When Your Life is Shaken - Kailah's Story
“The neighbor’s tree just came down!”
My brother-in-law, Pierre, leaned over the couch and watched the storm.
I felt my heartbeat quicken.
I took a deep breath in and out, hoping that it would calm me down, but my heart still raced.
Debris and a thick wall of rain moved horizontally past our window at a hundred miles an hour making it hard to see much...
...but I didn't WANT to see much if it looked like Pierre had described it..
He came over to sit with the rest of the family, and we waited in silence under the steel center-beam in the basement of our house for a few minutes, expecting the storm to die down any second.
But it didn’t.
“Hey, how would you guys feel if I played some worship music?”
My sister pulled her phone from her pocket and started to play a favorite song of ours called “Promises” by Maverick City Music.
Over the course of the ten minute song we would periodically hear loud bangs and crashes in the house above us.
The storm got louder…
...so we sang louder.
“...Though the storm may come and the winds may blow I’ll remain steadfast
And let my heart learn when You speak a word it will come to pass…
Great is Your faithfulness to me…”
I put my faith in Jesus, my anchor to the ground
My hope and firm foundation - He’ll never let me down…
Great is Your faithfulness to me…”
I had never heard of a “Derecho” or “Land Hurricane,” but apparently - as I learned later - this is what they were calling the massive storm system that had been raging above us for nearly an hour.
As our house creaked and shook around us, we sang - reminding ourselves of the truth that God is bigger than WHATEVER comes against us.
When the winds began - finally - to die down, my dad and Pierre went upstairs to see what had been damaged while my mom and sister tried to sop up the water that had begun to drip into our basement.
Something definitely seemed wrong with the house above us.
And when the boys came back a minute later, they confirmed it.
“The house is shredded.”
A good portion of our roof and siding had been torn off and dirty rainwater was leaking steadily onto our main floor.
We later found a section of the roof lodged twenty feet off of the ground in our neighbors’ tree, and the rest of it in a field several hundred yards away. Later that night, much of our ceiling collapsed, spilling sheet-rock and storm-soaked insulation into our living areas.
Our house had been hit pretty hard.
It felt like I had been kicked in the gut.
My home, the place that had always felt safe and secure, apparently was not as safe or secure as I had always imagined.
My throat went dry and my arms suddenly felt weak and heavy - a swell of emotion threatened to overwhelm me and I fought to hold back tears.
My family jumped to action - the boys moved quickly to patch up what they could and my mom and sister hurried to salvage what they could before the ceilings caved in, but I didn't move.
I stood there, in the middle of the basement...
...Overwhelmed and shaken.
Then I saw something bright out of the corner of my eye.
I turned and saw that my sister’s phone had just lit up.
I didn’t know why, but I felt that I should look.
I’m not usually one to look at others’ notifications but this time, for some reason, it felt… important.
My sister watched as I walked over and lifted the cracked phone case - she told me later that she had felt the same thing...
Something about this was important.
I glanced at the phone screen - the notification was for the Bible app “verse of the day.”
It said this:
“Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord who has compassion on you.” (Isaiah 54:10)
I read the verse, closed my eyes, and breathed out slowly.
“Thank You, Jesus.”
In that moment God had given me strength - He had used this verse to show me that I had been trusting in things that were not sturdy, but that no matter what happened around me, He would never change and neither would His love for me.
I was still battling with my emotions, but I was confident that the same Jesus who had given His life for me would be faithful - He would be with me through everything that I faced.
And He has.
Jesus is real, He is good and, when He looked at us in our brokenness and separation from Him, He gave his life to forgive us and reconnect us to Himself.
I’ve seen Him bring freedom, not only to my own life, but to people all over the world.
And I'm convinced that He’s not done yet, but that He will continue to bring hope to this world that desperately needs it.
God has been good to us - our house is currently still being rebuilt and repaired but I am so thankful for the reminder that no matter WHAT we face, Jesus is our only TRUE, immovable refuge.
And this is why we do what we do.
Quick storm update: We wanted to take a moment and give a HUGE thanks to all of you who have prayed, helped, and reached out to us after the extensive damage to our home during this time.
Thanks to God's faithfulness, your generosity, and the excellent coverage on our home, we are well on our way to repairing all of the damage, and we are hoping to have the home completely restored before winter weather descends on the Midwest.
Thank you all for praying and standing with us - God is faithful and we're so grateful for each and every one of you!
More. Committed. Than. Ever.
2020 has been a year of incredible challenges, but we are more convinced than ever that Jesus is STILL the answer.
We've had to reschedule many of our upcoming outreaches (Zambia, India, and Haiti) until early next year, but we're still committed to the goal of reaching as many people as possible in every nation with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ and we can't wait to get back out there!
We’ve also been using this time to create content designed to introduce people to the love and message of Jesus. This is the goal of every song, blog, podcast, and video that we produce, so please feel free to use our content as a resource if you know someone who needs to hear this message.
If you'd like to help us share the love of Jesus in 2020 with a tax-deductible monthly donation or a one-time gift, simply click the link below for more information. We're deeply thankful for you, friends!
THIS ONE MEANS A LOT TO US…
Our brand new music video is streaming now - COME BACK was filmed on two continents over the course of six months…