Margaretville Today

Nathan and Justin:

Please keep the people in our church and the communities in prayer. The devastation to Margaretville, Fleischmanns, Windham, etc is astoundingly huge. Devastation is the word. CVS is torn down and I hear that it will not be re-built. This means that Regina Ashman will no longer have a job. As you know her husband, Larry, is already very sick and they have been on the edge, financially, because he has been unable to work (at least work normally). Entire buildings on Main Street (going from the Cheese Barrel down the street away from the intersection) are being torn down.

I don't know how to pray about all this but please pray. I guess there are several layers of prayer for all this: praying for the community and its dire needs; praying that our church can help meet some of those needs; pray that people are able to reach out to others with the help they need and the love of Jesus; pray for coordination of efforts by authorities to reach out and provide assistance in all forms; pray for wisdom for leaders, including Pastor Bob - he is under great strain on every front right now (please don't tell him I said this); pray that all this would help in the longer term to create a love and yearning for Jesus among the community and its people, etc, etc, etc.

Here is an article both of you should take a few moments to read. It is from The Daily Star and was written two days ago. The photos show some of the devastation from a perspective that gives you a better idea of the magnitude of the destruction left by the flooding caused by Irene. Both the Governor and Chris Gibson have been to our area.

Here's the link: http://thedailystar.com/hurricaneirene/x151681551/Flood-overwhelms-Margaretville-area

I hope both of you are well and doing very well with your studies. Please let us know on a continual/occasional basis (whatever works for you) how you are doing. Let's keep each other in prayer.

We thank God both of you are safe and well.

Our love,

Dad