Missionaries Paul and Karen Whitley were our guests last night as they passed through the area. We put them up in our guest room downstairs. About 1:30 they woke us up to tell us there was water in the basement. We immediately checked and saw that storm water was coming into the basement under the outside doors. I hurriedly got the ShopVac but saw it was no use. By the time we went back to bed there was 3 inches of water in the basement, with the sump pump running continuously. Never in fifteen years of living there has the water been within 50 feet of our house.

When I saw we could not control the flooding, I flew into moving important things to a dry place. I started with the closet in my den, which had many family heirlooms, including a family Bible dating back to 1832, family history books, etc., stacked in cardboard boxes on the floor. Then I went to rescue some of my Dad’s coin collection books and packaged proof sets from the ’50s laying on the floor of another room, then rescued twenty or so family photo albums on the bottom shelf of a plastic shelf unit, and a couple of older guns still in the original boxes standing in two inches of water. I appreciate Paul helping in the rescue effort in the middle of the night.

In a moment like that you don’t have time to think. Afterwards I reflected on what we had focused on saving first. It wasn’t expensive things like the computer, TV, or furniture. They can be replaced. It was the irreplacable items that represented family and our lives together.

There seems to be a lesson in every crisis. What lessons have you learned in the testing time?

Tags: family, flood, test