Vermilion Faith Community of Care
PO Box 554   Abbeville, La.  70511
 Voice/Fax: (337) 893-5589     E-mail:   vfcc@cox.net

Uniting the faith community of Vermilion Parish in service
through meeting critical human need.

Seeing the ‘Silver Lining’ in Hurricane Lili

     For those 'with eyes to see', we can look back on this storm as a great blessing, in addition to being a physical catastrophe.  We had had a 'trial run' with Hurricane Isidore the week before.  It passed through the Gulf 'sort of' headed our way, but ended up going a bit east and drenching New Orleans and other areas. 

      The couple of days before Lili came ashore, most people in this area kept in close touch with weather reports.  The path was very steady, and by Monday we could see that we were the most likely place for landfall.  The course remained steady on Tuesday.  Wednesday she began a slightly northward turn, just as predicted, again placing us right on the path.  Reports on Tuesday and Wednesday about the wind speeds made most of us pay careful attention.  They were clocking her with sustained winds of 140+ mph, inching up toward a category 5 hurricane.  Based on her steady and predictable march toward us, weather forecasters were all saying that she would make landfall on Thursday morning with sustained winds of over 150 mph, gusts up to 175, and a storm surge of 15-20 feet.  When they told us to evacuate from Abbeville, which is about 10 miles from where the eye was expected to come ashore (which is just where it came), most people moved right along.  My wife and I called a pastor in Lafayette, 20 miles further north, and asked to stay with them for a few days.

      Wednesday night, I went to bed rather early.  I got up about 3 a.m. and went into our hosts' living room to pray.  I spent several hours in spirit in the eye of the storm, speaking to the elements, telling them to reverse their course and to start going in a clockwise direction.  I know there were thousands of other people praying, each in their own way, all along the coast.  The way the whole process took place gave us all the time to get ourselves in the right places, as well as to prepare our hearts and minds.

      The results of our prayers were dramatic.  In the early morning hours, to the amazement and mystification of all weather people, the storm mysteriously changed from Category 4/5 down to 2/1, with maximum sustained winds down to 100-110.  The storm surge also virtually disappeared.  While Lili passed by our little towns, she did a lot of damage, but just a tiny fraction of what it would have been if she had continued as before.  For those of us with a belief in prayers, seeing the dramatic results of our prayers on the storm can bolster our faith tremendously.  It could even be a real 'watershed' event (pun intended) in the faith lives of some believers.

       A couple of days before the storm, my wife and I looked for our copy of Our Daily Bread for the month of October.  We couldn't find it (found out later that it had not yet arrived), so we got a copy from a friend, who gave us two three-month versions, taking us up to March 2003.  We took this with us when we evacuated.  On the morning the storm was passing over, my wife and I were doing our morning devotionals, which included reading the Daily Bread selection and then going to the Bible selection.  The reading that day just 'blew me away'.  It was about the awesomeness of a great storm.  It directed us to Psalm 29, one that I was not familiar with.  We were reading it in the Living Bible, which has these words, which were unfolding before our eyes, even to the types of trees:

"The voice of the Lord echoes from the clouds.  The God of glory thunders through the skies.  So powerful his voice; so full of majesty.  It breaks down the cedars.  It splits the giant trees of Lebanon. . . . The voice of the Lord spins and topples the mighty oaks.  It strips the forests bare.  They whirl and sway beneath the blast."

       I know these selections are written months ahead of time.  So the author could of course have had no knowledge of the storm that was to greet us the day we came upon this reading.  But of course a Higher Power did, and sent us this message to comfort us, to tell us to respond like the people in the psalm:

"But in his temple all are praising, 'Glory, glory to the Lord.’. . . .He will give his people strength.  He will bless them with peace."

       My brother-in-law, who works offshore, passed by a few days after the storm.  He told about living quarters on an oil platform south of Venice, La. 65 ft. above the Gulf which were severely damaged by waves generated by the storm.  No one had had any experience of any waves that high or strong before. 

      It had indeed been a powerful storm.  But it was in the Master's hand.

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