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On the day that Jackie brought him home from the dog pound, Pepper was in his terrible twos, an age he never grew out of!\u00a0 He was\u00a0a black and white Cocker Spaniel.\u00a0 From the beginning, he disliked dog training and, from most people, he would not even tolerate a gentle push on the behind to help him remember the meaning of \u201cSIT!\u201d.\u00a0 He led a pampered dog\u2019s life, and was allowed free run of most of the house, even when we were away.\u00a0 The idea was that his barking would be a deterrent to thieves knocking on the door to see if it was a good time to break in and deprive us of our possessions.<\/p>\n
He did okay for a while, but when we were gone for more than a few hours, we found out that he was not completely house broken.\u00a0 He was always hungry and roamed the house scouting for food.\u00a0 Often, we found him on the table looking for left overs.\u00a0 He stole food off the counters.\u00a0 He sorted trash cans looking for scraps, but never put the paper back in them once he was finished.\u00a0 He, also, cleaned the cat litter every time he could sneak into the box without getting caught.\u00a0 Maybe he thought he was helping, thinking that what he didn’t eat, Haley would have to empty to the outside garbage!\u00a0 Then, he started to stink, and soap and water and vet visits did little to obliterate the smell.<\/p>\n
Alas, he was vanquished, forever, to the back yard.\u00a0 I disowned him a long time before that.\u00a0\u00a0 Jackie had a much bigger and kinder heart than I did, and Pepper would bask in her gentle touch and soft voice and follow her like a little brother every time she entered the back yard.\u00a0 She readily forgave his many sins! The years took their toll on his health.\u00a0 Deafness and poor eyesight plagued him.\u00a0 However, I was convinced that he would live to be 100 just to spite me.<\/p>\n
Hurricane Irma gave Pepper a brief respite from his exile, as it stormed up the Florida peninsula the first part of September.\u00a0 I was reluctant, but not heartless, and as the winds began to bear down on us, Pepper got to come back into the house.\u00a0 First off, Jackie gave him a bath.\u00a0 She brought his dog crate inside so that we could control his roaming search for food and trouble. He was locked in his cage!<\/p>\n
The power was out.\u00a0 We sat in the hot, still air, the darkness kept at bay by oil lamps scattered around the house,\u00a0 We waited, not sure for what: The storm to end,\u00a0 the roof to blow off, the trees to smash our house, or all of the above!\u00a0 We didn’t know what would happen.\u00a0 I don’t think Pepper knew, either, but he didn’t like being locked in his cage.\u00a0 As the wind blew, he howled!\u00a0 The hurricane made sleep difficult, Pepper made it impossible!\u00a0 At last Jackie said she would bring him into our room so he could be close to her.\u00a0 Pepper and I traded rooms.\u00a0 I had doubts that the move would shut him up, but as soon as he was in the presence of the one who loved him, the howling stopped.<\/p>\n I wished I could say the same for the wind.\u00a0 Outside, the onslaught continued.\u00a0 My heart was howling with a hurricane of insecurity that spawned tornadoes of worry and doubt.\u00a0 I feared, not so much for our lives, but for our house, and our possessions.\u00a0\u00a0 Had not we prayed that God would spare us?\u00a0 Why didn’t He send it somewhere else?\u00a0 The TV news had built Irma into a most fearsome threat. She would cover all of Florida, ripping trees out of the ground, dismantling houses, and killing people who did not evacuate or run to a shelter!\u00a0 Should we have run?\u00a0 I didn’t know!\u00a0 We didn’t live in an evacuation zone.\u00a0 I worried about our big beautiful Live Oak trees.\u00a0\u00a0 Would Irma tear them limb from limb and club our roof with the huge branches?\u00a0 I had visions of Irma pouring buckets of water though the massive hole she had made in our roof, ruining 13 years of custom remodel and handmade furniture.\u00a0 I was concerned about all my toys in the garage, my cabinet saw and other tools I use.\u00a0 What if water ruined all of them?<\/p>\n In those dark hours, I reminded myself that God was the God of the storm!\u00a0 God loved me!\u00a0 The storm wouldn’t change that.\u00a0 He gave me Salvation though what Jesus did for me on the cross.\u00a0 The storm could not take that away!\u00a0 God forgave my sins.\u00a0 The hurricane could not blow them back on me!\u00a0 He promised a better home in Heaven, one that Irma would never be able to reach!\u00a0 As the storm approached, I remembered all the times I had exhorted myself not to hang on to things too tightly.\u00a0 Things could be replaced.\u00a0 Houses could be rebuilt.\u00a0 Trees could be replanted (though I would never live long enough to see them become giants!).<\/p>\n I wished that I could say that I found it easy to focus on God.\u00a0 I prayed and directed my thoughts on Him, but the great gusts of wind that circled our house easily pulled my thoughts back to temporal things. In the wee hours of the morning, I drifted off to sleep. When I awoke, it was morning!<\/p>\n We were alive!\u00a0 We still had a roof over our heads!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A stiff wind still blew, but I went outside to survey the damage.\u00a0 Our Live Oaks still stood, though most of their leaves and small branches littered our yard beneath them.\u00a0 I put the ladder up and climbed to the roof.\u00a0 It appeared that all shingles were intact.\u00a0 In the afternoon, we cleaned up the yard.\u00a0 It took three of us about five hours to pile all the debris across the street where the city would pick it up.\u00a0 We had so much to praise God for, including the cool breeze that blew the whole time we were raking our yard.<\/p>\n We were without power for almost eight days.\u00a0 That was worse than the hurricane!\u00a0 A friend loaned us a generator and we were able to keep our freezers running, and power a fan or two to cool us at night.\u00a0 There was nothing like absence to make us appreciate something more!<\/p>\n Pepper is back outside.\u00a0 He still stinks!\u00a0 However, when I see him I think that I should be more like him.\u00a0 In the storm he was able to rest in the presence of the one who loved him.\u00a0 That is what God desires for me; rest in the presence of the One who loves me no matter what life blows my way.\u00a0 If I’m trusting God for the big things in life, why shouldn’t I trust Him in the small things, like hurricanes!<\/p>\n Thank you for praying for us \u00a0as we know so many, especially down south, did not fare so well. Also, thank you for your sacrificial giving that allows us to continue our ministry! Please\u00a0pray<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0that we would learn to trust God more as He allows us to go through the storms of life.<\/p>\n Till He Returns, On the day that Jackie brought him home from the dog pound, Pepper was in his terrible twos, an age he never grew out of!\u00a0 He was\u00a0a black and white Cocker Spaniel.\u00a0 From the beginning, he disliked dog training and, from most people, he would not even tolerate a gentle push on the behind to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":96,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[448],"class_list":{"0":"post-2021","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"tag-ethnos360","8":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/phil-burns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/phil-burns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/phil-burns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/phil-burns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/96"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/phil-burns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/phil-burns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2021\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/phil-burns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/phil-burns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/phil-burns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/phil-burns\/files\/2018\/03\/IMG_20170910_1840217601-600x338.jpg\")
We hid in our tiny bathroom for a short time during a tornado warning in the middle of the hurricane.- us, our 3 cats, Pepper and our parrot!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/phil-burns\/files\/2018\/03\/a494452e-92ca-42fc-a707-2760ac228c46.jpg\")
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\nPhil and Jackie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"