While driving home from church on last Sunday, Ben and I experienced what the news is calling "Wind Storm 2008." Apparently, Ike's outer bands gained strength when it encountered a cold front and pounded Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio with 75 mph winds. In Louisville over 300,000 people lost power due to tremendous wind damage. We were without power for three days. Many people are still waiting as crews from Kentucky and other nearby states work to rebuild and restore the broken poles and lines.
Both my public school system and Southern Seminary canceled classes for the entire week, so Ben and I have been working ahead, reading, and rearranging furniture.
I have to take this opportunity to praise SBTS and thank God for them. The seminary went above and beyond to provide and care for those of us who live on campus. We were offered meals for three days and we were kept informed by text messages and people who went door to door to give us updates. The meals were a special blessing as many of us lost our weekly groceries when food went bad. This also provided us with an opportunity to sit in the dark and eat melting ice cream with people we did not know. That may not sound so good, but we have made new friends because of the experience. I am really proud to say that we are part of SBTS and I hope they know how much we appreciate the work done by professors, building and cafeteria staff, and the president and his family.
For Ben and I, this has brought back some unpleasant memories of life after Katrina. Fortunately, we have had mild weather to make our days bearable. With the exception of groceries and a week of class, we have lost very little. We continue to pray for the residents of Texas and Louisiana who are still struggling. We also remember the many in Kentucky and surrounding states who are without utilities and are dealing with home and auto damage from the storm.
Monday is Ben's birthday! We had some other seminary students and their spouses come over on Friday night. We all ate red velvet cake (Ben's favorite) and chips. Ben wants to thank everyone for his great gifts which include a new watch and gift card to Lifeway from Mama Brown, some much-desired CD's and student loan payments from his parents, and some gift cards for eating out from Jeff and Matt. I got him a new TV. We have been watching on a tiny little one for a long time. No longer. It took some saving, but Ben is now the proud parent of a 42 inch HD TV.
