We Didn’t Even Know It Was Coming!

This picture has absolutely nothing to do with today's blog.
Its just a shot of some horses that were running wild on the mountain where we live.

We’ve been without power so many times over the last couple months that they need to change the name of this place to "Blackout Mountain!” It’s ridiculous. It’s like we’re living back in the 1800’s or something. I think the power company intentionally does/doesn’t do things correctly just to generate work for their repair department because there’s no possible way that we should be without electricity this much- it’s 2015’ for goodness sake! OK, I’ll stop ranting and just get to the real reason for today's blog- sorry: )

On Wednesday Night (2 weeks ago) we went to bed around 11:00pm and fell asleep pretty fast. We were really tired because it had been a long day. We woke up around 1:30am to the sound of rain falling and blowing against our window- which was awesome since it really hadn't rained at all on the mountain in over a month. But then it happened. We were abruptly awakened around 2:00am as we heard the upstairs door smash into the wall making the loudest crash imaginable as the dogs all went crazy and the electricity blew-out simultaneously. Then I heard the most horrific winds I’ve heard since I was a child. 

I grew up in South Florida and had been through my share of hurricanes and tornadoes. We even lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma for about 4 years where tornadoes were actually a common occurrence. But, here in the jungles of Brazil, there are no Hurricanes or tornadoes. We’ve had several thunderstorms and high winds. And we've had our share of flooding but never any storms with sustained winds like this.

The winds blew so strongly, and for so long, that I actually thought our house could be blown apart. It was scary. After a few hours the winds stopped and we went back to sleep even though the electricity was still off and the rain was still falling.

When daybreak came the kids went down to the bottom of the mountain to buy bread and they saw that a lot the people that lived at the bottom of the mountain had lost their roofs and everything was in shambles because of the high winds. 

Some of the men from Terra Boa trying to repair a roof that was lost during the storm

As I went to Curitiba (to go into the office) later the next day I saw that the city was hit pretty hard as well. The winds were so strong that almost all the roadside signs were either blown to smithereens or blown over. And when I say “blown over” I mean 5” steel tubing bent in half by the winds (see last pic). It was crazy. 

One of the signs totally demolished by the wind

If you look closely you can see the 5" steel tubing bent in half by the high winds

And what’s crazier is that nobody knew it was coming. Nobody.

Then, just this past week, we had another storm. But this time it was a hail storm. And it wasn't just your average hail storm either. It’s like golf ball sized hail was being shot out of a shotgun from the sky or something.

Golf ball sized hail fell from the sky like it was being fired out of a shotgun

Our house at the top of the mountain wasn't hit that bad. But at the bottom of the mountain it was a different story. At Kevin’s house (Maryssa’s boyfriend) the hail was falling so hard and in such quantity that it knocked the steel grates out of the satellite dish they had in their yard and it penetrated straight through the roofs on both houses that belong to his parents. Actually almost all of the people in the town lost their roofs (to these shotgun-like holes) as the hail made it all the way inside their homes.

Hail 

You can see daylight from the inside of the house because of the hail damage

As I drove down the mountain the next morning I could see people frantically trying to cover their roofs in the rain as others were trying to make repairs. The ones who could afford to purchase new roofing material (before the construction store ran out) did and everyone else was forced to cover their homes with plastic. 

You can see that a majority of the homes in town are covered in plastic

The thing about this storm (just like the last) was that there was no warning. I don’t know if it’s because of a lack of technology (no early warning system for stuff like this here?) or maybe it's because everyone’s not glued to their televisions like they are back in the States to see the warnings that scroll along the bottom of the screen- I don’t know? It was/is very sad. Most of the people effected can’t afford to just run out and buy new roofs because it’s pretty expensive (in comparison to how much they earn) and it’s definitely affected the people here in Terra Boa. So please pray for our community.

(Warning: Here’s where I’m gonna get all ‘preachy' and I know this subject is considered offensive but I’m sorry- it’s just how I feel.)

OK. The thing that sticks out to me the most is how nobody knew these weather events were gonna happen. And, if someone knew these storms were coming, they sure didn't spread the news because it seemed like everyone was caught off guard.

But there’s something else that's hit me as I’ve thought about this. As I was seeing my neighbours and how they were effected by these last 2 weeks of bad weather it made me feel very sad for them. 

But, as sad as I felt for them- there’s another event that’s coming and it seems you don’t hear much about it and there’s no alarm being sounded to warn people either.

Because as damaging as the hail was and as terrifying as the winds were- those things pale in comparison to what I’m referring to. And it’s the return of Christ and The Day of Judgement. 

Now I know The Church has been talking about and looking for this for a couple of thousand years now. But, be that as it may, The Day is coming. The Day where everyone form every tribe, nation and tongue will be assembled before The King- to be judged. How terrifying is that?

Hebrews 9:27 says, “it's appointed to man once to die then the judgement.” There will be 2 groups of people assembled before The Lord that day- the saved and the lost. The ones who trusted in Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins will be in one group and the ones who didn’t will be in the other. The ones that were washed in the blood of the lamb and whose names are written in The Lamb's Book of Life will be going into an eternity with Jesus while the others into an eternity of darkness, pain and suffering. 

And even though we as christians have this information and we know this event is coming- it’s like we (yes, even us  missionaries) get caught up in ‘life' and forget about (or at least lose the urgency of) telling others about the salvation that’s available through what Jesus did on the cross. It’s crazy. 

I know this subject is intense and it’s not fun to talk about. But how horrible will that Day be if all of our friends, neighbours, co-workers, etc. see us going to Heaven where there’s so much joy and peace that we can’t even comprehend it- while they're being sent to a place that's worse than any nightmare anyone could imagine?... And all because we didn't tell them. How sad would that be? And how will it feel to look them in the eyes on that Day? I know one thing- it'd be way worse than not letting people know that a wind or hail storms was coming (so that they could get prepared), right? So let's help people get prepared because The Day is coming: )

Love You Guys!

Jim and MJ