Day 40 - July 25 - Forty Days & Forty Nights

It's been forty days since Connor arrived here in Fresno and as Eric put it, "the world stopped!" We keep hoping that the rain from this flood will let up and that the waters will subside... maybe today is the day.

But what I've learned in the brief time I've been here is that the flood never really ends... it may appear to ease up and even stop for some, but in reality it just finds a way to drown and consume others.

"Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour."

- I Peter 5:8

Allow me to briefly update you on some of the other flood victims...

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I had lunch yesterday with some new friends, Shane & Hope (not their real names). They are here because of Hope's son. Hope is the woman Eric talked with the other day after she came off the elevator sobbing. I call her Hope because that is the word that Eric gave to her in her moment of need.

Hope's 15 year old son broke both of his arms & legs, had a hole torn in his heart and had the bones in his face crushed in an car wreck. The woman driving died (her family buried her yesterday). On Tuesday the doctors repaired the boy's heart and on Thursday they spent the entire day reconstructing his face.

Now here's where it gets even more interesting... Hope & Shane are homeless. They live on the streets. Hope told me that she will do anything to get the money they need to survive another day. They had spent the night before down by the train station where they found a place to lay down. They didn't sleep much (would you if you were homeless and your son was in the shape Hope's is in?).

Shane is a Gulf War I vet who hasn't quite been able to get life back in balance since his days as a Navy Seal doing our country's dirty work that no one likes to talk about.

Pray for Hope & Shane. Pray for us as we try and help these flood victims.

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Paul is a likable man with a graying beard that wraps his chin and gives his round, Hispanic face a sense of balance. He's been in the lobby the last week or so and has been watching our group. Yesterday he made his way over to us and asked us to pray with him for his son Michael.

Michael is a twenty-six year old father of two, who lives at home with Paul and his mother. Michael was involved in a car wreck that has left him with bleeding in the brain. He has a tube in his head to try and relieve some of the pressure, but bleeding in the brain is never a good thing.

Pray for Michael's healing and recovery. Pray for courage for Paul and his wife to continue putting one step in front of the other. Pray for Michael's children as they run around the lobby wishing their Daddy was their to play with them. And pray for the mother of Michael's children who is in a drug rehab center somewhere trying to put her life back together.

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Lastly, on Wednesday morning the lobby had a lot of Navy folks using the elevator with stressed looks on their faces. We came to learn that early that morning the wife of one of the fighter pilots was hit by a semi-truck. We were told that it was not good and that they were trying to keep her alive until family could arrive.

When I arrived at the hospital on Thursday morning there were still a number of Navy folks around, which I took as a good sign... that she had survived the night. But Thursday evening we received word that this young 19 year-old bride had died... and along with her the couples unborn baby... apparently she was just a few weeks pregnant.

Please pray for her husband. Please pray for her friends. Please pray for us as we try our best to be the hands and arms and shoulders of Christ for people to cry on.

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These are the stories from 1 day in the Trauma Center waiting room. And how many trauma units are there around the world? Multiply these stories by thousands and you'll get an idea of depth of the flood that we're in.

Kent

Clinging to THE LifeRing