The Flood Has Come..../Micheal's Birthday Today!!

Hello Everyone!!!

I have some really exciting/distressing news!!! In September God was moving on the team here and preparing us for something...Brian and MaryBeth felt that God had told them to spend the remaining $1,000 of their tax return to buy rice, water and baby formula. $1,000 buys A TON of rice, water and baby formula here...they brought it to the rest of the team and we prayed about it and God had been speaking to each one of us about preparation and that something was going to happen.

Many of us thought it would be a flood. So, in October they obeyed and we went out and bought $1,000 dollars worth of rice, water and baby formula and started telling the Thai people to prepare because a flood was coming. The typical rainy season came...and we kept waiting and waiting and honestly we had figured nothing was going to happen and maybe we didn't hear correctly - BUT low and behold - at this moment John, Micheal, and Clinton are in the outskirts of Hat Yai - called Hat Yai Nai...with a blow up boat they purchased for the "flood" that is loaded down with rice, water and some baby formula assisting those in need!!!! There are many people who are stranded and have no way to get to food and water!

It is distressing because so many people are suffering from the flooding here but it is exciting and incredible to see what God spoke come to pass! We have flooding in our area too but not anywhere like what they are experiencing in Hat Yai Nai. The flood waters are up to their necks in some parts and all the drainage ditches (some over 30 feet deep) are over flowing. It could get even worse because flood waters are backing up in a city called Sadao which is not far from here and if it keeps backing up as it has been then the waters will reach our already flooded Hat Yai.

Yesterday we had a break in the raining and were told that the road to the grocery store was passable...so we got in the car and when we got to the grocery store we couldn't believe what we saw! HUNDREDS of cars! The parking lot was packed full (and this is a very big parking lot - smiliar to most wal-marts) with people double parked and cars lined even on the streets infront of the grocery store!!! I couldn't believe it - my first assumption was that people were going in droves to the grocery store to stock up on food but I was wrong - the Thai people have been parking their cars there to protect them from the coming flood - which is crazy because that area is not any higher than most areas of Hat Yai.

So we drove on and went to the other grocery store - Carrefour - which was the grocery store that was bombed last May. When we go there we found the same situation but this time it was even more unbelieveable to me because they have a parking garage (this store is new within this past year) and it was packed full with people double parked!! There was no way anyone would be able to get their cars out unless there was a HIGHLY organized effort to do so. Cars lined the roads outside of Carrefour also and every where we went we were asked if our house had flooded yet!

We found a place to park out on the road and we unloaded (which is a chore now with 2 kids... :) and as we walked through the parking garage it was a very eerie feeling because there was no one around and most of the stores inside of Carrefour were closed so many lights were out (mostly because people couldn't make it to work because of transportation or their houses were flooded). We got the necessities we needed - except for a few things because for some reason they were out...either because delieveries were not possible or because people had already bought it all...we were unable to buy bread.

We waited last night in anticipation because it was supposed to rain a lot more...but it didn't really rain that badly although the little rain that fell added to the problem in the already flooded parts of Hat Yai. Today - Dec. 19th is Micheal's Birthday - we were going to take him out to eat at a nice "farang" (foreigner) restaurant for his birthday (they have food that acutally tastes really close to American food!!) but everything is closed and most roads downtown are impassible. So instead of celebrating as usual - Micheal is out on a boat with John and Clinton passing out food to those in need.

Somehow I don't think he's upset about it! :) (if you know Micheal at all you know he's very excited about being able to help and not upset about his birthday...) I don't know if it is on the news there in America but we have international news and it is showing the flooding in all of Southern Thailand.

Keep us in your prayers for the next couple of days as we do our best to meet the needs of the people of Hat Yai in Jesus' name!