Here are some simple “DO‘s” and “DON’T‘s” from Chris Travis for Everyday Church people regarding Sandy:
DON’T freak out. That doesn’t help anything. Plus, God is in control. Really, he is.
DO prepare. Make sure you could go without power for a few days. Even if you don’t need it, it’s easy to be ready, and frankly, kind of foolish not to be. Drinking water is top priority, then the rest– food, flashlights, batteries, comic books… you know, the essentials. If the storm gets bad, go ahead and fill your tub– if your building floods and the water lines back up, you’ll be happy for the water to wash dishes or yourself. Fellas, you might get a little ripe. Just sayin’.
DON’T be impatient or rude with retail workers when you stock up. If you do this, I will personally come and… and… well, I don’t know what I’ll do. But it’ll be unpleasant.
DO set aside enough (especially water) that you could take care of your neighbors in your building if it came to that. And on that note, DO be very aware of the elderly or housebound in your building and if things go badly, then absolutely DO check on them.
Finally, DO pray. Regardless of whether this ends up as a big deal for us in the city, some places in our country will get hit pretty hard (some already have). And emergency workers are pulling crazy hours, so we really ought to pray for them and their families.
We want to be a source of calm and joy to those around us. Like most things in life that loom big, this might not amount to much. But we want to be in a spot not just to take care of ourselves, but also our neighbors. We “went” to church this morning; now please be the church this week!
Chris Travis