Praying for our friends in East Texas

Received from Rachel this afternoon...
Matt

-----Original Message-----
From: Rachel Painter
Friday, September 23, 2005 2:41 PM
Subject: Hurricane headed this way...

Dear Friends,

Please pray as it looks like Hurricane Rita may come straight through East Texas after making landfall tonight. If the hurricane continues at it's current strength and path we could be looking at 2-3 days of rain, 30-70 mph winds, and one forecaster said 25 inches of rain.

1. Pray that the hurricane's strength will decrease before making landfall in the Houston area tonight. Pray that the winds would even decrease below 100 mph before hitting land.
2. Pray that God will give the people in the hurricane's path wisdom on how to prepare and keep their families safe.
3. Pray for all the people in Houston who are stranded because the freeways are gridlocked and their cars have run out of gas. Pray that they would havea safe place to go to ride out the storm and that God would miraculously provide food and water for them which is now becoming scarce.
4. Pray that the loss of life and property would be minimal where ever the hurricane goes.
5. Pray that our property (our house in particular) would be protected from flooding, and trees falling. There is a creek at the base of our property sopray that God would protect from any water damage. The property and house where we are living is on a hill, so it would be protected from flood waters. The house down the road that we have been working to fix up and sellwould be more susceptible. Pray God's protection over it.
6. Pray for wisdom for us as we try to determine the safest place for the grandparents.
7. Pray that if the hurricane does change course that the people in it's path might be protected as they wouldn't have known to prepare for the storm.
8. Pray that God will protect His people and that He would even bring great blessing from this.Thank you for your prayers. I'll try to let you know how we fare. We are trying to prepare things now - boarding up windows that may leak, bringing in anything from outside that may blow away, and we may even try to sandbag some low areas down at the big house and at my Grandfather's house that might flood easily, etc. Thank you for your prayers for us and all the people in the path of the storm.

Blessings to you all,
Rachel