A Letter Home...

Hurricane Emily, originally uploaded by alicia2519.

I just found this on the 2 Rivers Church web site and thought it was worth posting!

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Hurricane Emily made landfall right on top of Matamoros, Mexico this morning, where 82 from our church are on mission. Sustained winds are at 125 mph, with stronger gusts. The water level at the coast could rise as much as 12 feet.
Below is an email received from Steve and our team last night just before the storm hit:

"We are hours away from Hurricane Emily slamming into the Matamoros area. Our team of 82 from 2Rivers Church in O'Fallon, Missouri is ready to ride out the storm in the downtown Hotel Colonial in Matamoros.

The past three days this team has been completely replacing a roof on a church at the La India Colonia. Today as we were finishing the last little bit of the roof the first rain from Emily began at 12:30 ... it has been doing spot raining ever since. Many of the intersections already have 1-2 feet of flooding and the majority of the rain is still to come. Tonight we are expecting anywhere from 5 to 12 inches of rain and have heard reports of expecting wind of up to possibly 135 miles per hour. Our hotel in Matamoros is at the highest point of the city ... we are in a brick fortress ... we might have to do without electricity and AC for a few hours ... but I think we can survive!

A group of four men and I just returned from the Mundo Nuevo center in Matamoros. There may be as many as 5000 people at the shelter and spread out among three buildings in the complex. We met with several city officials about helping. Our team will be helping in the shelters in the morning at 8:00 and ready to go all day long. Our assignments are to be of assistance, help feed the people, visit and interact, do whatever is necessary. These 5,000 folks have been bussed in from outlying areas, villages, islands, etc. Tonight in the shelter the people and are sleeping in very neat and organized rows on pallets in the floor ... it is a sea of people ... kids, moms, men, even some pets.

As we were getting ready to leave the shelter and visiting with the various leaders ... the leader of the Department of Families said to our group ... "thank God you are here" ... now let me tell you ... there is a lot of truth in that statement ... it isn't by accident we are here ... it isn't just some weird circumstance ... our God, the master of the universe, placed us here at this very moment. In the morning we will be able to share and glorify Him with our Mexican brothers and sisters ... help meet peoples needs ... be ready to share Him ... what an awesome opportunity from an awesome God!

Tonight as we were driving through the streets of Matamoros it looks like a ghost town. Many of the businesses and houses boarded up ... no traffic ... no street merchants ... silence. At present the wind is not blowing ... it is not raining ... it is very still ... it is also just a little spooky.

As I write this email I can hear our team in the courtyard of the hotel ... laughing and having a good time ... waiting on Emily ... ready to work and serve in the morning ... ready to be faithful ... let me tell you ... this is what it is all about ... being where God wants you and ready to serve!

This email is being emailed to our entire Focus On Missions email list. Our need right now is prayer ... please be praying !!!! I have been communicating daily with my home church from Matamoros this summer. Some of our faithful readers have written wanting to know if Focus On Missions still exists ... it does ... it is strong ... we've been very busy this summer ... God has blessed and God is faithful! Every week we have had a different team in Matamoros ... we did have one team cancel out for next week ... and I am ready for a down week ... but it sounds like we will be picking up from Emily the next few days.

Please pray for our team as they minister here in Matamoros. Pray for our dear brothers and sisters who are in frail little shacks all over this community getting ready to take a pounding from the winds and rain of Emily ... please pray as we get ready to face the next few hours.

We are praying that God will find us faithful as we continue to work for Him.

Pressing On ..."
Steve Smith
Focus On Missions