July Newsletter Article to Faith

Dear Family and Friends of Faith,

I pray that each of you are doing well. As you know hurricane season is upon us. Praise be to God that this year is supposed to be another year of a lower number of named storms. Even though there will be fewer storms we must never grow complacent about how we are to approach all storms or rainy days in our lives.
David states in Psalm 27, “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life of whom shall I be afraid?”
David faced many storms and fears but his confidence rested not in his kingship, wisdom or his ability to stick things out, rather David’s strength and confidence came directly from the Lord. We too are to have the kind of resolve in God that David had. Having that type of confidence in God will bring us safely through to the other side of the storms of life. May the God of Heaven and Earth be your confidence this storm season.
Along with receiving confidence from the Lord while we live out our faith now, we are also people of action. I challenge you to be as prepared as possible for hurricane season. God does not give us confidence so we can just sit around and do nothing. He actually desires for us to act on that confidence and trust in the measures His sovereignty puts into place to help us. The most significant place believers see this is the cross.
God has also given us the Red Cross and, surprisingly, the New Orleans City Office of Homeland Security to help us step up to the challenge of preparedness. God is our provider in many ways. He provides for us this day, this hurricane season, people to help us with the stress of the storms.
The Red Cross’ Challenge is to be Red Cross Ready. What they mean is for you and people you know to be ready for the storms that may come. The steps of being Red Cross Ready are:
get a kit (First aid kit, meds, common supplies, ect.),
make a plan (know where you are going and how you will get there)
be informed (listen to radio and the TV for updates on the storm).
Following these steps will help prepare you to be storm ready if we are to evacuate.
Three items that I believe will be extremely beneficial to you:
call 311 now if you are need medical assistance for evacuation
get a printout of those medications and a copy of your prescriptions from your pharmacist now if you take medication
get on the Safe and Well List now (https://disastersafe.redcross.org/).
Doing these things will prepare you for the physical nature of the storms, and having confidence in God will assist you in the mental and spiritual natures of the storms we will always face.

In Christ,
Thomas Hudson
Associate Pastor