Oh South Louisiana, I do adore thee- even now as this storm approaches. Thank you Lord for this amazing journey. Thank you for the calm before the storm AND the calm IN the storm.
I know…..this is a long post but I just felt led to say a few things. I hope you read all the way through.
First off, Miss K and I so very much appreciate all of you sweet folks who have reached out and checked in with us. 
I also want to let you know something we decided when we first bought the place down here. We have always said we will evacuate if the Lord says go, and if He doesn’t, we won’t. This is regardless of intensity or track. If He says leave and it’s a 1, we will. If He says leave and its a 5, we will- if not, we stay and wait to see and hear whatever it is He is showing us.
Every hurricane that has headed this way, this is how we have handled it. Hurricane Ida is no different. We are in agreement that neither of us heard the Lord say leave, so we finished all our hurricane prep, and now we love on the beating hearts at our down the bayou home, and wait on Him.
We are not saying the storm will pass or not pass. We are also not saying this means we are physically “safe”. Of course that is always the hope, but we are not in control.
The storm will come, and we will be here to talk about it, or we may not. Again, not in our control.
We simply believe we have not been led to leave. So here we stay with Mr. Vinny and Miss Rio.
I rarely post scripture, as I know much of it is taken out of context, as well as the fact I know not everyone believes the same. But tonight I will, as I feel led to share.
The Lord gave me a scipture when I left my career in banking years ago- Proverbs 3:5-6.
As He led, we started a small version of our tackle business after that. The business I used to buy our raw material from had a little cardboard cut out that had something printed on it. Guess what it was? Proverbs 3:5-6.
Eventually, I was led to ministry and was a teaching pastor (preacher).
Miss K and I were on a camping trip one weekend and looking through old childhood papers and notes, and out popped a word puzzle from when I was 7 years old or so. One of those things where there are black spaces with a number below them and each number represents a letter. 1=A, 2=B, 3=C, etc.
Guess what the puzzle spelled out? It was Proverbs 3:5-6.
Eventually the Lord led me to leave the church, and then move to Louisiana. Again, Proverbs 3:5-6.
Fast forward years later, and here comes Ida. As I said, we did not hear the Lord say leave, so we went through all our hurricane prep.
The last 2 days, I have been looking for some kind of confirmation that I was not making a mistake and putting my sweet Miss K and Rio and Vinny in harm’s way. I wanted the Lord to show me if I was hearing Him correctly.
This afternoon, Miss K said, “hey, let’s go in the shop and pack up all the colorant and other materials in the shop, so just in case, the mess will be not quite as bad. “
So, we did. And guess what I saw when we cleared the material shelves….the pic in this post. Proverbs 3:5-6.
This is Proverbs 3:5-6:
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart
And do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He will make your paths straight.”
So no matter what other folks say, the news reports, or even forecast of this storm, we will do what we believe we have been led to do.
And our desire is to see and hear and understand what the Lord is doing through it all.
Y’all squeeze your sweet loved ones, enjoy the evening, and for those in the path of this storm, consider joining Miss K and I in looking for what the Lord is saying especially this next couple days.
Much love from down the bayou, mes amis.