Praise Him in the Storms

This morning I went out to find our oldest son who had disappeared from his schoolwork to tend to his chickens.  (He is now in the fresh egg business which is much more interesting and profitable than school work.)  While outside, I noticed a large limb that hangs over our bedroom swaying in the wind.  I knew a storm was coming in tonight; the winds were already pretty strong.  I said a quick prayer as I looked at the swaying limb, "Please, Lord, don't let that branch fall on my bedroom tonight during the storm."

I then hollered for my son to come out of the barn and back to the house.  I went about my day schooling, baking for our fundraiser, and running kids here and there.  Later, that afternoon, I could hear the winds picking up, so I sent our son back outside to pen his chickens up early before the weather got too bad.  A few minutes later he comes running back into the house to tell me that there was a "tree" on the house!  I immediately ran to my bedroom to see if it had come through because I knew exactly what limb had fallen without him telling me.  No sign of any damage in the bedroom "Praise God!"

I then ran outside to see how bad it looked from the outside.  That's when I found this:

I panicked as a gust of wind blew the leaves into the air.  It was 2:00 in the afternoon.  I had a huge limb on my roof.  The roof looked like it had several holes in it.  My husband was in the air somewhere between Houston and Wyoming and would not be home to take care of this before the rains began.  The storm was going to be here soon with lots more wind.  And LOTS of rain. And we are trying to sell it.  And I have people coming to see it later this week.  And so what do I do now?

I thought about crying and asking "Why?" but then I remembered my prayer.  "Please, Lord, don't let that branch fall on my bedroom tonight during the storm,"  and my Facebook post this morning about how God takes care of his missionaries. So instead I said, "Thank you, Jesus! Praise you, Lord, for not letting it fall during the night during the rain." I left the pity-party before it ever got started and began to make a few calls and sent a few texts.

Within 15 minutes, a neighbor owning a tree service business (Beaver Tree Service----awesome guy) shows up at my house to help remove the tree limb from our roof.  My dad shows up (like he always does) and has already called a carpenter (Paul Dupuis-another awesome guy) to come patch the roof for me before the rains start.

The next thing I know there is a huge crane in my yard lifting the giant limb from our roof, and there are several men up there assessing the damage it left behind.  I ran in to check on the baking situation (Missions Fundraiser was already underway!) and came out to find that they had already removed the part of the roof that was damaged.  I offered them the blue tarps from the shed, but they didn't need them.  They weren't just patching it for the night.  They were fixing it!

In less than 3 hours from discovering the fallen limb, the tree had been removed, the kids had hauled off all the little branches, and the roof on that part of the house had been replaced!  It was something that only God could have orchestrated in such a short time.  I am slowly learning to praise God not only in the clear skies, but in the storms too!