Just ask Fletcher. Will Fletcher is a local homeowner who saw the tidal wave coming and is still trying to bail his way out. I met Fletcher through our volunteers. I had a group in the area as part of my J.I. and Fletcher stopped to talked to them. Fletcher met Mike, one of our summer staff and after Fletcher shared some of his story, Mike reached out to say, “We gotcha, man—we gotcha.” Fletcher, like so many in this city, is desperate for someone to come along beside him—to help and encourage him. A couple of our groups have been able to step in and assist with the piles of work at his house. I had the privilege to meet Fletcher on Monday. He is a talker, and boy, does he have a lot to say! I fully believe he has bottled up every thought and emotion he has experienced since August ’05. He told me how he was outside as the floodwaters were approaching. “The water went from 4 feet to 6 feet, 6 feet to 8, 8 to 12! I was outside, looked down the street and said aloud, ‘What’s that?! Man, that’s a house!!’” He recalled rushing up the steps to safety and the force of the rapidly rising water and debris from a house barreling down the street knocked him back across the room. Tears were forming in his eyes when he described how thankful he was for the volunteers these last few days. They have provided him with an indescribable boost, when everyone else in the city seemed to be kicking him while he was down. In his words, “They have come in here and said, ‘Man, you got screwed—but you’re hanging in there.” Indeed, Fletcher has been wrecked and abandoned in so many ways…and amazingly, he and his family are still hanging in there. They inspire me and will for years to come. Leaning on his now corroded mustang, Fletcher looked down at the ground in a daze, talking as if to himself to say, “Maybe we can have something we can actually put a Christmas tree in.” Having a place to display a Christmas tree is something most of us take for granted. For Fletcher, having such a place represents so much more than a festive decoration. It represents restoration of life—pressed but not crushed, knocked down but not destroyed. May we all find the strength to rise up when the pressures of this world try to bring us down.

Praying that you are especially aware of God’s love and blessings today,

Hannah Sterling

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” 2 Corinthians 4:7-9