Post-Hurricane Irma

On Monday, I drank freshly ground Fresh Market Creme Brûlée Coffee. On Tuesday, I sipped freshly ground Georgia Pecan coffee from Fresh Market. Wednesday, I had Maxwell House.

I was one of the fortunate ones in Florida.

This past week, Hurricane Irma roared into this state, wreaking havoc upon the entire state, Key West to Tallahassee, Miami to Tampa, and Ft. Myers to Jacksonville. We have witnessed nothing like it before. This one hurricane took on an entire state and beat it up. Beat it up badly. Millions of people did not have the luxury of freshly ground Creme Brûlée coffee. We are almost a week from landfall and many people still are without power.

I live in a new community in St. Johns County. This new community built right. Underground power, free from powerlines going down at the fall of a tree. We experienced power throughout as well as TV. My eyes were glued to John Bachman and Mike Buresh as they brought the news to us from Jacksonville. Tornado warnings in St. Johns County scare me, I couldn't sleep a wink through the night.

After a storm brought feet of snow in PA.

Monday, September 11th happened. For millions of Americans, we remember 9/11. For Floridans on 9/11/17, we were trying to make sense of loss from a hurricane.

I grew up in the Northern United States - Pennsylvania. We were used to Winter Storm Warnings and Blizzards. Occasionally, we would experience a snow that could bring 1-3 feet of snow. We grabbed milk, bread and salt. Snowstorms were fun. You hunker down, drink hot cocoa, have a fire, go sled riding and then shovel the driveway.

Hurricanes are different. You buy water. You buy flashlights. You buy generators. You buy canned goods. You buy medical supplies and first aid kits. You buy items to sustain you and your family to last days or weeks without power.

There is great fear in preparing for a hurricane. With 36 hours before landfall, you should have everything done. Then you wait. Waiting is odd. You just sit and wait for this thing to come.

Then it comes. Rain, little wind. Heavy Rain. Moderate winds. Pouring Rain, Heavy Winds and the roar of what people say is the "train." Having tornado warnings flash on your phone while you sit leaves a lump in the throat.

Like I said earlier, I drank gourmet coffee throughout. We were fortunate. But our area was not as fortunate. Hurricane Irma created a perfect storm for Jacksonville. High Tide, Storm Surge, South winds pushing the high waters of the St. Johns River all were occurring at the same time. Jacksonville was ground zero for where all this was converging. Waters rose quickly. Creeks that feed into the St. Johns was rising fast.

All around us, we realized, were a people in need. After the hurricane passed, we waited about 6 hours and still no cell service or internet. I drove to Mandarin where I could get a signal and notified all our Pennsylvania family that we were ok.

I looked at the church and the church looked ok, but it was not. The church had flooded during the height of the hurricane and had receded after. Tuesday, we came to church to find that our offices were flooded and that everything had to be removed and packed away. The more we looked, the more we found.

Wednesday, we began to call over 150 elderly people/families who we wanted to check on. We are so grateful for our office staff who came out to call these people. By late Wednesday, we had people calling in for needs in their neighborhoods. Some of our church family had total losses. One family in our church had over 3 ft. of water in their house and lost 75% of their belongings.

Emotions run high in moments like this. People are fearful and react so differently. I had one experience that I won't share that completely shocked me. The behavior was something I had never experienced before. On the flip side, I experienced the hand of God through the church and the community.

Our church responded this week in a way that has brought me to tears. You will see in this video a snapshot of the response of our young people and our older people who came out to help neighbors, family and our church. It is love in action. Take a look at this video.

Mandarin/Longleaf Response to Hurricane Irma

I am so proud of our church! Our mission at Mandarin is Transforming Lives by...Loving God and Loving Neighbor, Touching Hearts for God and Equipping the Young. Our Mission at Longleaf is Know God's Love, Grow in God's Love and Go With God's Love. Our communities of faith have taken these mission statements and have put them into action. 

The church gets a bad rap sometimes for only looking inward. Yes, that happens, unfortunately. This church at Mandarin has given itself a new identity and a new mission. We are a church who loves Jesus and we want the world to know that though our actions. 

I pray that our church will continue to love God and love neighbor in ways that will lead to life change and hope. Philippians 2:4 says this, "Instead of each person watching out for their own good, watch out for what is better for others. Adopt the attitude that was in Christ Jesus." 

We have so much work to do still with recovery efforts. In the midst of this clean up, God is going to do a great work in and through the people. I am excited to be a part of this journey.  I'm happy to share my freshly ground coffee with anyone who may need a cup of hot coffee!