Hurricane Wilma

Many of you may not have realized that Jen and I recently experienced Hurricane Wilma while we were in Cancun during the latter part of October. It was supposed to be a time of R and R but little did we know what God had in store for us. We are so thankful for your prayers during this time and we know that God brought us through the storm. And no matter what "storm of life" you may go through, God can help you through. Trust Him and see what happens. Here is an email letter that Jen sent out once we reached safety in Villahermosa, Mexico. Through it you can see the trials, fear and expectation that God would bring us through.

God Bless-

Tim

This has been quite the trip - not the relaxing, sunny, happy trip we
expected to have in a place called Cancun! But God has been at work none
the less and has made it a memorable time, a time of trusting Him, a time of
making new friends and a time to encourage the locals who have lost so much.
You might say it has turned into an unplanned mission trip, and that has
been a special thing to be a part of.

Last Thursday we were evacuated to a shelter more inland...it was an
elementary school, but not the kind of schools we would think of. It was
made up of classrooms, with concrete floors and walls, that opened to a
small courtyard and had bathroom facilities in a separate building. There
were 300 of us from the Hilton and we divided into 25 people in each
classroom...ours actually had 27. This group of people became our "Wilma
family" as we grew to fondly call each other. We were in that room for 6
days and became quite smelly with no showers and nothing but one change of
clothing...as I'm sure you can imagine! Meals were served by the Hilton
staff who stayed with us and served us as though we were the most important
people in the world. They were amazingly humble, loving people who were
sacrificing time with, and care of, their own families to take care of us.
It was sad and we cried with them over their fear and their losses. We
began to run out of food, so ate sparingly, sometimes going up to a day and
a half without food...except for little junk food snacks some had
packed...because of the storm preventing us to leave the classrooms. The
electricity went out early on Friday. The rooms, of course, were not air
conditioned and the windows were boarded up, and doors closed, so the air
was very hard to breath with no ventilation and 27 stinky bodies with bad
breath. :)

The hurricane came Friday at 2pm and from that time we could not leave our
rooms until 5am Saturday. With no bathroom facilities, we had to create our
own in the room. *us ladies could not go 15 hours without needing to use a
bathroom :) So in a corner, with half a wall to block it, we put a bucket
with kitty litter in it. That added to the terrible odor in the room, but
it was better than nothing. This reminded me of how grateful I must be for
even the simple things that we take for granted in America, and was a taste
of how so much of the world lives everyday. At 5am the eye of the storm
came and we were able to get fresh air and play football, eat and talk in
the courtyard. Never have I been so thankful to be outside and to breathe
in fresh oxygen. The eye hovered directly over us for 12 hours... no one
could believe an eye could last that long. At times we thought maybe the
hurricane was over...as we had no contact with the outside world to get any
weather updates. But it wasn't. At 5pm we were rushed back into the rooms
as part number two whisked in. It came so fast that it was very scary.
Thankfully everyone got in in time. This time we were shut in until the sun
came up the next morning around 7am. This was now Sunday...the hurricane
had lasted in our area for 40 hours. The scariest part was Friday night
when two plywood panels were blown off two of our windows. There were wood
shutters underneith, but that was not much comfort as the wind sounded like
a freight train and as large debri banged into the walls and windows. The
building literaly shook. Outside, 50 feet of the concrete block wall
surrounding the school was blown in and laid in pieces on the ground. Many
trees and light posts were down, the streets around us were flooded with
knee deep water, and houses around us lost windows and roofs. In spite of
all this, no one in our group of 300 was hurt...our shelter was the safest
around. Many other's weren't so fortunate, and we are sure, based on what
we saw of the city as we left this morning, many have probably lost their
lives.

Up until today, we were unable to leave the shelter because of debri and
flooding blocking the roads. The Cancun airport will not open until
sometime next week. Because the hilton took such amazing care of us, and
had so many contacts with the military and transportation systems in the
area, we were the first hotel to be able to depart Cancun. This morning
nine buses were brought in to take us to Merida where we switched buses, on
to Veillarosa *sp* where there is another Hilton and an international
airport to fly out of. After being on the bus for 17 hours with only one
stop, we have arrived at this Hilton. Right now it is almost 8am and we
have not slept. But, the Hilton here has been amazing as well...when we
arrived at 4am this morning, they had a full hot breakfast buffet ready for
us, as well as toiletries, undies, clothes and shoes we could buy. They are
also offering to do our laundry around the clock and provide free
transportation to the airport. Not only that, but they are covering our
meals for as long as we are here. Completely amazing. These mexican people
are so dear.

The Hilton hotel in Cancun is utterly destroyed. We were so blessed to be
able to evacuate, or many of us may not be here today. The ocean and the
lagoon have merged into one, flooding the hotel zone with, in places, water
up to forth story in some lower sitting hotels. The hilton only had the
lobby floor flooded, because it sits up higher, but most windows were blown
out on the ocean front side of the hotel *which we were on* and the majority
of bedroom furniture was sucked out onto the decks and in some cases fell to
the ground, stories below. The pool area, which was so beautiful...made up
of many small pools of different temperatures and beautiful palm trees,
hammocks, and grass huts for shade...is covered up to the lobby doors, and
though them, with water, sand and rocks that were thrust up over the
retaining walls during the storm. The highest point of the hilton, a pretty
glass roof, visible from the bottom floor all the way up eight floors was
completely peeled off and shattered, thus, you can imagine the water that
poured into the lobby for nearly 40 hours straight. Thankfully, everyone's
luggage was stored in the bathrooms of each of our rooms...in the
bathtubs...and is safe as far as we know. Since access to the hotel was
impossible for 300 people, we were resigned to leaving our luggage and will
be coming home with just the two sets of clothes and toiletries we brought
to the shelter. Many people left valuables in the rooms in the safes, so
naturally people are worried. However, Hilton says they will send
everyone's luggage as soon as they are able and will try to account for
everything. We each listed our room numbers and documented the things we
had in the tub so that they can attempt to gather it all and ship it. We
are saddened that these sweet people will have to go through this painful
process...like they don't have enough to deal with in their own familiies
and losses. It was embarrasing at times to realize the stereotype we as
Americans have earned for ourselves...greedy, wealthy and ungrateful...so we
as a team in our room agreed to do everything possible to minister to these
wondeful people and to show them our appreciation and indebtedness to them.
Our team leader, Olga, was the kindest person and took amazing care of us.
At the end, we gathered up 200 american dollars to give her...she deserved
so much more, as did all of the staff. As we said goodbye to her and to our
Wilma family, people shared thoughts and we were amazed and so thankful that
we had made it through. There were several other believers in our room, so
throughout the week we prayed and acknowledged the Lord out loud. As we
were in our final circle today, Tim shared a scripture passage that was so
completely appropriate. Please read it, as it describes exactly what we
have been through...Psalm 107 verses 28 thru 31.

Now that we are here at our safe location, we were all able to shower and
sleep in beds instead of on the floor. We are all so grateful for thes
accomodations. Now, everyone is working to book flights out of this new
airport. Thanks to our personal travel agentand friend, Jeff Gallina, our
flight has already been arranged. We will arrive in Denver on Wed...Lord
willing! When we get there, though, we have no car key, as we left it in
our other luggage, thinking we wouldn't need it. :) If that is the only
thing that has gone wrong, we will take it! The luggage is estimated to
arrive in a month, but we would expect longer and that is ok. How can we
complain about four suitcases of clothes when so many have lost all they
had.

Thank you for the prayers you have lifted up for us. We have definately
sensed that people loved us and were praying for us back home. It was a
great comfort and relief to finally be able to contact our parents today.
With no working phone lines or electricity at the shelter...and cell phones
not in service, there was no way we could do so up until now. This "mission
trip" has been a lifechanging experience for us, and we look forward to
getting home and to being able to share more of it with you. The pictures
we have are astounding. You will not believe what you are seeing.

We miss you and we love you...see you soon!