It was a regular song at my grandmother’s church. I can see her clapping her hands to the rhythm of the song – clapping being acceptable in the Church of God at least thirty years before it started surfacing in our Baptist churches. She beamed brightly as she sang. The joy of the Lord was so evident in my grandmother.
“It’s the Holy Ghost rain and it’s falling down on me.” She’d look heavenward as she added an extra little clap into the beat of the music. She was one of the happiest people I’ve ever known. My grandmother is in Heaven now where there are no floods, no pain, no suffering.
As Jack and I prepare for our second disaster relief deployment to the Georgetown area, we are aware that it is already getting difficult to get volunteers to go to the flood zone. We all have such busy schedules that it’s hard to fit an emergency into our calendars. It will be a long recovery and many thousands of volunteers will be needed. We, as South Carolinians, need help.
Thousands and thousands of volunteers have been through Southern Baptist disaster relief training and have never had the opportunity to minister to the survivors of a disaster. There is room for everyone to be involved. This is the time to ask God how you will serve.
Maybe we need a little more rain, and I’m not talking about the weather. Maybe we need the Holy Spirit to rain on us, filling us with love for our neighbors in need, filling us with so much compassion that we get on our smartphones to rearrange our work schedules, our play schedules and yes, our church schedules. To many victims of disasters, we are the only Church in their lives. We have been called to be witnesses. It’s time to stop making excuses and go.
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes
on you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and
Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8
