There is no cure for my grief. My heart breaks for what I see and hear. Jeremiah 8:18 The Voice
My heart breaks for what I see and hear.
Yes.
(How could any of us not?)
Texas Hearts
I view the events in Texas, and worry and pray for my nephew, because he is working with the recovery efforts there.
I read his media post after grueling days working in the heat and flies, amid the chaos of twisted wreckage…
He leaves his own small struggling business to selflessly give his skills, and his heart, to the other volunteers on his team.
To the work that must be done.
So I pray, “Give him Your strength LORD, as he searches for these priceless ones; these precious souls who have never been lost to You.”
In my nephew’s own words…
Several days into the work, my sister sends my nephew’s media post, after their team’s exhausting recovery work.
They have found someone.
Been up in Center Point for the last three days, and there’s some stories I just feel compelled to share….
My old boss (George) and I happened to connect with a group from New Braunfels: Trip, Callie, and Nolan as well as Jay, Joe, Russell, Mark, the fellas from Lawns Are Uss, LLC, Bill, Stan, Luis and at least a dozen more dudes who’s names I’ve either forgotten or never got in the first place. People from Austin, Houston and a bunch of small towns all over Texas. A contracted SAR group from Colorado. These people are like family, even though I’ve only known them for 3 days. These are some of the most selfless, hard working people I’ve been around since my time in Houston after Harvey did his thing. These guys and gals have been climbing over, under and thru piles of debris, whatever you call the trees, logs and sticks that get left behind after a flood, and RV trailers sometimes chest deep in water, doing the hard work of rigging up the stuff that I’ve been pulling out with a mini excavator. It’s been an incredible honor to work alongside all the volunteers I’ve been with these last few days. I’m sure it won’t be a shock to hear that it’s been barely organized chaos out there more often than not, as you’d expect when a bunch of people just show up to a place with chainsaws, skid steers and mini excavators and just start working towards a common goal, but that common goal eventually brings the right people into alignment and the work gets done.
However, yesterday a property owner showed up and, well let’s just say he was less than stoked that there’s was 50 people and 8 or 9 pieces of equipment on his property “without authorization, not affiliated with any organization” and a few other bullet points. Now, I don’t own a buncha property, certainly none that’s been damaged in a natural disaster, so maybe there’s a legitimate reason dude went off like he did. I don’t know. But the verse of the day yesterday was James 1:19: “… be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.” So for what is likely only a handful of times in my life, I was able to conform to scripture. I will say tho, if dude woulda started with something like “Hey, I appreciate what you’re doing, however…”, that probably woulda gone over a little better and he wouldn’t have gotten (blank-blanked) by at least one of the aforementioned awesome people. Long story short… somebody WITH authority and a badge showed up and told us to proceed. It was pretty obvious after, tho, that morale had taken a swift kick in the (blank-blank).
One thing that absolutely needs mentioning is this: I’ve not eaten this well in any 3 day stretch in my life! Sausage wraps, breakfast tacos (way more than just bean and cheese or potato and egg {really Texas? That’s what makes a good breakfast taco?}), pulled pork sammiches, WAGYU BEEF MEATLOAF SAMMICHES, BBQ chicken with beans like I ain’t NEVER had! So good. People constantly offering water, Gatorade, protein shakes and even 
pickle juice 
. I wasn’t hungover, so…. no thanks. Anyway, all of it donated. Not to mention… there was a local construction outfit, I think, which had equipment nearby and the guy was told by his boss to go out and fuel any piece of equipment that needed it! So much of this time has been a blur so I’m not likely to get the name right but I think it was Texas Materials or Lonestar Materials or something like that, so HUGE SHOUT OUT to those guys. It’s a big deal for owner/operators to get taken care of like that. If someone sees this and knows who exactly it was, please clarify and correct because they definitely deserve the credit!
Today, the contracted disaster recovery people showed up and relieved us of our duties at that location. So we coordinated, somewhat, and moved on to a new spot we’d heard hadn’t gotten much attention. This location had MOUNTAINS of I guess I’ll call it driftwood which needed to be carefully sifted thru.
Now, on a more somber note…(this part has been extremely difficult to put into the appropriate words, so if I fail to do so, please know it wasn’t for lack of desire)… it’s been a week since this all went down, and those of us that are out there know why we’re there: yes for cleanup, but also, God forbid, for recovery of any victims. Today, the small team I was a part of uncovered some remains. It was the skilled eye of my spotter who called attention to what we found, and at that point all work stopped and the professionals were called in to handle extraction.
I guess as much as I’m absolutely heartbroken for the families who’ve lost loved ones, on some level I feel blessed to be able to give some family “closure”, if that’s any sort of consolation. At least they will know for sure. I don’t know, maybe that’s better than not knowing. Either way, the few of us at the scene bowed our heads, and prayed to Sovereign God to bless the family and give them grace to endure in their grieving. I just can’t imagine…
So tomorrow’s another day and there’s still so much to be done, so back at it. Please pray for the families and for the volunteers and all the people supporting them.
(posted to Facebook)
To the family of the precious girl they found…
Our family wants you to know.
Though we have never met, we want you to know everyone in this Christian family has been desperately praying for you all.
We grieve with you for the unspeakable loss you are enduring.
Women With Destiny 