(hurricane + vacation?)

There was a hurricane, in case you hadn’t heard.

People in College Station overreacted as usual. Marylyn and I underreacted, which turned out to be just the right amount of reaction. We spent all day Saturday sitting on the couch, reading, and watching movies. I spent about 1/2 of that time blowing my nose. Despite having a cold, it was such a relaxing bum of a weekend! Then Lindsey and Matt stayed the night with us before going back to Lake Jackson to survey their damage (which is very minimal, praise-aluia!).

And now…Navasota STILL has no power, so after my wonderful lazy weekend, I now have a surprise week off! It could not have come at a better time. I started the weekend behind on seminary, with 2 essays, 1 paper, and 1 midterm to do, and I am now 2 weeks ahead!!! I am using this week to reclaim my social life in the weeks to come! I feel like I somehow beat the system of having a full time job and going to school. All thanks to my good buddy, Hurricane Ike!

On a more serious note, a lot of people have lost everything as a result of this hurricane. I haven’t heard an official death toll, but I know it is climbing. A fellow coffee-shop patron asked to borrow my computer to check his email, afterwards showing me a picture of his street on Bolivar Peninsula. It is seriously a river, with two story houses sticking only 3 feet above water. Where his house should have been, there was nothing. He found a picture of his roof 1/4 mile away from where his street used to be. Combined with the death of his grandmother last week, an number of high school friends who tried to ride out the hurricane in Bolivar, and trying to stay caught up on school work, he was having a pretty tough week. I asked him about his spiritual beliefs (thanks to my wonderful personal evangelism class!) and found out that he was raised in the church, but right now his faith is really being shaken. Be praying for this guy, Ryan.