Hurricane Ida

Help the people affected by hurricane Ida at this link.

You know, any help makes a bigger difference than you might expect. People are living under dangerous conditions like extreme heat and flooding. No food or water, mosquitoes proliferate, sewage in the flooded streets…

Not to mention alligators and venomous snakes swimming in close quarters with people who might never even see them coming.

This is a horrible situation.

If you can, please help. It doesn’t matter if you feel bad that you can’t do more. Any help is awesome and I promise you, it will make a difference.

As I write this, thunder approaches in the distance: Ida’s remnants. Twister watches are up. I have little to worry about, and compared to Gulf coast residents on Saturday, with a category 4 hurricane coming at them like some vicious predator, what I’ll see tonight is nothing.

My heart hurts for the people hit by Ida’s full force. The videos I have seen are quite frightening. I can’t imagine being in such a storm.

I know one thing. We are at our very best when others need help. Volunteers will travel long distances to help, to assist in handing out MREs, bottled water, help with temporary shelters, to donate money or blood. The every person becomes a magnificent hero but never seeks recognition or reimbursement. There is no better thing than putting love and compassion into helping another.

With more storms possible very soon, the need for help takes on an immediacy. We cannot know what’s next. We can only help with the current situation as best we can.

This way we have of pulling together after major disasters is not an American thing. It’s a human thing. We’ve always needed each other, no matter who we were, what we believed or what our station in life happened to be. We always will, too.

And as long as we continue to answer the call to serve our brothers and sisters across the world, there will be hope for us.

I’m not afraid to say, if you can’t help any other way, prayer works, and God hears the call of the suffering. In this world there is much suffering, but I know better than to blame my lord for that; I do believe in my heart that pleas for help are heard and often, miracles really do happen.

Thank you for being here. May God bless. It’s an honor to be a small part of your day.