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Dear Blake

I wanted to give you a quick update. First, thank you for your prayers! Prayer is a vital work of ministry and I can not express to you how grateful we are for your prayers. Today has been an emotional day as we drove around assessing the region, visiting communities and stopping by a couple families’ homes. With flash floods the water rises and descends usually quickly within a few hours. This event included flash floods but also included the flooding of our major rivers. Therefore, not only were small communities like McDowell, Martin, Maytown, Heuysville, Wayland affected, but also our cities like Pikeville and Hazard which lie along the rivers were also devasted. This flood has affected most of eastern Kentucky.

It is emotional to see homes and businesses devasted by water knowing how much work and time that is required to recover. Many have not even been able to get back to see the damage done to their homes because the high water has not yet receded enough. The weather is slowing down a recovery process even more as temperatures have dropped. Today the rained turned to snow! Looks like we could have a little snow accumulation by Wednesday. It is the first time in my life I have remembered a flood and snow at the same time.

Tomorrow will be a day of us trying to better assess the need in our ministry area and how we can best be the hands and feet of Jesus! Pray for our local and county officials as they respond to the needs. Pray for disaster relief teams that are needed throughout the region. Tuesday is the first distribution day of the year and the first one in our new building, therefore tomorrow is already a busy day as we continue to prepare the new building for. Your continual prayers and support are greatly appreciated! Pray God will give us as a staff the strength we need to minister during this difficult time.

Standing in the GAP,

John