Update on my cousin-in-law's family

I wanted to post an email I got from my cousin Rochelle. Her husband Stephen is from Columbia, MS which was hit hard by the hurricane. Stephen is currently in Columbia armed with supplies for his family and friends, who seem to be doing ok. Here's an update:

Thanks to an unbelievable effort by so many people, Stephen is now on his way to his home town in our expedition pulling a U-Haul with enough supplies to help several families weather the rough conditions there for a good while. I just wanted to write down everything that happened over the past 29 hours since we first heard from Lynn, Stephen’s mom, after the storm. I want it to be clear how God used so many people in so many different ways to bless small group of people they have never met in city 6 hours away in a different state. I also want to have this record to give to the people that are getting the donations so they can see how God worked and who He used to help them.



Before I get into the story I wanted to let everyone know that I talked with my mother-in-law tonight after Stephen left for Mississippi and she was just giddy with excitement over what everyone did for them and over what they would soon be receiving. Last night she sounded rather gloomy, but she was extremely cheerful this evening. She Thank you SOOO much for everything you did and with such cheerful hearts!! What a blessing!! Since most of you won’t be interested in reading all of the details in this email, I also want to first ask for prayer for safety for Stephen as he drives into an area with thousands of dollars worth of food and supplies and equipment that nearly everyone there could use. I have faith that God has sent his angels before him to protect his journey. Stephen’s mom’s home is going to be the distribution point, so please pray for safety for her and her home as well.



After 2 VERY long days of silence we finally heard from Lynn yesterday about 5:00pm. She said she was doing fine, but that there was no running water or electricity and she didn’t have much eatable food and they were not sure when they would have access to any of these things. Stephen had already decided to make a trip with supplies for his friends and family if they needed them, and as soon as we found out that they were in need we got to work. Yesterday evening I went to my church and ask around for some help. You would not believe how many people God used. Several people walked up and gave me money to help pay for supplies. Several others made lists of things they could buy to bring by my house the next day. I was at church to attend a bible study and most of the women in the class made a commitment to help and either gave money or got supplies to me today.



One woman came up to me and told me that she had done a side job that she had just gotten paid for. She said that God had told her that there would be a need for that money at church that evening. As soon as she told me that she stuck a wad of cash into my hand. After a very stressful week of watching the news and not being able to hear from our family, I broke down crying in the hallway over how good God is to us to bring people like that into our lives.



After church I sent out an email to my Sunday school class to update them on what was going on and asked for help. I had a general list that I sent them consisting of basic supplies like ice, water, generators, gas, food, coolers, gas cans, etc. I also called Kathy Carl who is the wife of a past Sunday school teacher of ours and she sent out an email to that class telling them to meet me at the church at 4:00 this afternoon to pick up anything they wanted to bring.



That night on the phone with my mother-in-law she gave Stephen and I lists from a few different families who also were in great need of some basic things. Then my brother, Jeremy came over at 11:00 at night to sit with my children so I could run out to Wal-Mart for supplies, food and water. Like everyone else I was so incredibly antsy to finally be able do something to help that I had the best time one person could have at Wal-Mart at midnight with 50 gallons of water and a cart of food. You should have seen the looks I got. Not something you see everyday, I guess. That is the first great big thanks to my brother for being willing to come over so late on a work night.



This morning I woke up to an incredible response from those who got the emails. I got email after email and phone call after phone call. From people who wanted to know more of what to bring. They agreed to bring things on the lists from the different families and they set out to work. We realized early on that if we couldn’t get a lot of gas the whole thing would be called off. There was no way for Stephen to get gas once he got down to where they are. He would need gas to refill his truck and they needed gas for the generators. OH YEAH! Generators! Where on earth were we going to get generators? Stephen called Home Depot and Lowes from Houston where he was working this week and they said they were sold out of generators in the entire state of GA. On top of that there was a ridiculous gas shortage scare yesterday that turned out to not be true so everyone had run out and bought up all the gas cans. I called probably 20 stores and could not find anyone with a single gas can. I finally found one store that sold me 16 one gallon cans and one 2 gallon can. Combine that with a few cans that some other people had around their house and we had a way to transport 30 gallons of gas, but that wasn’t going to be enough. We needed several 5 gallon gas cans.



Tae Gam from my Sunday school class volunteered to watch the kids while I ran around town. That was such a huge blessing. Let me tell you that God is in all the details. Julia won’t take a bottle, but I didn’t have time to run back and forth to Tae’s house to feed Julia while I ran around. I fed her and left and then she fell asleep and didn’t need to eat for 5 more hours so that I had time to get most of my errands done. It was such a huge answer to prayer.



Anyway, in the mean time and through the help of lots of people making phone calls and giving me suggestions While running errands I would have to run home here and there and the phone at home would always ring with someone else who wanted to help. God would time their calls just right. I was finally able to find a place that had just received a shipment of 250 generators about an hour earlier and was able to put 3 of them on hold. That was such a miracle because by the time I got there with the U-Haul they had sold out of all 250 generators.



During all of that we were also frantically trying to get our hands on Gas cans. Stephen called a friend of his in Birmingham who asked his wife to start calling around and seeing if they had gas cans there that he could pick up on the way through to MS. This woman who doesn’t know any of us got on the phone and called stores and was able to collect 10 5 gallon gas tanks. Another blessing in that is that Gas is much cheaper in Birmingham than it is here. Stephen’s friend Pat is meeting Stephen in Birmingham this evening with some of his friends to help Stephen fill gas cans. He has also said they would help by filling all 6 or 7 coolers we are bringing with ice so that that was one less thing for me to have to worry about. Praise God for them, who don’t know any of us but are willing to help. What an answer to prayer.



When I got to church at 4:00 I was inundated with food and diapers and supplies and everything you can think of. Everyone was so excited to help. It was incredibly moving. Several people also came by the house and unloaded more things to bring. My house was an ant hill of activity from about 5:00 until 6:30 when we left for the airport. My brother and a friend of ours named Erik came over to help pull everything out of the U-haul and the truck and organize it with the stuff that was already at the house and load it all back up. John Edwards also showed up to help with several different things. It is no small miracle that we were able to fit everything in the space we had.



After feeding the baby again Jeremy, Erik and I were on the road to the airport to bring everything to Stephen. He was flying in from Houston and was leaving straight from the airport to MS. John and Melissa Edwards stayed with the kids since there wasn’t a single speck of room left in the truck for anyone other than the driver. Praise God for the Edwards because they not only did a great job with two exhausted kids, but they also cleaned my house while I was out as it was also hit by a hurricane; Hurricane Tynes. I had been so crazy the last couple of days that my house was a wreck.



Praise the Living God who is in ALL of the details, even though I am sure I left many of them out.



THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH FOR EVERYTHING!!!! We could not be more grateful!! You will be greatly blessed for all you did.



In HIS service,

Rochelle Tynes