DarjeelinGirl

I was gonna write that I have no life these days - but I realized that because my life is actually in full-blown warp speed, the real reason I haven’t blogged much is that I have no time for blogging!

I edit a least 250 papers each week beyond homeschooling the kids (which is going really well so far this year) and conducting 11 classes (which are also going really well). Then there’s Lego Robotics club, Kindermusik classes, and, of course, bluer women’s group and the bluer gathering itself. The icing on the cake though, is that the curriculum I wrote this summer for timed essay practice has been adopted by a publisher and is gonna bring in some nice royalties as soon as I get that perfectly refined (put huge smile here). Oh, and I’m doing an Essays on Demand workshop in October - gotta prep for that… Still editing for adult authors as well…

And this weekend I learned how to use my laptop and projector for instruction instead of the old rickety overhead. I tried it at classes this morning - awesome! I just need to learn how to more easily paste symbols and icons as we do outlines in Word.

Somehow I’m still finding time to go for my morning walk 4 days a week, too.

And… and…

that’s enough blogging for now.

Go read this post about Brad Williams, a pastor in Louisiana, who is working with kids displaced by the hurricane. Keep them in prayer.

Powerline directed me to this story.

Lt. Gen. Russel Honore was directing the deployment of National Guard troops — expected to number 1,000 — from a New Orleans street corner. (See video of the convoy roll through floodwaters — 3:33)

Honore said getting food and water to the people at the convention center was difficult. “If you ever have 20,000 people come to supper, you know what I’m talking about,” the general said. “If it was easy, it would have been done already.”

CNN’s Barbara Starr, who is traveling with the three-star general, said Honore is “very determined to keep this looking like a humanitarian relief operation.” (See the mayor’s order to stop the talking and send soldiers to help — 1:00)

“A few moments ago, he stopped a truck full of National Guard troops … and said, ‘Point your weapons down, this is not Iraq,’ ” Starr reported.

I am grateful for Honore’s wisdom to treat the victims with such respect and compassion. He did not fall prey to the complaining, blaming and posturing being fueled by the media and politically minded. These people, including the mayor, are scared, desperate, and in physical and emotional pain. This is the kind of help that will get these precious people through.

The despair is creeping higher like the floodwaters. But I suspect a lot of it is exhausted anxiety, hype and plain ol’ political residue from before the hurricane. God is moving in this situation, so I am going to focus my blog on sharing stories of His hands through all of this.

I’m going to start with the Anchoress’ recap of the last 100 hours:

Meanwhile, let’s think - really THINK - about everything that has been done in a little over 100 hours:

Between 2,500 and 3,000 people have been rescued by the Coast Guard, National Guard and First Responders.

National Guard and Regular Army have deployed 50,000 troops…the biggest domestic relief effort in U.S. history after Monday’s onslaught by killer Hurricane Katrina.

The Navy is sending the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman to join an armada of vessels off the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

The Air Force said it was adding a high-flying U-2 spy plane to the relief effort to take pictures to help relief efforts at the request of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The Army has put on alert roughly 3,000 active-duty ground troops from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to be prepared to deploy to New Orleans…The brigade-sized force, likely to be from the 82nd Airborne Division, would engage in crowd control and site-protection activities.

Pipelines are being restored and refineries are beginning to get back into operation.

Levee repairs are underway - reportedly one break has already been fully repaired as of this evening. See You Big Mouth You for Poop about Pumps which is very informative.

Refugees are being taken in in Texas, and the University of Texas, Rice University, Texas A&M, Texas State and Baylor University (and many other schools) are opening their doors to displaced students.

In other words, American generosity and pragmatic idealism is kicking in, as it always does. And things are going to get better. Things are going to get better. And I do think that within a week, as flood waters continue to receed, and the people who are trapped have been rescued, things will look markedly better than they do at this moment, because Americans will do the hard work of making it better - as they always do.

Even President Clinton’s keeping a mature head on things:

And so I just think that we need to recognize right now there’s a confident effort under way. People are doing the best they can. And I just don’t think it’s the time to worry about that. We need to keep people alive and get them back to life — normal life.

Read the whole thing here at Captain’s Quarters.

If you run across any other stories of America as she should be, let me know.

Not just the Gulf Coast, but all of America has been hit by Hurricane Katrina. The hurricane itself has not only caused unbelievable suffering and tragedy, it has also exposed serious moral flaws and failures in America’s character, systems and history. By God’s grace, we as a nation will look long and hard at the elements that have bred such a grievous aftermath. And by God’s grace, we will stop running and screaming, blaming the government and demanding that it fix everything and fix it faster already. The government is not God and should never be looked to as such.

Thankfully, the Real God uses these things to bring us to Him. If you look at the history of the levees, the corporate investments, poverty in the South, the economic systems that promote and perpetuate certain lifestyles and attitudes that were a large part of the Gulf’s existence, America set herself up for the problems rising out of this disaster all by herself.

Hurricanes and floods are simply built into the fabric of the Earth’s environment. People or no people, they are nature’s way of cleansing and renewal. Who in their right mind would build the foundation of their lives and livelihoods below sea level in a tropical zone surrounded by multiple branches of the ever flooding Mighty Mississippi? Who indeed. Only generations of greed-tainted rationalization could justify such asininity.

So now we’re reaping it - all of us, not just the Gulf Coast. This is only going to get more expensive, more political, and more racial until the miraculous happens. And there’s only one way that ever happens. People turn around. And I don’t mean just the rioting looters, murders and rapists going nuts in New Orleans. Our whole nation needs to look inward and see the spiritual poverty and bentness that are tearing down our society as a whole.

Matthew 25:35 For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited Me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed Me, I was sick and you looked after Me, I was in prison and you came to visit Me.’

37″Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You something to drink? 38When did we see You a stranger and invite You in, or needing clothes and clothe You? 39When did we see You sick or in prison and go to visit You?’

40″The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for Me.’

Isn’t it interesting who Jesus exhorts us to help? It’s not just the nice, educated, well-mannered victims who got out when they were supposed to. The hungry, the thirsty, the strangers, the naked, the sick and difficult to manage, the ones in prison and the ones who may soon be going there. The tired, the crabby, the ignorant, rude and obnoxious. Each one of those victims, well-behaved or not, represents each one of us in the same situation. And what’s more, many of them had no resources necessary for evacuating in the first place. That’s something we as a country seemed to have overlooked - a symptom of our deeper problem. That’s not something Jesus overlooked. He calls them His brothers.

A marble statue of Christ in front of St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square survived the storm. Its arms are outstretched, symbolizing God’s longing for us to come to Him so He can begin in us the life He has always meant us to have. This is what He died for - the devastation, the tragedy, the foolishness, the hate, the politics, the poverty, the hopelessness, the sorrow, the grief, the anger, the armchair quaterback judgements, the apathy, the pain, the sin. And just like that statue, His offer still stands.

Now is the time to give what we can and do what we can to aide the relief efforts. We can and we will give millions and that’s good. But it’s got to go deeper than that. America’s heart about its government, the poor, the economy, how we live and relate to each other has got to change. Where we look for hope has to shift. When we need it most, what we have right now isn’t working. Hurricane Katrina has exposed us. We have sown the wind and reaped the whirlwind. Oh Lord, by Your mercy, may we not be swallowed up (Hosea 8:1-8).

Hurricane Katrina: Blog for Relief Weekend
Thursday, September 1 - Monday, September 5
A weekend of blogging focused on raising awareness of and funds for relief efforts to aid those affected by Hurricane Katrina. See here for more information, and here for the TTLB Katrina topic page.