Note: I got to thinking about all the people who experience catastrophe outside of Maury County . . . then we meet them as they are passing through . . . as they are trying to put their lives back together again. So as to honor them and so as to remember them, I decided to include this story about Norm from a previous year when tsunami's and hurricanes were in the news .
It wasn't Katrina that got him. It was Rita.
Remember the hurricane that came right after Katrina and just missed Galveston?
He lives in Port Arthur, east of Galveston. He owns a boat and runs a tour business. On the night of the hurricane, Rita picked up his boat and lifted it off its' cradle, leaving it with a gash in it's side (and leaving him without a source of income).
He is originally from New Hampshire and has a house there. His daughter and her husband and their son have been living in it. Three months ago, his daughter's husband was killed in a car accident. She wanted to come and live with him, but he lives on the boat. It would be impossible to let her and the child stay with him when he takes fishing tours out into the Gulf. And, besides, the gash is not yet repaired, anyway. So he was headed to them.
He met Maury County on a cold, rainy winter night in early December. As the rain poured down outside, Robin and I sat (warm and comfortable) in our home. The MUMs phone rang. (I specifically remember being warm and comfortable because, after the phone call, I became especially appreciative of the fact.)
It was him on the phone . . . All that damp, drizzly day he had been backpacking and hitchhiking up I-65. When a painful gout (is that how you spell it?) flared up in his foot, he had made his way to the closest hospital. It happened to be MRH, here in Maury County. They had treated his gout, and he would be released tomorrow. He would be needing a ride.
"To where?", I asked.
He didn't know, yet. It was supposed to continue raining the next day. Maybe something would work out between now and then.
It did.
The pastor of St. Luke Methodist Church found funds for him and he was able to stay at a local hotel. We drove him there. He stayed there that night waiting for the weather to break.
Through another resource (Our local Ministerial Association) he could have stayed another night, but he wasn't really looking for lodging. He was looking to get home to his daughter and grandson.
Someone else helped him find a ride with a couple of truck drivers as far as Cookville. He was looking to get a little further east in Tennessee (I think he said Greenfield) where he had a buddy who owned a cabinet shop. He intended to work there long enough to purchase a bus ticket for the rest of his journey.
When the sun came back out the next morning, I drove him over to Shoney's where he caught his next ride with the truckers.
I'll tell you his name, because he wouldn't mind, and I want you to remember him (and those like him) in your prayers. His name is Norm. You would have liked him. He was very pleasant. He was very appreciative of all who helped him. He was slightly embarrassed about his situation.
During this year of large catastrophes, we have learned that deep, deep disaster can devastate the well-to-do just the same as the poor. We have been reminded that, for everyone, there is a point where you are at the end of your resource. Many of us are blessed through life to never come to that point, financially. It is our blessed responsibility, if we are to be Christ-like, to help those who have. It helps me to want to help others when I remember that every one of us was bankrupt, spiritually, until Christ poured His spiritual wealth into us through our acceptance of His sacrifice at the cross.
God has blessed us, this year, by sending Norm (and many others like him) through our county and allowing us to help him on his way.
I don't know if he made it home for Christmas.
May God bless and help Norm and his daughter and his grandson, is our prayer.
In Jesus Name,
Amen
"They overcame by the blood of the Lamb, and the word of their testimony . "
Rev. 12:11a(NIV)
The great use of life is to spend it on something that will outlast it." - James Adams
