As the last turbulent winds of the hurricane rattled my home, the phone began to ring from well wishers but no one could get through, the phone would ring and then would stop and the recording would say due to the lines being overloaded, please try call again. So millions of people were calling to see how their loved ones were doing on the Gulf. Then some of my family and friends figured out that cell phones might just be working so they began dialing in until that too got bombarded. Finally one of my dearest friends after getting frustrated with not being able to get through, texted me a message. I finally had made a connection with the outside world.

Unfortunately I'm not a text-er. Nope, that is my daughter's generation. Email and phone communications are just fine for me. So I sat there trying to figure out how to text her back and after a few minutes got the hang of it, didn't know where to find the space key so I simply texted back -weok - meaning we're okay and I do know where the space button is now. But as I hit send the most profound thing happened, I realized that after the horrendous night we had all gone through on the gulf, the only thing that mattered was that our families were alive - we ok. That's all anybody else wanted to know as they called throughout the day. No one asked about the damage, or the fact that everyone was without power, or the fact that there was no gas, no bank machines and no food, they only wanted to know that we all were okay.

As neighbors it was the same as we peaked out the door to see if homes were still standing and stood in the streets talking and encouraging each other, we were all taking body counts and dog and cat counts are WE ok? Thank God we all were. After that we assesed the damage and found that God had spared us all though others were not so fortunate in terms of material things. But on Sunday morning when we showed up for church, even members whose houses had burned down and tree's had destroyed their home had smiles on their faces because "we ok".

So finding heaven in a hurricane is simply this, a spared life is a gift from God. Everything else can be and is being replaced. So heaven touched us all because "we ok". A hurricane will show you what really is of value and all it boils down to is the value of a human soul. So what did we all do after the storm? We helped each other out, carried food from house to house for those who had electric stoves, mended each other roofs, gave each other water and ice. We shared, we talked about God and we did not complain because all of our conveniences were suddenly halted, we gave to each others needs no matter what they were and we are still doing it. Ike's presence is far from being over in this region. We all found heaven in a hurricane.