goes, this is my stuff. And and I had to literally hold
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  back tears because in that moment, I realized this kid
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  doesn't know he has nothing. Like he has nothing except for
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  the rain boots on his feet and the clothes that don't match and
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  this stranger's underwear that he borrowed when he stayed in
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  Louisiana. And so I kept myself composed
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  because I didn't want him to panic, you know, and I said,
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  buddy, that's OK, we'll go to Walmart.
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  We'll just get you some outfits because you didn't realize we
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  might be gone for a little while.
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  So we got him some clothes. But in all the midst of this, we
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  still didn't know the condition of our home.
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  And I kept asking my husband, does anyone have a drone that
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  you they can send over our neighborhood?
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  So finally, it was probably almost a week before we were
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  able to even know the condition of our home.
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  I was at the hotel on my computer.
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  I had music playing and it was it was Jen Johnson and it was a
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  song. It's going to be OK.
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  And I just remember it was playing in the background and my
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  husband sent me a link and he said, hey, go to this Facebook
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  post. They posted our neighborhood.
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  And so I go to the post and in this post you see boats floating
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  through our neighborhood hollering for survivors at
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  rooftop level in case people are trapped in their attics.
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  And in the background is this song.
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  It's going to be OK. And I was like, the Lord is so
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  kind even in that moment. He was like, it's going to be
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  OK, I've got you. Sorry.
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  I'm like, there's it can be tears randomly, But a couple
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  days before I saw that video, I had had a dream.
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  My husband and I had been on the phone.
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  He was telling me about the rescue missions.
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  We were wondering about the severity of our home, realizing
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  we had just emptied our savings building the house.
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  We'd only lived in it for six months.
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  He had not gotten flood insurance because we were in a
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  no flood zone. And I had a dream the night
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  before. I dreamt that I walked in the
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  front door of my house and I saw water lines up the walls to
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  about halfway up the so above the fireplace, maybe a couple of
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  feet up, about 7 1/2 to 8 feet. In the dream, the walls were
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  white. And I had so much peace.
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  And that was it. I just saw the water lines.
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  And in my heart, I knew we lost everything downstairs, but it's
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  going to be OK. And so I shared that dream with
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  my husband. I said, babe, I had this dream.
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  And I feel like the Lord's saying it's going to be all
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  right. I think we lost everything, but
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  we're going to be OK. And so the irony of the fact
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  that that's the song that was playing when I watched that a
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  video from the Waco Navy. And then I have a video where
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  when my husband was going through the house for the first
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  time, pan, the camera pans very quickly in the living room and
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  you can see water lines up to halfway up where my TV was just
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  like it was in my dream. That was that's how we found out
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  the condition of the home. But even in those moments, I was
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  already seeing the fingerprints of God just loving on us and
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  walking with us in our journey. So beautiful.
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  You know, that's what I love about God is He's done that with
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  me many, many times. He will prepare us for those
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  moments that are going to be hardest in our life.
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  It sounds like He did that with you as well through the dream.
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  I love that He was easing you into the understanding that this
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  was going to be bad, but He was going to be right there with
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  you. So true.
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  So true. A lot of people, they wrestle
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  with God in situations like this.
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  You know, why is this happening or God, where are you in the
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  midst of it? Did you ever struggle in any way
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  in that in that sense? Honestly, there have been other
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  hard situations in my life where I have wrestled with that, but
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  in this situation, I didn't and I the only thing I can attribute
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  it to is just a supernatural grace that God gave me because I
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  think my husband needed my strength and my readiness
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  because he was boots on the ground seeing everything first
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  hand. He was not just witnessing our
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  loss, he was witnessing the loss of all the families in our
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  church, 40 families that lost everything, you know, And so as
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  a pastor, he felt the weight of their loss plus the weight of
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  our loss. And, and of course, after the
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  after the storm passed, the next thing that you do is begin to
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  rebuild. And that can be an overwhelming
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  process for people. I will say the nation showed up
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  at our doorstep. The Amish people, the Mennonites
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  moved in literally for two to three years following.
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  They just quietly heads down rebuilt homes.
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  For years after this, they rebuilt our home.
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  The church just showed up. The church poured out money,
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  resources. Before you knew it, the gym at
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  our church became a huge warehouse and a housing ground
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  for volunteers. There was a moment where my
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  husband, because he was working with so many volunteers, there
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  was a gentleman who had come in town from Nashville.
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  His name was J Hall, and he owns a furniture store that
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  celebrities shop at, like, wonderful Furniture.
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  He's talking to my husband. I guess he has family in the
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  area, so he was prepared to help take care of his family.
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  As he's talking to Steven, he goes, hey, by the way, how's
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  your house? Steven was like, well, we lost
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  everything. Our whole bottom floor is
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  destroyed. And so Jay looks at him and he
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  says, Steven, when this is all said and done, you let me know
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  when I'm going to furnish your entire house for free.
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  It was so overwhelming, but I think it's exactly what Steven
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  needed in that moment to feel like God's got us.
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  You know, God gave me a dream. He gave Steven a promise of
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  furniture. Sure enough, nine months late,
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  Jay called us and he put me on FaceTime for like 2 hours.
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  We walked around his warehouse and I picked furniture from
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  Nashville on FaceTime and we're still using that furniture
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  today. And so that was just a beautiful
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  moment where the Lord just showed up.
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  He showed up in so many ways that I couldn't get to in a
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  place where I felt abandoned by him because it was his
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  tenderness and his attentiveness.
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  We were called by the school the boys went to and they said, hey,
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  someone paid off the boys tuition and their lunches for
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  the rest of the year, so you don't have to worry about that.
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  And there were so many things that just came to us that we
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  were kind of overwhelmed by the goodness of the Lord.
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  But the way that I was able to hold that perspective was I had
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  asked the Lord early on when I knew the condition of our home,
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  but our boys did not. And they're young.
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  I realized this is a life trauma.
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  This is something that people oftentimes may only walk through
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  once, if they walk through it at all, you know.
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  So when I knew that the boys were going to be watching us to
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  see how to respond to this, I asked the Lord.
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  I said, God, how do I guard their hearts from the trauma of
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  this? I felt the weight that I could
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  make it worse or I could make it better.
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  And as a parent, that's my responsibility.
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  Every time I prayed that I would hear Bill Johnson's voice in my
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  head where he said I stay encouraged by looking for what
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  God is doing. So I just took that as the
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  counsel of the Lord and I said, OK, then we're going to keep our
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  eyes ready to see what you're doing in our story.
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  And that became the foundation that we moved forward with.
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  And I'm telling you every day we saw miracles.
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  Every day tuition, bikes were bought for us.
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  You know, beds were bought for us, a house that we were able to
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  stay in. We didn't have to pay rent and
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  the owners paid our utilities and water, so we didn't have to
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  worry about it. The Mennonites rebuilding our
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  home. Like there were so many moments
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  that the Lord just showed up. I really believe it's because we
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  kept a lens of looking for what he was doing so we could
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  celebrate his goodness. I'm sure there's some people
• 14:07
  that are listening right now who are like, well, that wasn't
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  really God, that was just the kindness of people.
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  What would you say to them? I would say, you're right, it
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  was people, but there's actually a passage, and I wish I had it
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  memorized, but there's a passage that I have found in the
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  Scripture where it says that when people are essentially
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  generous with their resources and they share and give that, it
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  automatically causes us to say, look what God has done.
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  There's an immediate connection between us serving people and it
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  glory horrifying God. God works through people.
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  There's a reason why sometimes you feel moved to give to
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  someone and you didn't feel moved to give to the other
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  person you encountered. You know, when we were in Tyler,
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  still evacuated, we had been playing in the pool 8 hours a
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  day because I didn't want to spend money.
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  You know, I was like, I need to entertain these kids, but I
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  can't spend money right now. We just lost everything.
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  Finally, one night I said, boys, let's go out to dinner in a
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  movie. Let's just go have a nice night
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  and just go enjoy ourselves. So we did that and then
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  afterwards there was ATJ Maxx right there, Burlington.
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  So we decide to go to Burlington.
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  As we're walking in, of course 4 boys, they are like little
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  monkeys. They want everything they see.
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  I said OK boys, just keep in mind as we go in, they go, we
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  know, we know, don't ask for anything.
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  Kind of broke my heart a little bit.
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  And so I said well yeah, just because we don't know how things
• 15:27
  are at home, we just want to be good stewards.
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  And so they're like OK, so we go in there and of course they find
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  stuff they want. So my oldest son brings this
• 15:35
  really nice leather jacket to me.
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  It was only $25. And he goes, mom, look at this.
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  And he puts it on. And I was like, oh buddy, that
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  looks so sharp on you. He goes, can I get it?
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  I know, I know we're not supposed to ask for stuff, but
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  can I, can I get it? Maybe.
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  And I was like, give me a second.
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  Let me just let me just ask the Lord.
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  I said, Lord, I just want to do what's wise.
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  And the Lord spoke to me and he said, you take care of my babies
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  and I will take care of you. And I said, OK.
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  And so I went back to the boys and I said, OK, boys, guess
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  what? This is what the Lord spoke to
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  me. He said I'm going to take care
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  of you and he's going to take care of us.
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  And so I said all y'all pick out a toy and pick up maybe a piece
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  of clothing that you like. And.
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  And they were like, yeah, they're all excited, you know?
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  And I get in the car and before I leave the parking lot, I get 2
• 16:21
  notifications on PayPal that a man that a babysat for growing
• 16:26
  up sent $1000 and my mom sent $500.
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  I had $1500 in my account before I even left the parking lot.
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  I told you how the Lord taught us to keep our eyes looking for
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  what God was doing. Well, later in the process,
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  we're, we're moved into a rent house and I'm, I'm reconciling
• 16:44
  everything I need to buy to rebuild.
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  I, I was starting to get kind of overwhelmed.
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  My prayers were more of complaint and overwhelmed stress
• 16:52
  prayers. I was running errands and I was,
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  I was gripe praying and then I stopped to myself and I said,
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  hold on. I haven't seen any miracles for
• 17:01
  like a week. It's been really quiet and I
• 17:04
  said, but I also haven't taken time to thank the Lord for what
• 17:07
  he's done. He's done so much already.
• 17:08
  And I was like, Lord, I'm so sorry.
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  You have been so amazing and I haven't, I haven't given you
• 17:14
  credit for that in a while. And so I just started thanking
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  him for everything he had done to that point.
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  Took like 2 minutes, 3 minutes. Of course, I have all this hope
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  and confidence in my spirit now because I just built myself up
• 17:24
  remembering what the Lord has done at the Lord.
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  If I can ask you for one thing, here's what I would ask.
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  I said we had so many families flood asking you to release
• 17:35
  money to every single family. Every family lost everything.
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  And I said, Lord, and I don't mean little money, I mean big
• 17:41
  money that can buy appliances. I want big money for all these
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  families. And I said that's what I would
• 17:47
  ask. And Christina, I'm not joking
• 17:50
  when I tell you the next morning our church got a call from Good
• 17:54
  Morning America and they said, hey, we heard that you guys have
• 17:58
  had a lot of families suffer losses, but that you've been
• 18:01
  serving your community and we want to bless every family in
• 18:05
  your church with $3000 gift carts.
• 18:08
  And then we're partnered with Home Depot and they're doing a
• 18:11
  pop up and they want to bless every family that can come out.
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  Anything that can sit in their car they can take for free.
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  I'm telling you, Christina, people can say what they want to
• 18:20
  say, but we see God answer prayers like that.
• 18:23
  There ain't no way that's just people.
• 18:25
  God uses people, He works through people.
• 18:28
  He loves that partnership. But man, God was a miracle
• 18:31
  working God in our. Story Yes, he was those
• 18:33
  Christians. We are God's hands and feet.
• 18:36
  He often uses people to do his greatest works.
• 18:39
  Those miracles are amazing. When you did finally get to go
• 18:43
  back and see your home, your home for the first time, what
• 18:47
  was that like for you and and how did you prepare the boys for
• 18:50
  that? My goodness, that was rough.
• 18:52
  We pulled up to the house and I remember praying that the Lord
• 18:55
  would just be with their hearts because I didn't know how they
• 18:58
  would respond. I didn't even know if it was the
• 19:00
  right move to take them to the house.
• 19:02
  I knew they'd have to go back eventually.
• 19:03
  People had been so kind. They had gutted our home so that
• 19:07
  we didn't have to see all our belongings destroyed in the
• 19:10
  house. At least they were piled in the
• 19:11
  front yard. And so that was its own stunning
• 19:14
  vision, just seeing all of our belongings flooded and mucked up
• 19:18
  and piled up in the yard. So we pull into the driveway and
• 19:21
  Shiloh, my youngest, was like 5 years old, and he had had this
• 19:24
  toy. It was like a farmhouse toy.
• 19:26
  It was really big and had all these bells and whistles.
• 19:29
  And he loved that sucker. I almost brought it with us when
• 19:31
  we evacuated, but I didn't have room in the car.
• 19:33
  And we get out of the car and he sees that piled in the front
• 19:37
  yard and he goes running and he goes my farm and he runs to it.
• 19:42
  And we had to yell for him to stop because everything that's
• 19:45
  out there is disgusting in like this nasty sewage, horrible
• 19:50
  infested waters. So he just stood there and he
• 19:54
  looked at his toys in the front yard and he realized he couldn't
• 19:57
  do anything about it. He turned around, he buried his
• 19:59
  face and my husband's legs and he just cried.
• 20:02
  It was the saddest little thing. And it was like we had to
• 20:05
  balance the holding space for. Their very real emotions and let
• 20:09
  them express their emotions and then gently remind them, hey,
• 20:14
  remember what God has done for us.
• 20:16
  Remember what God is doing. And so it's like this little
• 20:19
  dance of trying to be really sensitive to what their hearts
• 20:22
  needed because I didn't ever want them to feel like it wasn't
• 20:26
  spiritual for them to share their, their hurt feelings or
• 20:29
  their losses. You know, I just tried that.
• 20:31
  After we processed all those emotions, we would gently point
• 20:35
  their eyes back to how good God had been.
• 20:37
  So far and that he was going to keep taking care of us.
• 20:40
  And so as we walked through the house, I I was watching those
• 20:42
  clips before this and there was one clip where I'm filming
• 20:45
  Shiloh coming to me and the house is all gutted and he's
• 20:48
  walking up and you can see there had been tears on his face and
• 20:51
  he's, you know, little 5 year old sweetheart.
• 20:53
  And he walks up and he's kind of face plants into my legs and and
• 20:58
  just starts crying and I said are you OK buddy?
• 21:01
  And he goes no. And I said how are you feeling?
• 21:04
  And he goes, yeah, then he's wiping tears.
• 21:07
  And then and then the other part of the room, you see my other
• 21:10
  son hugging my husband and doing the same thing.
• 21:13
  And so they definitely, they definitely had that sense of
• 21:17
  grief and loss. But as they walked through that,
• 21:20
  we just kept reminding them of how good God was and that it was
• 21:24
  OK to feel that loss. And God understands, but he's,
• 21:27
  that's not the end of our story. You know, it was a delicate
• 21:30
  balance walking with them through that.
• 21:33
  How long did it take from the time the flood happened to the
• 21:37
  time that everything was restored?
• 21:39
  Nine months. So the irony is we built our
• 21:42
  home in 3 1/2 months the first time, but when we were
• 21:46
  rebuilding, it took nine months because of the fact that
• 21:50
  everybody was rebuilding. I will say, whenever we got back
• 21:53
  into our house, I remember telling the Lord, you were so
• 21:56
  kind to us, but I really never want to have to go through that
• 21:59
  again. I said, Lord, can you just give
• 22:01
  me some kind of sign that you're, they're just going to
• 22:04
  protect us and that we won't go through that again because
• 22:06
  hurricane season comes every year, you know, And I was like,
• 22:09
  I need to not deal with anxiety. The day after we had moved into
• 22:13
  our house, we were outside playing basketball and I turned
• 22:16
  around and I looked at the house.
• 22:17
  The sun was setting and there was a double rainbow over our
• 22:21
  home. I just was like, God, you're so
• 22:23
  kind. And when that hurricane came,
• 22:25
  the Imelda that so many people flooded, we were unsure.
• 22:28
  I mean, like, the water got really high in the canal and
• 22:31
  started coming down into the cul-de-sac.
• 22:33
  And so we're like, oh, God, what is this going to be again?
• 22:36
  And one of my son's reminded me. He goes, mom, we're not going to
• 22:39
  flood. God gave us that double rainbow.
• 22:40
  We're going to be OK. And I was like, I love you.
• 22:43
  My goodness, that's so good. That's so good.
• 22:46
  Was there a scripture that you held on to?
• 22:49
  I think that that phrase from Bill Johnson was the closest of
• 22:53
  not, not that there weren't scriptures that ministered to me
• 22:56
  during the time because there was many when we had built the
• 22:58
  home, we had written scriptures all over the the studs and the
• 23:02
  floors and and it it became this beautiful situation where our
• 23:06
  house was preaching back to us the goodness of God after it was
• 23:09
  gutted. One particular passage where it
• 23:12
  says the prayer of this house will always be before the Lord
• 23:15
  and that he would always attend to the needs of this home and it
• 23:18
  just, it built my spirit so, so much.
• 23:20
  Every time I would, I would get nervous, I would be reminded of
• 23:23
  that scripture. I took a picture of that one and
• 23:26
  I keep that in my camera roll as well.
• 23:28
  It was a mental discipline to remind ourselves to recall the
• 23:31
  works of the Lord and stay encouraged by looking for His
• 23:35
  handprints all the time. It sounds more like a prophecy
• 23:37
  that you wrote on those two by fours, because that's exactly
• 23:41
  what he did through that process.
• 23:42
  If someone's listening right now, and maybe they feel like
• 23:46
  their life is being flooded, not necessarily by actual flood
• 23:49
  water, but just by their being hit by one thing after another,
• 23:54
  what would you say to them? You know how like a prophetic
• 23:57
  word kind of unfolds continually in your revelation?
• 24:02
  I feel like that concept of looking for what God is doing to
• 24:06
  stay encouraged. You see that in the Israelites
• 24:08
  journey in the to the promised land because they didn't keep
• 24:12
  the goodness of God before them. They wandered for 40 years, but
• 24:16
  Joshua and Caleb, because they remembered the works of the Lord
• 24:19
  and they recounted the goodness of God, they will inherit the
• 24:22
  promised land. And so I feel like that
• 24:25
  experience was like a living parable for us because we kept
• 24:28
  our eyes fixed on what God was doing.
• 24:31
  I remember my older son correcting the other boys when
• 24:34
  they would start complaining too much, he would go, guys, stop
• 24:38
  it. You have to remember what God
• 24:40
  has done for us. Remember that's why we're
• 24:42
  getting so many miracles because mom keeps celebrating everything
• 24:45
  God is doing. So I knew they were getting that
• 24:47
  principle at the end of the year.
• 24:49
  And we you're reflecting on the year.
• 24:50
  I asked the boys. I said, what's been your
• 24:52
  favorite part of this year? You know, Hurricane Harvey was a
• 24:55
  good chunk of it, like August and September.
• 24:57
  And I was like, but there was more to our year.
• 24:59
  What was your favorite part? And all of the boys in unison
• 25:03
  cheered. And they said Hurricane Harvey.
• 25:07
  And I was like, wait, what? Hurricane Harvey was your
• 25:10
  favorite part of the year? You guys lost everything.
• 25:13
  And they go, yeah, but we got new beds.
• 25:16
  We got new toys. God did so much for us.
• 25:19
  Yes I was like praise God, He fulfilled on his promise.
• 25:23
  He protected my boys hearts that what was a trauma became the
• 25:27
  highlight of their year. And only God can do that.
• 25:30
  Only God can do that. Wow, yes, that is a beautiful
• 25:35
  ending to that story. What would you tell the person
• 25:38
  listening and they're feeling disappointed, maybe in
• 25:40
  themselves or God, because their story doesn't look like your
• 25:43
  story, you know, What would you say to them?
• 25:45
  You know, there's this simple principle that can bring healing
• 25:49
  to so many broken memories. Because I walked through stories
• 25:52
  where the miracles were not at hand like I wanted them to be,
• 25:56
  and the breakthroughs were not just right around the corner.
• 25:58
  And I wrestled through God, are you even good?
• 26:01
  One of the most healing things you can do, whether you're
• 26:04
  disappointed in yourself or disappointed in the Lord, is to
• 26:07
  just ask Jesus, Say Jesus, I need you to show me where were
• 26:11
  you in that part of my story? Because some of the most
• 26:15
  traumatizing moments of our lives, Jesus is there.
• 26:18
  He promises to never leave us or forsake us.
• 26:21
  So that means he was there. And I don't have an answer for
• 26:23
  why certain things happen. And I think there's a lot of
• 26:26
  things we'll understand when we get to heaven.
• 26:28
  But what I do know is God promises never to leave us or
• 26:31
  forsake us, and He is true to that promise.
• 26:34
  I know so many people who've gotten free from years of trauma
• 26:37
  simply by asking that question. Absolutely.
• 26:40
  Generally, this has been so good.
• 26:42
  Thank you so much for being here and for sharing your story with
• 26:46
  us. If our listeners want to follow
• 26:48
  your podcast, Java with Jen, or just connect with you, how can
• 26:51
  they do that? Pretty much you can Google me
• 26:53
  and find all the things I want to point your listeners to a
• 26:55
  resource that I have. A lot of what made our story so
• 26:58
  special was the fact that I knew how to hear God's voice.
• 27:01
  I have a five day e-mail that gives people very simple
• 27:06
  exercises to awaken their sensitivity to hearing him speak
• 27:11
  because if he is speaking and it's usually just about us
• 27:13
  learning to recognize, there's five days that you can just grab
• 27:16
  that e-mail sequence and the link is going to be in the show
• 27:20
  notes. Otherwise, if you'd like to hear
• 27:22
  my podcast, Java with Jen podcast Hearing God's Voice for
• 27:25
  Everyday Life, you can find that anywhere that you get your
• 27:28
  podcast as well. Absolutely.
• 27:30
  Thanks again generally for being here and for being willing to
• 27:33
  Share your story. Your story is such a great
• 27:35
  reminder that even when everything else feels unstable,
• 27:39
  God's never shaken by our circumstances and He's always
• 27:43
  working in ways that sometimes we can't always see initially.
• 27:48
  There's so many ways that God showed up in your story and the
• 27:50
  things that he did, the little miracles through people, and
• 27:54
  just in comforting your boy's hearts and allowing them to see
• 27:58
  him. Not the hurricane or the trauma
• 28:01
  through it all. If today's conversation
• 28:03
  encourages, would you take a moment to subscribe to our
• 28:06
  Witness the Wonder and leave a review and share this episode
• 28:09
  with a friend who might be walking through their own
• 28:12
  challenging season right now? I just want to say thank you for
• 28:15
  watching today. And always remember, God is
• 28:18
  always at work in your story.