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Hello once again from the Embrace family. Dane, Melinda, and Marci are away this week at the National Quartet Convention in Louisville, Kentucky. Melinda’s husband, Paul and our good friend and coworker in the ministry, Kim Sharp are there as well. It’s been a busy week but they’re enjoying some great fellowship with many of the terrific people who sing Southern Gospel music. Marci has been a little under the weather with an upper respiratory infection but God’s grace is proving sufficient. This infection is a most unwelcome guest at the convention this week but then isn’t that the way? About the time we get all our little fuzzy-feathered ducks in an orderly row--KABOOM!!! The bomb goes off and the feathers fly. We’re left to clean up the mess and start all over again.

It could be quite funny if it weren’t for the fact that much of life is made up of how we respond to these uninvited guests --these unexpected and unwelcome events that range in impact from the mildly annoying to the soul -wrenchingly devastating. Recently we all watched in horror as thousands fled their homes and all they owned as the killer Katrina swept away entire lifetimes of earthly accomplishment. We wept with these people as the media related story after story of loss. We heard of entire families washed away or perhaps worse, a frightened child torn from a mother’s arms never to be seen again on this side of eternity. We feel like crying out, “It’s too much, Lord! We can’t stand it.” Our hearts break for them. Perhaps some of you reading this lived the nightmare. Maybe some of you survived the worst that Katrina could give.

Questions are being asked and fingers of blame pointed. Even many Christians are asking why God would allow such a thing to happen. As our pastor put it on the Sunday morning immediately following the devastation, “We will never know why but we must ask ourselves ‘What now?’”. Thousands of people from all over this great nation and from other nations as well have extended a helping hand. Money and materials, services and time have been donated beyond anything we’ve ever seen in my home state of Mississippi. We are so thankful.

But even more important than the response to physical needs, the “What now?” question extends to the spiritual needs brought to light by this historic tragedy. Our humanity wants a quick fix, an answer to resolve our pain and we mean NOW! I’m amazed at one of my heroes in scripture who, at the news of losing all that he held dear, responded by falling to the ground in worship to God. There is healing in true worship.

Embrace experienced God’s healing touch as we were privileged to share the stage with Phil Cross and Poet Voices as part of the “Hearts and Harmony” service held at Crossgates Baptist Church on September 4th. With all that had happened, we wondered if the concert would be cancelled but the church staff felt this was just what the church needed . I was personally encouraged as I looked around the sanctuary that night and saw hundreds of people, many of them displaced victims of the hurricane, worshipping and praising our Mighty God!

But what about those who don’t have this hope, this eternal relationship with Jesus Christ? “What now?” turns to “What next?” for those of us who know Him. Embrace is continuing to share Christ through song and personal testimony as the Lord provides opportunity. Wounded hearts are tender. Our prayer is that we will be able to reach those who have lost so much with the good news of Someone Who has sacrificed everything so that they can have it all in Christ!

So the next time it’s 11:00am on a Saturday and you’re sitting there reading a magazine in your favorite pajamas (yes, the ugly green ones with the hole in the knee) and the doorbell rings, get up and answer the door because this is real life… and you’ve got guests.

Nora Truhett
http://www.embraceministry.com

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