No matter how many times I start to write I hit the backspace and delete button.
Why?
I don’t want to put something down that is flimsy or trite.
Right now the panhandle of Florida is in the midst of a hurricane. My wife has family roots down there, my family rest and renews our souls there, and the people that run the little shops and live in Apalachicola are on my mind. I know people all along that area and they are all in my heart this morning.
I find it so hard to write, because I don’t want people to hear my words of “prayers” as something that is said, but not done. For me the power of prayer is very real and necessary for all of life.
Prayers have been lifted for North and South Carolina, California, Iowa, and all locations hit by natural disasters.
These powerful and destructive weather events have resulted in neighbors helping neighbors in amazing ways. Homes open, food and water shared, and people pulling together to rebuild.
Please join me in prayer for Florida and all those places impacted.
Rev. Shawn J. Smith 
Oh, thank you, Shawn! We still have family down there, the Maddox and Nedley people in Apalach and Tallahassee, as well as Dame cousins in south Georgia, in the hurricane’s ongoing pattern.