Offering Praises after Hurricane Julia

 It was a sketchy internet sort of day for Trish as she attempted to share her thoughts about this week’s blog post. But sketchy internet is something that is very much preferable to the things that didn’t happen over the past few days. As you probably know, Honduras was bracing for a possible full-on hit by a hurricane/tropical storm. Today, let’s all pause (like Trish’s internet connection) and thank God for His protection and mercy. 

This time last week, weather forecasts looked ominous. A day or so later, the forecasts looked downright alarming. The possibility of a hurricane is particularly terrifying for the people who lived through Hurricane Mitch in 1998. Mitch was so big and so powerful that it is still impossible to have an accurate record of fatalities. It is known that more than 10,000 people were lost as whole villages slid into rivers and were washed away during Mitch. 

Trish said, “People here have a very healthy realization of the danger that hurricanes possess. They go on with their lives, but people who lived through Mitch will never forget. In the event of a hurricane, they know what might happen.”

One image that has made the rounds in newspapers and on social media in Honduras shows a group of people that went out onto a vehicle bridge over a river in San Pedro Sula and got down on their knees to pray for God’s protection. 

Hurricane/Tropical Storm Julia was predicted to touch every single part of Honduras–moving east to west across the country. But the track of the storm changed, and Honduras was not hit as hard as it might have been. 

“I hate that when the track of the storm changed that meant that other people were hit hard. Nicaragua and El Salvador were hit harder because of the change of the storm’s path. We don’t rejoice in that. But we are thankful that things weren’t as bad in Honduras as they might have been. We had days when the rivers on the mountaintops were filled to capacity. There was an expectation that there would be more flooding in the lowlands - and that happened much less than expected,” Trish explained.

Honduras was not untouched. One river did go over its banks on Tuesday and one area in the lowlands had to be rapidly evacuated. Roads and bridges are damaged all over the place. Many crops were destroyed. And the regular rains from rainy season aren't over yet! Trish shared that an afternoon thunderstorm rolled through at her place yesterday that - for a short time - brought more ferocious weather than anything she experienced during the actual tropical storm.

Trish reflected, “While we're feeling a lot of gratitude and relief, there is also still a lot of damage. People will have to go back to their homes and clean up. Some will have to rebuild. And there's significant damage to the infrastructure of the country. It’s also important to remember that there’s no FEMA money. There is no homeowner’s insurance. There won’t be people coming from other states to help put things back together. But even though most of the people had so little to begin with, they are actively praising God.”

Please join Sowers4Pastors in offering praise. Also, remember to pray for those who were affected by the recent storms. 

 - posted by Christi