As most of you know by now, Nashville and its surrounding communities are under water. The past two days have been absolutely devastating to all of us here in the city and it looks as though the rain may stop by tomorrow. There's no way to truly assess the damage but:
-Thousands have been evacuated from homes
-Even more are landlocked and trapped in their homes with no way out
-7 inches of rain fell Saturday, 13.5 inches fell as of 9pm on Sunday
-On Sunday, literally every major road in Middle Tennessee was under water
-At least 13 deaths have been reported, even more missing
-Hundreds of cars had to be abandoned on the highway when the river came through
What breaks my heart most, though, are the people that had nothing to begin with. My church and community group work closely with the people at Tent City, a "city" built of tents that the homeless have built with their families. This is their home. In the past 36 hours, all of Tent City has been destroyed. We have grown to love, care for, and have friendships with those who live there... and now they have nothing. They have lost all they know - their homes, blankets, and shoes. Just recently we re-equipped a few of them with new batteries for flashlights and oil for lamps. We've built pallets for their tents to sit on to keep them dry. All of it is gone.
With the devastation touching close to home for me and many of my friends, I know that I must look at the fact that I still have a house, a car, and a change of clothes. Our brothers and sisters at Tent City must literally start all over. I sit here with tears in my eyes questioning why the less fortunate get affected so much worse than the rest of us. They didn't do anything to deserve this... no one did.
Instead of sitting and questioning, wondering and being sad, I am asking that any of my friends/readers outside of Nashville would consider buying and sending me a Home Depot/Lowe's gift card (or anything, really) to begin purchasing new tents, supplies, etc. Every penny of the gift card will be used to help rebuild not only Tent City but any other refuge we've worked with here in Nashville. People are hurting, they need our help.
It's time to show the love of Christ through action. Pray about how you can help.
Christina: Will keep y'all in prayer. We are about an hour south of you so can relate to the flooding and the rain. Steve C (former Sunday school teacher so long ago!)
ReplyDeleteChristina,
ReplyDeleteEmail me your mailing address and I'll send you a Lowe's gift card...I spoke with my friends who own The Great Escape in Nashville, and it appears that their huge store is flooded...could be 4 feet of water in their store! What a terrible tragedy for Nashville citizens....Paul Howley: pmca@together.net
Hello Christina,
ReplyDeleteYour folks have put you on the prayer chain here at LCF. Know that am praying for you all.
We have family members in Franklin,Tenn. We called them yesterday. They are OK so far.
Fran Caroselli
Laconia,NH
Christina, I'd like to send you a gift card. Will you email me your address? Maybe you can send it to my daughter, Amber (Lansdown) MacQuarrie on facebook?
ReplyDeleteFaithfully praying for you and Tenn.
<3
Aundrea
Thank you all for your prayers. Things here look to be worsening, with the Cumberland still on the rise. Downtown will most likely flood again... its amazing, though, the impact such devastation can have on the Church body. I've never seen the hands and feet of Jesus quite like this! I'm going to post some photos/info about what we've been doing hopefully later today.
ReplyDelete