October & November, 2004

Dear Pastors and Friends:

We mailed our last prayer letter out the first week of September. I finally realized that I needed to buy a new computer. I bought it on Monday September 5th and had it all set up and back in business on Tuesday. Wednesday morning we heard the news that we were supposed to receive a direct hit from Hurricane Ivan on Friday. I think everyone in Jamaica went into a panic. No one was expecting a hurricane to hit Jamaica for another 14 years. At least that's what the old people told us. It had only been 16 years since a major hurricane had hit and according to the old people they only came about every thirty years. We decided not to take any chances. We had church services that night and told the people that the church would be open for them to take shelter. They all live in board houses and the church building is from block and cement.

On Thursday morning I went looking for plywood to board up all the windows on our house. Dottie went to the grocery stores to see what was left. I got back to the house with the plywood before noon and went to work. She sat in a traffic jam for 3 hours and then had to take a shortcut through the bush to finally get home late in the afternoon. We worked all the rest of the day and most of the night getting ready for Ivan. All day Thursday the Church people were moving into the church building. They moved stoves, refrigerators and everything they could get in there and still have a place to sleep. People and beds were everywhere.

At 4 AM on Friday morning the thunder was so loud and ominous sounding that it jarred us out of bed. We hit the floor in a dead run. We still needed to board up the windows around our bedroom. The storm started at 4 AM Friday morning and continued all day Friday, Friday Night, Saturday, Saturday Night and up into Sunday Morning. It was over us all this time. We had 150 mile an hour winds all night on Friday. When we went out on Sunday Morning it looked like a war zone. But thank the Lord no one in our church lost their home and no one was hurt. I could not believe the devastation around us and not one board house was blown away.

The Lord is good. We were without electric for 6 weeks and it has taken us 8 weeks to clean up the debris. I decided I had better write another prayer letter while the electric is still on and hopefully, everything will be back to normal soon.

The attendance at the church is back up. Last Sunday we had 60 in attendance and 9 people have been saved in the last few weeks. We know you all have been praying for us and we thank you very much. Please continue to pray for us and the work. May the Lord bless you as you serve Him.

                                                                                                                                   In His faithful service,

                                                                                                                                   David & Dottie McClure