Unless you don’t read the news, don’t read Facebook, don’t surf anywhere but to this blog on the Internet (which would be about 0 of all 5 of you), you have read or heard about Hurricane Patricia (officially the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere) that is about to make landfall on the Pacific coast of Mexico.
While we’re parallel to the approximate landfall point, we’re also about 370 miles east-northeast of where this storm will make landfall. In between us and that point are a lot of mountains. The storm is moving north-northeast and is forecast to curve (as a rain system) more toward the northeast as it proceeds inland.
Here is a good link to view the details of the storm that is still current:
http://www.weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/hurricane-patricia-mexico-coast
We probably won’t see much, if any rain from this system. As I write this, the wind is very still here and the air is heavy with the feel of moisture.
Here is a map that shows where we are located in relation to the approximate landfall and expected path of the storm (we are located toward the right at the dot and yellow highlighting; the red line is the approximate landfall; the blue line with arrow is approximate path expected. Note the location of Puerto Vallarta to the north, Guadalajara to the east of the path; Mexico City to our southeast; and the location of the mountains; the black line represents about 370 miles):
As we typically do with nearby calamities, we await news of what has taken place and what the loss of life and damage to infrastructure has been.
Take a moment and pray for those whose lives are about to be affected. The likelihood of a lot of people entering eternity in the next few hours seems a certainty. Pray for people to turn to the Lord while they still can, and for the gospel message to accompany future relief efforts. I presume we’ll see what those opportunities are in coming weeks and months. Pray for believers who may suffer loss, for their faith to be strengthened, and for their encouragement even through loss. I’m praying all these things now.
In the coming week and beyond, I’ll post anything noteworthy as I can.
We are taking Cameron and our three older youth (ages 16 to 21) from the house church to a day-long youth conference tomorrow at our “mother church” in Querétaro tomorrow. None of them have ever been to a youth conference before. Pray for them to be spiritually encouraged and challenged in their walk with Christ.
After dropping them off, Beth will be visiting a clinic where they plan to do an MRI on her troublesome knee that appears to have meniscus damage as well as an MRI on her lower back that is causing radiating pain down her leg. Pray for the damage to be minimal!
Thanks for reading and praying.
Knowing Your ABCDs 