During and after the September 2009 flood which devastated Douglas County, Georgia, Faith In Action has received over 1,000 phone calls and requests for help. This past week Tina spoke with Joan Drake and was moved to ask that we give her needs priority. “Joan touched my heart,” Tina shared, “we really need to meet her needs. She is a 70 year old lady who is cute as a button.”
An FIA delivery team consisting of Jack Clay, Mike Clousing, and Beau McClain visited Joan in her new Austell apartment November 22 and delivered a new full bed set with sheets. Joan lives alone and supports herself doing telephone sales and marketing. She was living in the Cross Creek mobile home park in Austell which was literally submerged in flood waters. Joan told us of standing on her back porch in shock as the torrent suddenly rose and carried her away from her trailer into the floodwaters. “I was underwater, gasping for air, trying to grab something when this black man picked me up and pulled me out,” she said. “There were some people there and I asked them where the black man was who pulled me out. No one saw him. I think he was an angel.”
Later that evening we arrived at 8 year old Anthony’s modest duplex in Douglasville off Central Church Road, where his family had fled from the flood waters. Anthony was ecstatic when he learned that the bed lost in the flood was being replaced and that he would have his very own bed again.
What do we do, after the flood? Jesus said, “Behold, I make all things new.” When the flood waters have taken everything Joan and Anthony had away from them, our simple answer is to replace those things and do so in a way that honors our Lord’s love for His people.
