A Time For Healing

The devastation of Hurricane Katrina has touched my heart so deeply. At times like these, my prayers go out to all of the victims and I pray for guidance on where and how I can help. My church has looked into organizations to join with and will be “putting out the Bible” next Sunday and forwarding those funds to Samaritan’s Purse to help out the people affected by Katrina. They will also be using the donations to help out the family of our church members. My prayer is that this will give people the hope that comes from knowing that God’s love for them is never-ending.

I was able to find friends who lived in New Orleans about a week after the disaster. They are fine, but had to evacuate from their home, along with their dogs. I tried to look at the Google Map of the Katrina devastation to see if their house was ok, but there was a cloud over their house at the moment the posted picture was taken, so it was hard to tell.

I also went on the Creating Keepsakes Message Board and changed the view from Scrapbooking Only (which is my usual view) to View All Messages so I could find out how our Scrapbooking Sisters in Louisiana and Mississippi were holding up. One of the posts touched my heart – a post from "southern mom". She had just completed 8 albums of her family photos and those albums along with all of her scrapbook supplies were washed away along with the back of her house. I am blessed with so much and wanted to share my supplies with her to help get her started again.

I feel so helpless knowing there were many others who probably couldn’t even get to a computer to let us know how they were doing, and even more families who have no home to return to.

I remember a story I once heard that helped me remember that even though you want to help everyone, there is only so much you can do, so you help who you can. And so, I will.

The Starfish

There was a young man walking down a deserted beach just before dawn. In the distance he saw an old man. As he approached the old man, he saw him picking up stranded starfish and throwing them back into the sea.

The young man gazed in wonder as the old man again and again threw the small starfish from the sand into the water. He asked, "Old man, why do you spend so much energy doing what seems to be a waste of time?"

The old man explained that the stranded starfish would die if left in the morning sun.

"But there must be thousands of beaches and millions of starfish!" exclaimed the young man. "How can you make any difference?"

The old man looked down at the small starfish in his hand and as he threw it to the safety of the sea, he said, "I make a difference to this one."

-Author Unknown