Quick Update

Hey, friends, my little family are just fine.  We're in North Austin, and we had several rainy days and wind, a few downed trees, but no problems.  We're about 200 miles from the really big trouble.  It was really strange to have blue sky and puffy little clouds here while it continued to pour and pour on eastern Texas.

I didn't actually realize right away that our out of state friends were concerned about us. It was a busy week, at the office with meetings and deadlines, some evening meetings, and next weekend, I'm teaching in Grand Rapids.  I know it's going to be an incredibly fun seminar.  They've already been wonderful as we have been setting up the seminar.

Houston is an enormous, growing city of over 2 million people, not even counting the many surrounding cities that are related economically many of which were devastated by the flooding.  The Houston area produces the lion's share of the economic growth in Texas, is filled with corporate headquarters and universities.  I can hardly fathom what it will take to rebuild, or the number of people affected, but I have great faith that we will see an incredible recovery.

I am not from Texas, but I've lived here since 1994, and you fall in love with the people here.  They are friendly, funny, generous, down-to-earth, hard-working, and loving.  I have a whole storehouse of personal memories of kindnesses Texans have done for our family over these years.  Some of them were small, like shop owners giving my boys a treat and refusing payment, and some were big, like the farmer who towed my son's car for hours from the countryside to a small town where he could get a transmission replaced.  Gosh, a gas station owner once trusted my college boy to pay for a tank of gas so he could get home, even refusing to phone us for a credit card number!  I'm always noticing Texans helping out frazzled parents or elderly folks without giving it a thought.  The friendliness and the politeness of the Texas culture makes every day more pleasant. 

Lots of people have traveled to the coast to help.  God bless everyone who has dropped his or her own life right now to help the afflicted! 

Austin is receiving many flood victims.  When Austin received Katrina victims, local people found many creative ways to help the individuals who came. Now our city has this new challenge, so pray for us, folks; not just for those hurt, but also for those of us who need to see how to help and then do it.