The winter storm that hit the Houston area (and almost all of Texas) appears to be heading out. After a chaotic week, things are returning to normal for many of us. Today is cold (45°), but clear and dry. In fact, it reminds me of much of my life growing up from October to March! It looks like tonight will be the last of the below-freezing nights, with temperatures expected to be in the 60s on Sunday.

The rolling blackouts here were challenging, especially because, in our home, the loss of electricity meant the loss of heat and hot water. It seemed like just as power had been restored for a significant time and we thought we were past the loss of power, the power would go out again! We were blessedly spared any plumbing incidents inside our home – only having a sprinkler pipe outside crack and separate. That made us shut off the water to the house, but the pipe was sufficiently repaired the next morning. We will need to have that sprinkler pipe area redone, but it can wait for warmer weather and the greater availability of plumbers. We have had power, heat, and hot water since Wednesday afternoon. Circumstances like this make me much more grateful for things that I normally take for granted!

We had friends and congregants who did experience bursting pipes, water leakage, and longer loss of water. Because plumbers are so overbooked, Christ Church has teams out helping people, but the lack of plumbing parts has made it difficult to make repairs. A specific prayer request would be that stores would be able to restock parts soon. Our church did not have any damage – only being without power intermittently for a couple of days. We are able to have Sunday morning worship, Sunday school, and Sunday evening worship as scheduled.

The loss of modern conveniences is very hard on us, and I cannot imagine what it is like to live every day without clean running water or steady electricity. Yet there are millions of people today for whom that is a daily reality. All the more reason to be grateful for what we have been given, and to be generous with what we have!