Since the Storm
The Clean-Up
It has been a long road for Bible Baptist Church. Though it has been 10 months since the disaster swept across the gulf coast and we are well on our way into another hurricane season, we are only about half-way done. The clean-up has been long and hard, and many of our members are not even back on the island yet. While the island has now pulled itself back to a somewhat more managable face just in time for what is quickly becoming our largest tourist season yet, the island's residents are nowhere near the end of the rebuild. The economic strain the rest of the nation is facing is hitting hard on locals and business owners as they deal with a rising cost of living, inflation, and the added costs and inconveniences of construction on their recently destroyed homes.
However, there is light at the end of the tunnel! Normal is a fluid concept here, but with the help of friends and family that BBC is constantly receiving, we have grown stronger and closer. The work is far from over, but we know and understand that God is in control and more than supplies the needs of those who rely on Him. So, while ten months later we are still under construction in parts of the building, missing furniture and carpet in other parts, and not quite up to our full speed in community involvement and ministry, we will remember our old friend Job:
He said,
"Naked I came from my mother's womb,
And naked I shall return there
The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away.
Blessed be the name of the LORD."
--Job 1:21