{"id":1930,"date":"2024-06-13T11:52:13","date_gmt":"2024-06-13T16:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/?p=1930"},"modified":"2024-06-13T11:52:15","modified_gmt":"2024-06-13T16:52:15","slug":"the-flood-and-the-rat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/2024\/06\/13\/the-flood-and-the-rat\/","title":{"rendered":"The Flood (and The Rat)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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On Sunday my friend asked me to help her with an illustration as she was teaching the Sunday school lesson to the kids about the flood and the ark that God had Noah build.\u00a0 (Here in the city there are churches and a good number of believers, even though we are not far from where unreached people like My People live.) But it was Sunday evening that God gave me my own illustration . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was out and about when the sky got dark, which usually means rain.\u00a0 But rain hasn\u2019t been coming much at all (it\u2019s been a prayer request for a long time) and my weather app said that if it came at all it wouldn\u2019t last long, so I didn\u2019t hurry home and instead decided to wait until the end of our get-together before I left.\u00a0 (Remember, I\u2019m on a motorcycle, so driving in the rain isn\u2019t the most fun thing.)\u00a0 But before the get-together ended, the rain started.\u00a0 And it rained long and hard with lots of wind.\u00a0 At one point a door in the shelter we were staying in blew open (think a big, industrial-type door), and though 3 strong men tried to close it, they couldn\u2019t \u2013 the wind and rain were too hard that they had to jump out of the way before they were knocked over by it!\u00a0 A big tree nearby fell, though I was looking the other way and didn\u2019t see the actual fall.\u00a0 After an hour of torrential downpour, the rain started to slow down a bit, and I figured I\u2019d try to head home before it got dark.\u00a0 I\u2019d rather drive on flooded roads in the light than the dark!\u00a0 Those with me had come in cars, and they weren\u2019t able to leave yet because another huge tree fell over the end of the driveway, blocking us in.\u00a0 However, since I was on a motorcycle, I was able to squiggle my way around it and headed for home.\u00a0 In the rain and the lightening.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were a good number of people out, so I saw that I wasn\u2019t the only one who wanted to head home.  But I didn\u2019t get far before I ran into big puddles \u2013 6 inches deep of water?  I was glad that I knew this road well and there weren\u2019t really big potholes.  As I drove on, the road got more and more flooded, and we were all driving through probably 4 inches of water most of the way.  But then the road up ahead was flowing with gusto, and I knew that quickly-flowing water like that was a lot more dangerous than the more calm water we had been driving through.  So I joined everyone in turning and trying a different route. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We went for a while, and parts had no standing water at all, while parts had lots of standing water.  But eventually I got to a part where I had to go through rather shallow rapidly flowing water, and I saw how I had to struggle to control the motorcycle.  Then the next road that I had to cross was a whitewater rafting type of river, and I knew that I couldn\u2019t go forward and I couldn\u2019t go back.  So I pulled over and parked my motorcycle up on the sidewalk like many others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I got there, the sidewalk was just wet, but no standing water.  But it was rising, and in 10 minutes it had risen 5 inches or so.  Quick math \u2013 half an inch a minute.  If it kept that up for a while, we\u2019d be in trouble!  As I was standing in the standing water, though, I felt something tickle under my rain poncho.  (I was wearing one of the $1 clear rain ponchos from the US over my ankle-length dress, the bottom of which was now in the water.)  I looked down, and noticed a tail on my side, under my poncho and outside my dress. I figured it was a lizard coming to find refuge from the rain; I quickly brushed it down, and was horrified to find that it was a rat that had climbed up!  I was glad that the bottom of my dress was in the water so that he never actually touched my skin!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the water rising like that, and after the rat incident, I realized that I should get to higher ground and not just stand there in the murky water.\u00a0 So I climbed the steps to the front porch of the bank we were at and joined those already hanging out there.\u00a0 By this time the rain had mainly stopped, but, as I said, the water was still rising.\u00a0 We watched the craziness before us \u2013 the water rising on the car stuck in the middle of the road (it only ever got to the top of the hood), on the cars parked nearby, and on our motos (and I wondered if I would be able to drive my moto again after that).\u00a0 Then things started floating by \u2013 an empty refrigerator (seen in the picture above), a table, a glass case, someone\u2019s motorcycle (they went in after it, but I\u2019m not sure they were able to save it), etc.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boy, was I glad when I noticed that the water was no longer rising, or at least not rising fast.\u00a0 (I think it rose about 9 inches in that first half hour I was there.)\u00a0 Then it started to slowly recede, and I thought of Noah and how it took almost a year for the water to recede then!\u00a0 And as Noah started seeing encouraging signs that showed that his waiting was finishing, so did we.\u00a0 First I saw the water level go down on the tires of the motorcycles and cars.\u00a0 Then we saw a few 4-wheel drive cars making it through.\u00a0 Then I saw the top of the sidewalk and knew that the water was only as powerful as when I first came.\u00a0 I also knew that it was only a matter of time before I\u2019d be able to go and see if my moto was still running or not.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then my friends in the car called and said that they had been able to get out a back way and weren\u2019t far from me.  So I took courage and said I\u2019d try to meet them two blocks away, where there was a hotel where I hoped I could leave my motorcycle for the night.  That drive up-stream for two blocks from the way I had come was not easy, but I made it and was glad to be in a car on my way home.  (My plan B had been to stay at that hotel for the night.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We drove through some more rivers and out around to the other side of town.\u00a0 And miraculously, up that way, the road barely looked wet!\u00a0 After my hour and a half of being stranded by the rain, it was almost incomprehensible.\u00a0 (Yes, I\u2019m thinking of Princess Bride right now, too.)\u00a0 But we made it safely to my door as they dropped me off on their way home.\u00a0 Boy, was I glad to be home 2 \u00bd hours after leaving on what is normally a 15-20-minute drive!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And you know what\u2019s funny?  When I got home, and all day, actually, the water was cut at my house \u2013 all that water outside, but no running water inside.  Of course.  What would you expect?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And you know what else?  God kept His promise again \u2013 though there was a huge flash flood, He cut its life short and He didn\u2019t flood the whole world, just as He promised. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Epilogue: The next morning I went back downtown to pick up my motorcycle. It drove just fine, even after its ordeal the day before.\u00a0 And the roads were all dry.\u00a0 Even the river was back to normal low levels.\u00a0 If it weren\u2019t for the debris and sand on the streets, you wouldn\u2019t know that the previous evening people were bailing water out of their shops and cars were stranded on the roads since there were rushing rivers all over!)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Sunday my friend asked me to help her with an illustration as she was teaching the Sunday school lesson to the kids about the flood and the ark that God had Noah build.\u00a0 (Here in the city there are churches and a good number of believers, even though we are not far from where […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":945,"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":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1930","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/945"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1930\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}