Good Morning Gorgeous,

It’s a brand new day. A fresh new start. Everyday God provides for brand new mercy. Brand new strength. Brand new hope. Brand new victories await you today!!!

This is day 2 post Hurricane Ian for SW Florida. (It’s actually day 3 now, but this was written yesterday )

People are using phrases like “looks like a war zone”, “worst case scenario”, “hardest hit”, and other phrases to try to capture the magnitude of what we are seeing and experiencing.

There is no power, little to no running water, no internet, spotty cell service, no ice, minimal access to gas and other supplies, and we have no projected date for when school will resume.

And yet there is strength in the gathering of people to help eachother.

There is a hope rising that we will rebuild and recover.

My 12 year old daughter told us tonight that she likes the slower pace of the last 2 days, and has enjoyed our family all being so close without a schedule. She’s not minimizing the pain or losses, but she’s digging deep for any sliver of good. We call this mining for treasure. Look through the rubble, find the treasures.

Inside our home, we have accessed a peaceful calm that can only come from Jesus in this type of situation.

None of my kids are scared or worried about the future. We are living day by day.

They understand the gravity of the situation as much as it is age-appropriate, but we have sheltered them from a spirit of fear and modeled how to gain access to a supernatural peace.

We remained in perfect peace even during the storm.

It was the peace Jesus speaks of that surpasses all understanding.

Peace that you can access even when it doesn’t make any sense to have peace.

And there were several times that I had to work hard to access the peace. The sounds of the hurricane are awful. The wind howls and whips up debris. You can hear branches breaking and see damage happening before your eyes.

So a few times I stepped away from watching the storm and into my prayer closet and told Jesus that I needed to be face to face, eyes locked with Him like Peter was when Peter walked on the water.

As long as Peter looked into the eyes of Jesus and stayed in faith, he could access the supernatural grace and power of Jesus and do the impossible and walk on water. But when Peter took his eyes off the Lord and looked at the water and the reality of his situation, he sank.

I kept imagining that I was face to face with Jesus and He would fill me with new peace and heavy doses of it!

Information has been extremely hard to come by. Cell service was down, Information comes in slowly and we are just now beginning to realize that this will be a long recovery process. And the reality of the trauma and loss for the island communities is starting to sink in as information becomes available.

We’ve been in day to day survival mode just doing what needs to be done in each moment making meals and checking in on close friends.

Chuck returned to work. He is a carrier for USPS and on his first day back there was no mail, just packages. He had only 9 packages to deliver, and it was mostly medications. He was instructed to knock on the customers’ doors and hand deliver the packages and do wellness checks to see of they were alright.

We are cooking all meals on our grill. People are stopping by to eat with us and we have been sending meals over to others. But we’ve been blessed with a way to cook! Here is Addy and Christy making breakfast and Addy even gave cookies on the grill a try. It worked!

This was yesterday’s post. Today, more and more really awful information regarding our islands and central Florida has come in. I am drafting a new post to share the updates.

Continual eyes on Jesus. Eyes locked with Jesus. Again and Again.

Dear Heavenly Father,

Eyes on You Lord. Eyes on You. Eyes on You. Eyes on You. When it hurts, eyes on You. When it’s hard, eyes on You. When the storm rages and it hurts to breathe, eyes on You. When we don’t know what to do next, eyes on You. Where to turn, how to respond next, eyes on You. When we are weary, hearts burdened, eyes on You. When the situation seems impossible, eyes on You. With our eyes fixed on You, we will be able to do what seems impossible just like Peter did!

In Jesus’s Name, Amen.

Blessings in the storm and eyes on Jesus!

Vanessa Lynn

And if you came across this post and you haven’t yet accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, may I encourage you that by choosing Him you receive eternal life in heaven, BUT ALSO abundant life NOW. Following Him is the most precious adventure you have ever taken!! All you have to do to get started is to pray and receive Him as Lord. The Bible says to confess Jesus Christ as Lord and believe with your heart the precious gospel message that Jesus taught. Repent of your sins which means simply to ask Jesus to forgive you and then choose to walk away from them and go in the New Direction that God is calling you to. Confess or speak that you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who died for you, that He was resurrected from the dead, and ascended to heaven. And that you recieve Him as your Lord and Savior. That you are sorry for your sins and you recieve His FULL and complete forgiveness for every wrong you’ve ever committed. And that you are choosing to follow Him now and leave the ways of the world behind for the things of Jesus!!! And if you mean that with your heart, you are saved and set free to live a new life free of sin! The Bible says you are now a brand new creation! Old things have passed away and new things have come!!! The Bible also says that all of heaven rejoices whenever a person is saved!!!! Just imagine the party being held in heaven on your behalf right now!!