Friday's Faith Reminder 10-21-16

Copyright 2016 AJ Horton

Hello and happy Friday.  As many of you know, a couple of weeks ago Hurricane Matthew came through our area, then went up to Lumberton, NC, blasted them with about 17 inches of rain, damaged the Lumber River's levies or dams and all that water flooded Lumberton and headed south, joined the Little Pee Dee River and caused our flooding.  The Little Pee Dee River crested on the 12th or 13th of October at over 17 feet which is more than 8 feet above flood stage.  This kind of flooding hasn't happened since 1928 when the Little Pee River crested at 16 feet.  I guess we made history.  

Today was the first time we were able to get back to our house to see the destruction caused by Matthew.  My house is about 4 feet off the ground, a good 50-75 feet from the shallow canal that is indirectly fed from the Little Pee Dee River.  We were evacuated by boat the week before last (October 10th) when the water reached our doorway.  At that time the Little Pee Dee River was as 14.5 feet and were previously told that was as high as the water would get.  But things changed and we took what little possessions we had to have and the dog and cat (I would not leave without them).  

I really can't explain what it felt like to go inside and see my brand new, glossy bamboo floors dulled, buckled, and molded; walking on them, sometimes tripping over the buckling; hearing the carpet in the bedrooms squish as I walked in and the bumps left by the swelling of the sub floor; the smell of mold and mildew and food from the refrigerator and freezer that had been closed and without power for two weeks.  Yes, we opened the windows and doors and wore knee high boots and gloves.  Tomorrow we will go back and also add masks to our attire.

As badly as it smelled inside, the stench outside was just as bad and, at times, worse.  We know that our neighbors lost their goats in the flood and many others lost pets and other livestock they were unable to save.  I grieve also for their loss.

We have a pond in our yard and we feed the fish.  With the flood we are sure the fish went on to a bigger world, but we tried to safe the food in a tightly closed metal container.  It didn't work.  I guess the water was standing in the room a little too long and it seeped into the container ruining the food; so we opened the container, took it out to the pond and poured it in. 

Now I'm getting to where today's photo came from.  As I was returning to the house from the pond I went through an area still slightly under water.  It was there that I noticed this page through the water.  It looked like music so I looked closer.  Now, it looked like a page out of a hymnal.  I looked around and there were no other pages, no book cover, just this one page.  I carefully plucked it from the water, and sure enough, it was a page from a hymnal.  As you can see, the first song is "Now Every Morning is the Love", and the second song is, "Lord in the Morning Thou Shalt Hear".   Now, I am not a very religious person - I think I may be a bit more spiritual, so I am going to take this as a sign that I should continue to have faith that everything will be alright; that everything will work out.  It's not going to be easy, but that's the way it goes sometimes.  You just have to keep on keeping on; keep working; keep smiling; keep singing!  Karaoke anyone?

I hope you had something to sing about today.  Thanks for looking.  See you tomorrow.