An update from Jaynee~ Pictures and Video

Cleaning up at the church

Visiting the homes of our brothers and sisters in Christ
Walking in to check on and help those from our church
Daniel surveying the damage at the church

Flooded streets

The boys Sunday School roomUpstairs of the church

Some pictures from around town

Here Baby Samuel and I are visiting with some people near our church. The creek is running covering the road.

Samuel gathering his belongings from the church

A truck got swept away in the current trying to cross the creek

Part of our roof flew off the stroage room, hit our trailer and a piece of it stuck inside (see video at bottom of post)

The children's trampoline

One week ago yesterday, we stood all morning at our windows watching the most severe wind this town has ever known. How grateful we were for our solid cement house which kept us safe from the storm! How we prayed out loud together and continually in our hearts for our town especially for our dear brothers and sisters in Christ who do not have homes as solid as ours.
Praise the Lord! While there was much destruction all around, not one life was lost.
It is hard for me to believe that only a week has passed…it seems like so much longer.
I awoke Wednesday morning, September 1, at 2:30 am as Eliseo was fussing. After getting him back to sleep, I walked outside; a light, steady rain was falling and wondered how bad the storm would really be. I lay back down in bed but couldn’t sleep. An hour later, Daniel woke up and I followed him outside. The wind was picking up and he asked me to check the national hurricane center website to see how things were looking. The storm which had held steady at a category 4 was down to a 2 with winds at 115 mph. It looked like the eye of the storm was due to pass over about 11 am so we expected to see whatever wind and rain there would be soon.
Daniel couldn’t sleep either, so we sat in the living room together visiting and listening to the wind and rain. Daniel drove over to the church around 4 am to check on Uncle Samuel and Carlos (an 18 year old young man from one of our supporting churches who has come to help us also). They said they were fine so Daniel came back home and we just waited. About an hour or so later, the wind had really picked up. Daniel was really worried about the boys being at the church as the roof rattles in the wind of a normal storm, so he got dressed and headed out to get them.
While we felt much better having them under our roof, we would have never imagined the building suffering the damage that it did. We spent the morning at our windows watching…the posts of the fence where the children stood in front of just a couple of weeks ago for their school pictures snapped; my clothes line pole broke; the trampoline blew completely out of our yard and landed in a tangled mess next to a semi truck parked in a field; the large iron door on our back wall blew completely off; and while I was taking some video of the storm from my kitchen window, a piece of the roof of storage room flew off and struck our trailer. We watched roofs, power lines, trees, fences, garbage barrels all fall or fly down the street.
We thought through each of the people in our church one by one thinking if they had a safe place in their home. We knew some of them had planned on going to the home of their neighbors or other family members and we prayed that they had been able to get there safely.
After several hours, the wind subsided for a while only to blow again severely in the opposite direction. When it was all over, we walked outside to look around. People came out of their houses very thankful to be alive and surprised at the severity of the storm. We have always been told that the hurricanes bring lots of water (danger being flooding) to our town but we never get the wind. That day, we got the wind!
Daniel, Samuel and Carlos left to see the church. They took my camera and came back showing us photos of the damage.
The roof had completely blown off; everything in the upstairs was soaked or broken and covered with debris; everything in the main room was soaked, the boys Sunday school classroom had fallen to the ground; the roof that made shade around the building was gone, the side room was gone, the back room window had broken and part of the wall was falling apart.
They then left to check on the people from our church. Their streets were flooded and they had to hike in knee deep water and mud to get to their homes, but we were so thankful to know while several suffered damages to their houses, they were all safe.
Later that day, we all climbed in the van, crossed the normally dry but now flowing creek, and went to look around town. Everything was such a mess! When we turned around to go home, we found the creek had risen so much it was no longer crossable. A truck had already tried and been swept out in the current. Thankfully, those inside had been rescued. A tractor came to pull the truck out of the current and then he asked if we wanted him to pull us across. We were so grateful to be able to make it back home!
There was no power, phone, or even running water. The next few days were spent cleaning up as best we could and covering the basics…keeping everyone as clean as we could, fed, getting water to drink, and something to wear. Daniel, Uncle Samuel, and Carlos spent every day cleaning here in our yard, over at the church, and helping church members with clean-up or food as well.
It has been interesting to see how the people here have responded to everything. Almost immediately, everyone began to just clean up. I didn’t hear much complaining, but only gratefulness for safety and for what things they did not lose.
I was so thankful we had fresh water in our water tank we could haul into the house for cooking, bathing, and cleaning as well as propane in our tank so we could cook on the stove. What long, tiring days! The stores were low on supplies and there was little to no meat, milk or cheese due to no refrigeration, so I had to be creative with figuring out what to feed us all each day.
I told Daniel that while it was difficult, I really didn’t mind not having electricity especially once the town got running water again. The one thing I truly missed was our washing machine! :) Each morning, I would dump bucketfuls of water from our tank into a rubber tote and stomp some clothes clean so we wouldn’t run out of things to wear.
Amidst everything, Susannah developed an infection in a wound on her head. She had slipped and fallen in the bathroom a few days before and got a small cut on the back of her head. A couple of days later, we noticed it was very sore and infected. We were able to open it, clean it out, pack it with medicine, but it was getting worse and she began to run a fever. Now that the storm had come, we couldn’t get her to a doctor and I was very concerned about her. How often that week I had to just go to the Lord for my help! That night, Susannah fell off a stool and hit her head right on the wound. She began to scream and cry and I couldn’t believe she had hit it again! But it turned out to be a real blessing; the force of that hit opened it up again and it drained out lots of infection. The next day, Daniel was able to get to a pharmacy and buy her an antibiotic and within a few days, she was much better.
A couple days ago, power was restored to our house, but only for a few hours. I was thankful to be able to get a few loads of laundry done! :) Yesterday, we were without power again all day and night, but early this morning, power went back on and my machine has been running ever since! It will probably be off and on like this for some time while they continue to fix the lines/poles.
We still do not have phone/internet and have no idea how long it will be before that will be restored, but we found out a internet shop in town has connection we can use to check our email and update here. There are some pay phones working in town where Daniel has been able to call his brother and sister in law who have kept you all updated these past few days (thank you Joel and Deb).
Thank you so much for your prayers for our family, our church, and our town. Please continue to pray for us as we “get back on our feet” and continue the cleaning and then rebuilding process.
Pray the Lord will provide for our every need and the needs of our brothers and sisters in Christ here.
Pray the Lord will provide for the repair to our church building, our home, and the homes of the people in our church. Pray that this trial will be used to bring people to our Lord! We have already had many opportunities to share the gospel again through all this and have had several show interest in hearing God’s Word and coming to church. The village of Jesus Maria was spared from most of the storm and Daniel was able to preach out there again Tuesday for several hours. Pray that someone there will believe!
Thank you! The Lord is so good and faithful!
Daniel and Jaynee
Timothy, Elijah, Rebekah, Benjamin, Abigail, Isaiah, Josiah, Noah, Susannah, Nehemiah, Eliseo, and Little Samuel

Psalms 91:1 and 2

“He who dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God; in him will I trust.”