Prayer Requests

Thank you all for checking in with us and praying for our families. We've been incredibly blessed to have not lost anyone in this horrible disaster. However, there are a lot of hurting people back home right now and they need continued prayers. Here's an update from the Geiser's, some of our friends who lost their home:

Hello to all our friends and family!

We wanted to take a minute and update you on our first day of beginning this journey of rebuilding life after the tornado. First of all, THANK YOU SO MUCH! Your prayers, messages, offers of help and gif...ts have already left us completely humbled and speechless with gratitude. In many ways we are still in shock- just doing the next thing to try and sort through the mess- but knowing we aren't walking through this alone has brought so much encouragement in dealing with all this. We truly feel held up by you all right now.

Today we were able to go to the house, in between a lot of rain, and look for whatever could be salvaged. There were several ways that God showed His grace to us, and I want to share them with you. First of all, we found our school room mostly in tact (it was part of our garage). This meant that most of our books for school were still undamaged. On top of that, we stored some of our pictures out there- including all the negatives of our wedding photos- and they were all fine!! Our second story was pretty much gone except for part of Anthony's and my bedroom. In this part of the room was our fire safe, which has all our birth certificates, marriage license, insurance info.... It was all there in the midst of the rubble! Also, Anthony has journals with our girls (he started them once they turned 8 yrs old- so Tatum has been doing this for 3 years now). They take turns writing letters back and forth to each other in them. Well, somehow we found BOTH of them- something so irreplaceable- and they barely had any water damage! Each of the kids' baby books were also there- just wet. All of these things were just above and beyond what we could have hoped to find. We were amazed at God's mercy to give us, not only our lives, but then these precious mementos on top of that- we are so grateful!

Many have asked what we need right now, and that is a hard question to answer. We need everything at this point! In the next few weeks we will know more of what that means exactly.

For now, we are focusing on these few things:

-A car fund. We lost both our vehicles in the storm which were only covered by liability insurance. In the near future, we are going to have to replace them so we can start getting around again. For now, Anthony's parents are letting us use their van, so that is working as a temporary solution until we can get the money together to buy new -used :) vehicles.

-Sorting through what we have left. We have been able to find some of the kids special stuffed animals and a few clothes. They are wet and filthy, but we think we can clean them up. All the cleaning is going to take time.

-Our kids. Yesterday was a terrifying experience for us all, but the kids especially have a lot to process. They have lost all of their 'treasures' and their home. They have seen our walls and roof disappear. AJ (who is 3) doesn't understand why we can't go home. He keeps asking why the bad bad storm came. We want to help them process this whole ordeal, but we are also busy trying to get as much accomplished as we can before rain destroys anything else. Pray for them. Pray for us to take the time during all this to help them. Pray for peace in their hearts and minds.

-A few things that come to mind that we will be needing- a high chair, a stroller, a crib, a twin bed, bunk beds, bath towels, dressers...I won't go on. We are at his parent's house, so we don't have unlimited storage, but in the next few weeks these things will be needed.

We have been so humbled and blessed by all of you. Thank you so much for praying, weeping, checking in on us, bringing by clothes, giving and giving and giving. We are overwhelmed. We are full of thankfulness. We love you all!

Also, we had two different groups of friends/family who brought the girls and Josiah clothing today. We also had a second-hand store give us a car seat and booster for the boys for FREE today. Several in our family have given sacrificially to us to help with our immediate needs as well. Family and friends have offered to come and help with chainsaws and trailers- again, THANK YOU! We will be in touch with you when the area clears enough that cleanup is possible without getting in the way of emergency service workers. Thank you again from the bottom of our hearts. We are overcome!

All is grace~Christy & Anthony

Also, please pray for a classmate of mine, Paul. His parents were at a Pizza Hut in town when the tornado hit and people were told to go to the freezer for safety. Now rescue workers can't find the freezer. His mom was pulled out of the rubble, but his dad is still missing. Additionally, another guy we went to school with, Don, was killed while trying to protect his wife. There are still people trapped under the rubble. Pray for stamina for the emergency workers, hope for those who have family members still missing, and peace for those who have lost loved ones. Pray for the community as they pick up the pieces of the town they love and begin to rebuild.