Dear friend,

At 10:00 a.m. on a Saturday this past June I was standing on moist gumbo (clay) between the floor joists of a mobile home in 95ᵒ heat/75% humidity, cutting away muddy insulation clinging to the joists. Others had already spent over a day ripping out the drywall and insulation. This is what those in the flood relief world call “mucking.” It’s what is left to do after the Brazos River, which meanders through the county my family has called home for the last 26 years, floods 5 feet higher than ever before.

I drank as often as I could get a break to stay hydrated, and struggled with many thoughts that ran through my mind. The enormity of the recovery task—1,600 homes, and just this one home required a full day with a crew of seven. The sheer heat; I wouldn’t normally mow my own lawn in this heat. The realization that these people had lost their home and all its contents, with no time to prepare. The temptation to judge the owners for not purchasing flood insurance on their homes…of course even if they had, they likely could not find quality contractors to do the work before black mold set in.

Later I found out that this trailer had been home for a retired couple who had raised their family here. They shared with us their story of 40 years of work fixing up this trailer, one major project at a time. Their insurance company, after all these years, recently stopped covering mobile homes. They were meaning to find a new flood insurance company, but had not gotten around to it—so much energy had gone into insurance work surrounding critical health issues.

Amidst all this physical need around us, is also the acute need for churches, disciples and leaders across the U.S. and around the world to flourish. When not mucking out houses, we have been responding to requests from Arizona, various parts of Houston, Michigan, California, Georgia and other states to help churches. Read the Fall Highpoint to see how you can make use of Ascending Leaders’ help or how you can help us help churches, disciples and leaders flourish.

In His service,

 

 

 

 

Dr. Mike Johnson, Founder and Executive Director