Pray for Help (4th Day 42)

Pray for Help

My parents and brother live in Ft. Lauderdale. I just spoke with my brother, who has one of the only working phones on the street where they live. I know a lot of people suffered from Katrina, but Wilma has been just as damaging to those who live in South Florida. Perhaps not the flooding, but the results of Wilma are just as devastating.

Tomorrow, my parents (84 years old) and my brother (62 years old) will have been without electricity for a week, with estimates of three more weeks before power will be restored. Apparently, over 15,000 telephone and electric poles were knocked down and need to be replaced. A major electrical tower was knocked over. They have no electricity.

Imagine the people of South Florida, mostly elderly, without any power. My brother, who lives next to my parents, has a 5000 Watt generator, but that barely runs the refrigerators and a couple of lamps. Plus, the generator needs gasoline. No electricity means the gas station pumps don't work. Those that have power backups can only run a few pumps. Lines for gasoline are six hours long, or longer. There's no milk; no frozen food; no hot water; no heat. Many of the phone lines are down. My brother drove across the state to Naples just to buy gasoline for the generator.

I wish there was something I could do, but what can I do? Help is close enough, but the kind of cleanup and rebuilding that needs to take place takes time. I could bring them to my house, but my parents fear flying and I fear they could not make the trip by car--their health is not good. My brother says there is nothing I can do unless I could magically restore everything.

I can pray. Praying is the first course of action. Praying together is powerful, as you know. But if you don't know where the need is, then how can you pray for those in need. Please pray for all the frightened, confused, and helpless people in South Florida as they prepare to cope with another three weeks of being in the dark. I don't see the same coverage of South Florida as I saw for New Orleans. I'm not jealous, I'm just worried, and I know that all of our prayers together will cause God's power to be displayed. Perhaps in some dramatic way; perhaps in some subtle way. If it's only enough to sustain those in need until things are restored, then our prayers will be answered.

Please pray.

De Colores,

Bill

WV88

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