From Arlene Reynolds:
Dear Friends & Family:
I was just putting together a year end and New Year letter to everyone when our major storm hit. And from the number of e-mails received we know you are all concerned about us so we’ll put off the newsletter for a bit to report on happenings of the last week. We are all well and very blessed to have been in a place to be used by the Lord to care for His people. No one suffered injuries or illness, thankfully. Sorry this is long but a lot happened in one week !!
Last Monday began as a typical Monday when Jon makes his weekly trek to the States. Of course you all know that if anything is going to malfunction, or a major storm is going to hit, that is the day it ALWAYS happens!! He was hurrying though because we knew it was going to rain and he wanted to be home before the storm got too bad. Didn’t happen. Before he got home the wind picked up, rain began coming down and we had an electric outage for a few minutes & then a power surge so strong that it did major damage to the electricity in the old section of the main house. It made mini explosions all over the living room! Those of you that know me know that I am usually not too afraid of anything, but explosions with smoke coming from the computer & other electronics just about did me in! I finally got the nerve to run into the smoke to unplug the surge protector that everything was plugged into. I was having the walls of the house checked every few minutes after that for hours to make sure they weren’t hot. When Jon got home he found that some wires had melted together in the main box leading to that section and that we need major work done to repair it. Consequently, we only have electricity in the half of the new kitchen and the new bedrooms & bathrooms. All of the old section (2 wings) is out. The explosions (ok, loud pops) were from Jon’s computer, the television, VCR, DVD player, and Direct TV box. Of course poor Gloria thinks the end of the world has happened without TV!
Then the storm picked up in intensity and the winds came and more rain. The metal roof (which was just put on in December) blew completely off the shop. Then the bottom half blew off. Jon was able to find the pieces & put it back during a lull but it will need more repair later. We lost shingles on some of the buildings, rolled roofing on others, and the big cross fell down, opening up the space where it had been sitting to cause a leak. We lost one of our two remaining trees from the last storm and 2 more main branches in the big tree in the courtyard. We will probably have to cut the whole tree down now sadly. The only remaining tree is by the pumphouse and it lost all it’s leaves above the level of the pumphouse roof. However, no water came in the house due to the new wall generously provided by Karl and all the laborers on that project!!
Probably the worst night of the storm was Wednesday night and Thursday. During this time some of the men from the community next door came over to tell us that some of the families had lost their houses and others had a lot of water & mud in their houses and all their belongings were wet. They expressed fear for the safety of their children as well because the metal roofing was coming loose from the church building and flying through the air. These families are the poorest as their houses were mostly made of tarp & wood scraps. We invited them to come and shelter with us for as long as they needed. Five families came, a total of 48 people. We did not have power so it was a challenge but Praise God as He had prepared us and was with us throughout the three days they were with us. We had put out barrels to catch rainwater at the very beginning of the storm in anticipation of losing power and knowing that the water truck would not be able to come out here for many days. So we used that to wash dishes and flush toilets. We had propane and plenty of food thanks to the generosity of those of you that filled our freezers in December. A couple of the ladies made tortillas and some of the best and hottest chili I have ever eaten on one of the days. When the sun came out the men of the families thanked us profusely and they all went back to their land or houses and began repairs. Jon gave out all the tarps we had and supplied some nails but we didn’t have any roofing material. The women and children are still coming for food as a week without work left all of the families in dire need. We have fed 52 each day since they went home.
After being marooned for a couple of days because the Mississippi River came to our area & overflowed it’s banks, there is now one road passable so we are finally able to get in and out. School resumed today and we are enjoying the sunshine while it lasts. We expect more rain tomorrow evening and again on Thursday but it sould be a much milder storm. We read a report that said we received 7.75 inches of rain last week and at times the wind was blowing over 50 mph! As of today the Highway going south of us is still closed all the way to Cabo San Lucas as several bridges are out and there are washouts on the roadways. The government has declared a state of emergency and they are working on getting it open as soon as possible. Many small communities are cut off from the rest of Baja.
We pray that all of you have weathered the storms in your areas without major problems. Thank you for keeping us in your prayers. The Lord kept us safe (if not sane all the time).
In His service in Mexico,
Jon & Arlene
