Welcome my friend, come on in & we’ll enjoy a cuppa together. Over this past week we’ve had some horrific storms through this region, so I thought we would reflect upon the storms of life.

But first as always grab yourself a cuppa, a treat & get comfy for our time together. I’m having a mug of Earl Grey with a toasted slice of home baked gf Date & Almond Loaf.

Although it’s Summer here in Australia you would think it’s late Autumn at the moment as we’re back in Autumn clothes as the cold has returned in midsummer!

The Good, the Bad & the Ugly in storms;

The Ugly

Wednesday night after we had been some extremely hot sultry days here on the east coast of Australia, our mobile phones buzzed loudly with Hazard warnings from our State Government to batten down the hatches as a severe storm with 120km winds was on its way!

Hubby had quickly done all he could to secure things around our home as well as clearing gutters & downpipes for the deluge that may come.

The storm hit my daughter’s area first, which is an hours drive from our home, she sent me a text to be prepared, as the second wave of the storm was absolutely brutal, she said but they were fine.

The first wave had just hit us as I received her text, the winds were wild, the lightening blinding & the thunder deafening. Suddenly with a flutter of the lights we lost all electricity & were plunged into complete darkness apart from the flashes of lightening. Being prepared for such an eventuality, I had torches & candles at the ready.

Then there was a lull as I lit the candles until the next wave of the storm, we didn’t have to wait long as it hit with a resounding whack, the wind blew the trees horizontally, sadly one of ours couldn’t bend to that degree with a loud crack & thud our tall Acacia tree broke in half landing on the front verge.

Then the rain came in thundering & monsoonal proportions as though the heavens were unloading all of its watery contents upon us in one go. I prayed flooding wouldn’t occur, it didn’t! Praise God!

That night was so very humid & hot, especially without any fans, making it difficult to sleep. But the dawn came with more rain. We checked our phones, “No Service” flashed across our screens, we checked to see if the power had been restored, no power.

The Good

Hubby & I work really well together in any type of crisis, we know our roles instinctively & just get to it.  He was up early clearing our fallen tree so it wasn’t a danger to anyone. I got to preparing meals, he then went & got our camp gas bbq from the garage, setting it up out front under our pergola, out of the rain, to boil water for our cuppa’s & to cook meals.

We also were able to spend more time together especially working out strategies, as the rain continued. To get News updates I went & sat in my car listening to the car radio, learning that the Power outages & storm damage was widespread throughout the region with some 200,000 homes without power – it was going to be a while before we got power restored!

Our main concern was my aging mother in law who lives five minutes drive away, as to whether she was doing okay without power, phone or Internet connection (as both mobile & land lines were out apparently both rely on power!).

When we arrived she was fine & organised. What was lovely to hear was that her neighbour Dave had already been in to see if she was okay & had offered to cook her meals as he had a generator.

My stepdaughter, who lives there, had also made sure that her Gran was fine & had travelled to a friend’s home out of the area, who had power to fill a Thermos of boiling water & brought fresh groceries for her meals.

Kindness, generosity & concern rise on these occasions which is part of the good.

The Bad

As the power outages persisted, our mobile phones were being drained of their power (although still “No Service” remained with the occasional “Emergency calls only” flashing across their screens). Thankfully years ago when we had a similar situation & the power had been out for seven days before it was restored, I had purchased a mobile phone charger/connector for my car.

However, the commercial world doesn’t stop for storms or power outages & bills were due to be paid, without power, phone or internet connections now for 30 hours in our seaside village we would have to drive off the Peninsula to where hopefully we could pay these accounts!

So the next day we drove to a centre thirty minutes away hoping power was on there. My husband got his business taken care of as his were open but mine were all closed! And still no phone or internet connection!

So another further thirty minute drive in the rain to another centre & they too were closed because of storm damage! Ahhh.

One of these accounts had to be paid that day otherwise a penalty would be incurred for a late payment! So we drove to another nearby centre & thankfully although they had storm damage they had power & were open for business with cheery smiles. Phew!

Not all is bad in storms, sometimes it just takes a little more effort to see the good.

Our power came back on 43 hours after we had lost it & my mother in law’s 60 hours after the initial outage.

Relating this to Life storms…

Life can get pretty tough at times, don’t you think? We have all faced them in our lives at some point & some storms, like the one above, take a little more strategising to work through.

Hubby & I, since our wedding day nearing twenty one years ago have faced many such life storms, having a big combined family (six adult daughters, twelve grandchildren, their spouses & two great grandchildren) there is often unexpected storms that hit suddenly.

But the greatest power of all never has an outage, God is always with us, His light, Jesus Christ shines brightly even in the darkest hours of any storm & the communication lines to Him through the Holy Spirit are always open.

“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in times of trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth is transformed and the mountains are toppled into the depths of the seas, though their waters roar and foam and the mountains quake in the surge…

Thus He has said;

Let go and relax, knowing that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted over the earth.”

Psalm 46: 1-3 & 10

So we can rest in Him in the face of any storm in life that may come to intimidate us, for He is God He’s got our back!

Until next time,

Jennifer

You’re most welcome to join me in The Reading Nook

or in Prayer

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