Thursday night I let you all know of the last twist to this week: not only was last week the busiest week of the year at work and I was watching a friend’s 5 kids, I have pneumonia.

That’s super crazy, right?

Well that’s not where the craziness ends…

If you heard any news at all this weekend, you probably heard that Raleigh got some wild tornadoes of historic proportions. These tornadoes hit several places (and high winds impacted an even wider path), and one of those places where a tornado went was less than a 1/4 mile from my home.

I wasn’t home at the time, and my roommate who was is fine. Our house thankfully sustained no damage, and from what I saw, I don’t even think very many in our neighborhood did. The trees and vehicles are a different story, as you can see on the right.

About 30-40 trees in our neighborhood look like this one that is across the street from us (or worse). Many cars were scratched, a few were severely damaged. Not the first car-damaging incident in our neighborhood, but at least this one wasn’t foolishness-caused!

Since the tornado happened while I was still with the kids (in a nearby town away from the tornado, thankfully!), I had to get home (the parents got home just as the storm was ending). I was going to try to get home before I realized that the police had most of the roads near my house blocked off and decided to forget it. Instead, I went to the home of the mother of another friend….who also has 5 kids.

Perhaps I’m a wee-bit crazy. After having dinner with them (I ate a whole 6 pieces of pasta, 2 small pieces of bread, and a meatball…that’s a lot for me right now!), I decided to head out to yet another friend’s house (who only have 3 kids…slackers) who live near me. They didn’t have power at the time (came back at 4 AM), but I would rather be with others without power than alone without power.

Our power will be out (so we’re told) until Tuesday. The tornado completely took out 8 or so nearby power line poles (which were replaced this afternoon), and some larger power carrier thingies (what you see down in the picture) that may take some time to rebuild.

While this caps off a crazy week for me (though it’s not over for me until I’m home, which won’t be until we have power…I’ve washed my week’s worth of clothes and started them over again), it’s not been a crazy week for me on the inside. It’s hard to explain, but emotional times are so much harder than these times. None of the things that have happened have been emotional for me (though I have felt like I understand Job a wee bit better).

Others in my church were affected too. No injuries or fatalities, thankfully, but one house in particular was hit pretty bad. But the church has really rallied to help this family and the others that have been affected in our area.

It was hard to think who to call when I was displaced, not because I was afraid of inconveniencing someone, but because I knew of at least a dozen people who would have welcomed me with open arms. It came down to choosing the one that happened to be the closest to my house, so the most convenient.

The worship service this morning was awesome. At one point I had tears rolling down my face, as I so desperately wanted to worship God through song, something my disease won’t allow. It’s a little thing, but I was just so thankfully to the overwhelming grace God has given me this week. I can’t help but thinking of all that happens in terms of grace. Because in all that went wrong, so much went right.

I praise the God who holds the winds in his hands, both those that give me breath and those that knock down homes, power lines, and trees.