Surrounded but in the clear

The past four days have been tense and intense.  Since Sunday I have spent too much time with my eyes glued to the TV watching the weather, tracking storms, and looking for updates from Joplin.

Here in our little town, in our county, we have been very fortunate through all of this.  On Sunday the storms slid south of us and all we experienced was some thunderstorms.  Then on Tuesday night we again were passed by the most serious part of the next storm system.

On Wednesday we were fortunate one more time.  My eyes were fixed on the weather channel at the noon hour as I watched four counties directly north of ours go under tornado warnings.  And later in the afternoon as the thunderstorms came again I watched as every county to the north, east, and south of us were labled with tornado warnings.

By the time I left work at 3:30 yesterday afternoon the sun was shinning again.  In every direction I looked I could see storm clouds, but above town the sky was bright blue.  We were literally surrounded by storms yet unaffected by them physically. 

So for all of our family and friends in Iowa and elsewhere know that we are all well.  But please, continue to pray for all of those here in MO and surrounding states that have not fared so well.