"WILMA"

Stan caused landslides to kill over a thousand in Guatemala. Rita brought the rains to flood TX and LA and push over crops in AR and MS. Katrina almost took New Orleans off the map, and it devastated the Gulf Coast.

Now here comes Wilma. What will she do? Will the Texans have to flee Houston again? Will New Orleans become another gigantic bacterial infested swimming pool again? Will even more of the coast of MS and AL be moved northward?

Or will Wilma find cooler waters that will allow her to dissipate and bring nothing but showers and a cool breeze over those who are working hard to rebuild lives that have been altered by her dysfunctional family.

I read earlier that as of Oct 6 there were still over 1,000 people missing from one of the counties in southern Mississippi. I've heard that FEMA is slowly getting mobile homes to people who need a place to live temporally. I hang on every word of people's stories of how churches are banding together to start up schools on the coast and how others are still trying to gut their houses and how many are still helping.

I've often said that once Katrina got out of the news, that we better be careful not to forget the people who are affected. From some reports that I've heard, there are agencies, church and other, that have picked up and left now that the emergency stage is over. This is why I am proud of UMCOR. We have committed to standing beside those who need our help for the long-haul. Our plans are for a four year period of reconstruction of property and lives. We will not leave hurting people just because the waters have subsided.

But alas, here comes Wilma. Will she bring back those who've left because they thought their job was over? Will she affect the coast and LA at all? Will she turn and add another area (FL) to this year's devastation? Or will she leave them alone, seeing as how her brothers, Charlie and Ivan, took their toll on them last year?

So many questions. Maybe the number of questions should be outweighed only by the number of prayers. So today I ask you to pray. Pray for those in the Caribbean who are in the midst of Wilma today. Pray for those who are trying to rebuild homes, careers, LIVES today. Pray for families who are worried about loved ones living in a tent on the coast in what used to be their nicely kept front yard. Pray for those who've lost loved ones. Pray for those who are down south in any of the affected regions trying to help bring normalcy back to others' lives. Pray for ALL who have been and may be affected by the mighty winds and rain of hurricanes this year.

And finally, pray that Wilma is put to death out in the water.

In the love of Christ,
greg