Guidance

Acts 8: 29-31 - Then the Spirit said to Philip, "Go near and overtake this chariot." So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, "Do you understand what you are reading?" And he said, "How can I, unless someone guides me?" And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him.

     Summer Institute of Theology. September is the beginning of Fall in most places. Summer is not exactly gone, but it is certainly on its way out. Last Spring I got information on the Summer Institute of Theology, sponsored by the Association of Free Lutheran Congregations, our national church body. Many of you are aware that Cindi and I left for Minneapolis after church on July 25 in order that I could attend that Summer Institute. Surprise. We arrived in Minneapolis, but "Surprise!" The speaker I actually went to hear was ill and his class was cancelled, so I substituted another class. Isn't that just like God--figuring we need something else than what we think we need? So, I took the alternative class and I'm still doing homework--the Seminary gives us until November 1 to complete all the course requirements from these summer classes. But do you see what God does? He surprises us and provides for us, sometimes in ways we do not understand. Do you know that I will be doing a seminary paper on a topic that I never would have thought of, had it not been for the class that I took by default?

     Opportunity. Think of that official riding along in his chariot in Acts 8, the text above He didn't know what he needed to know. God brings the evangelist Philip to that chariot, and the official actually welcomes Philip aboard. He shares the Gospel with that official and God saves that man.

     God's Provision. The Bible, like our world, is full of lost people or people that need to know the spiritual this or that of life. The Bible tells us that God seeks them out. God finds the lost. Good Shepherd! Good shepherds are like that. But our Heavenly Father does so much more. God gives wisdom to the simple. God provides what we don't even know we need! Whether it be the message of salvation though God's only Son, Jesus Christ, or it be a Summer Institute class that some pastor from Alabama needs to round out his education--God provides what is needful for people.

     Expectations. I can hardly wait for October when our AFLC Evangelist, Jim Rasmussen, comes down here mid-month to share what God has laid on his heart for ministering to people who don't even know what they are looking for. It's going to be an exciting Fall!

     Council Members Present:  Darlene Tasso, Pete Midgarden, Ernie Burnett, Charlie Canning and Vera Avera. Absent were Linda Gibbs, Loreli Walker, and Pastor Dave Johnson.

     The meeting was called to order by Council President- Pete Midgarden at 7 pm.

     Minutes of July Meeting:    The July Council meeting minutes were approved.

     Treasurer's Report: Darlene presented the books for July. A motion was made, seconded and accepted to accept the report as presented.

     Committee Reports: 

     Library/Museum: Ernie Burnett reported that the banner Darlene made for the Confirmation Classes is in place. Plans are being made for another banner, the original name of the congregation “Swedish Lutheran Zion Church”.

     Kid’s Korner: Vera reported that there are plenty of books, crayons, etc. and that they are being used.

     Thrivent Work Project: Charlie confirmed the treasurer’s balance of $89.14 in the project fund. We can expect an approximate additional amount of $430.00 when the project is completed. Pete has started work on some windows.

     Old Business: Ernie Burnett moved that the council present and recommend to the congregation the purchase of the 8x12’ wood frame building from Barry’s Buildings, at a cost of approximately $2,250.00. Darlene 2nd, and the motion carried. Pete will set up the special congregational meeting.

     The meeting closed with the Lord’s Prayer.

     The Council Meeting adjourned at 8:30 pm.

Submitted by,
Darlene Tasso, acting Secretary

     You may remember the Dwayne and Rhonda Emberson family from Orlando. They visited Zion in May 2003, representing the Wycliffe Bible Translators. As you know, Orlando was hit pretty hard recently by Hurricane Charley. Like many others, the path of the storm changed too rapidly for the family to evacuate. Dwayne's account of their harrowing experience is a true test of faith. Nine of seventeen trees on the property were downed, each one narrowly missing the house and other property. Dwayne's frightening account of the storm and witness to God's wonder is well worth reading. Here it is posted in its entirety.

     Tuesday, August 17, 2004

     Dear Friends and Family,

     It has been four days since Hurricane Charley swept through Florida and we finally have power and telephone services. Praise the Lord! It feels like it's been over a week or more, not only four days since the storm struck.

     Friday began like any other normal working day. At Wycliffe our team was in the process of upgrading to a new release of the Oracle tools and we were about to finish up the last step of this process on our development server. However, through multiple errors that are too complex to describe, we lost all the work that we have done for the past three months. Just 30 minutes after that realization, the office announced that everyone needs to leave immediately because Charley's course had changed and was heading directly towards Orlando. (Until this time the National Hurricane Center had predicted that Charley would land at Tampa/St Petersburg and had ordered everyone to evacuate towards Orlando.)

     With a heavy heart I came home to prepare for Charley's arrival. We had taken the storm seriously, and were well prepared for an extended time without power and water (with a well you need power to pump water). We were just sitting down to watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympics when the storm struck, and we immediately lost power. We never dreamed of what we were about to endure. Our home has no inner walls in the downstairs, so we huddled in the middle of the house, and saw the force of the storm out our windows in all directions. We began to hear a loud noise like pistol shots above the gale force winds, and then a loud explosion of cracking as a 3 foot diameter pine (that is just six feet from the front of our house) snapped at the base and fell away from our home across the end of our driveway, across the street and into the neighbors lawn. Within 10 minutes there were cracking noises again and a second similar sized tree snapped at its base and fell away from the home. We were huddled together praying that the trees would keep falling away from our home. Over the next 20 minutes two more towering pines in the front yard snapped and fell. One snapped about 30 feet up and its top fell out into the street. The last one also snapped at about the 30 foot mark and fell sideways into the neighboring oak limbs, but it did not hit the house. Sometime during all of that four scrub oaks that tower over our back yard and lean over the back side of our home came up by the roots, and miraculously went sideways instead of on top of our home. In the end we lost 9 out of our 17 trees. Each time a tree fell, the ground shook like a giant fist pounding the earth. The wind was blowing so hard that rain water came through the log walls and around the window and door frame on the south side of our home. We dreaded to think of what would happen when the back side of the storm would hit and the winds would come from the opposite direction. However, that never occurred. The entire force of the storm was on the front side. Charley had finally passed us.

     The next day was spent in wonder at God's protection. So many trees came down, and yet none hit our home, our cars or even our sheds. The only damage was to some fencing. We also witnessed the wonder of community. In the early morning hours some neighbors were out with chain saws to cut the trees out of the road, and a tractor pulled up to drag the logs off the street, and out of our driveway (two were directly behind our vehicles). We learned that dear friends from our church had a generator, and a deep freeze where we could put all our food, so we were blessed with no losses there. We are also blessed to have a pop-up tent camper where we have been sleeping (it was over 90 degrees in the upper part of our house) and for cooking our meals (over 20,000 homes lost power in our county alone).

Damage from Hurricane Charley - Click each photo to Enlarge.

Close Call

Downed Oak

Family Clearing road

Naomi on Roots of 4 Oaks

Oaks-Close Call on Home

Snapped Trunk

Third Downed Pine

Two of Four Downed Pines

     I am so proud of our kids. They have been working from dawn till dusk for four straight days. While our home school is temporarily suspended, our kids have been learning lots of lessons about God's provision, good Samaritans and how to love you neighbors. The branches of the oak trees alone have filled the ditch of the neighboring three empty lots to a height of six feet just using a hand saw and an axe. Not only have they cleaned our yard, but also the neighbor across the street's yard, and they are now working on the yard of a Wycliffe missionary couple who are out of town. On Monday, Justin and Brandy Gambel having heard about the hurricane, showed up on our doorstep with food, ice, water and a chainsaw (which are in extremely limited supply in central FL). Mr. Justin and Miss Brandy were Naomi's leaders during her clown/puppet ministry trip with Teen Missions. With his help we were able to safely pull down the dangerous tree that was dangling near our front porch and well system.

     I returned to work today and was able to create a plan for rebuilding our development server. It may take a week or two, and it will mean we will not make our October deadline, but it could have been much worse. God is in control, and I need to leave it in His hands. I guess the next two weeks will be rebuilding weeks, both at work and at home. We still have the five big tree trunks to cut up and two 30 foot tree trunks to bring down safely. We will probably have to hire help for that. Our septic system is also not draining because of the water saturated ground (over 12 inches of rain in two days). We have $2000 deductible hurricane insurance, so there will be no help from insurance. However, it could have been soooo much worse. Praise the Lord! We did not even loose one shingle, and no branches hit the roof. Does anyone have any ideas about how to best seal and caulk log walls?

     In the end we know that it is because of your prayers that these nine trees fell so safely to the ground. It's also through your prayers that we have been safe so far in the clean up process. We are blessed by a wonderful partnership team.

Through your prayers,

~Dwayne and family~