When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee, and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee;  when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am      the Lord thy God. Isaiah 43 v 2

We sat huddled on the settee. The wind moaned and the windows rattled.. It was the night of the great storm Sept 1987. We had hardly slept as the storm raged outside. Suddenly as we lay listening to the groaning and creaking it seemed as if the house shook. We heard a roar n a moment we were out of bed and gazing unbelieving at the scene that greeted our eyes.

The night was filled with flying objects, I looked in horror as I thought I saw a shed flying. I looked again screwing up my eyes.  Was there something wrong with my sight.  No,  it was flying. Then  another fence panel was caught up and thrown through the garden. It danced in a weird frenzy of wild activity up sideways and down then up and away. The air was full of debris.

The house shook again and then again.  Fear and dread seized us as we sat on the settee. We prayed for protection we prayed for calm. Again there was a sharp crack.

Something perhaps a stone had hit the lounge window and cracked it. The roar increased in waves. It was frightening. There was no let up no escape. We were helpless and vulnerable. Nature was angry.

The night somehow passed and a grey sky promised a dawn. Light  filtered through the grey gloom shapes appeared as  forms began to emerge from the shadows.

I noticed folk gathering outside looking pale and shaken. The wind caught my body threatening to life me off my feet as I foolishly open the front door.  I gasped in astonishment as I saw the havoc that had been wrought. Our neighbours wall had collapsed into the alleyway leaving a nasty gash in the building.  It was like a wounded animal torn apart by some frightful malignant force.

The wall ties glinted accusingly  and the roof  loft was open to every eye. The shaking we had experienced had indeed been the building moving and the outer brick of the cavity wall had collapsed like a pack of cards. I noticed the strained faces as my neighbours and passers by came to inspect. We were all struggling to keep our feet as the wind continued to gust. I had a stupid desire to laugh hysterically.  It was not funny  I walked down  the road to inspect the damage I realised that the other end of our row of terraces had also collapsed. Mounds of bricks were scattered across the paths.  Tree’s were down everywhere lying at crazy angles blocking every road out of town. I passed an  old folks home which had been evacuated during the night as the end wall had fallen out. The poor frightened  residents who were all elderly had to be led down the corridor away from the corridor which was open to the stormy elements with a void where there was a drop 30 feet to the garden below.

A hugh uprooted  tree leant precariously against the library walls Broken branches and a conglomerate of rubbish littered the streets. As I walked around surveying the scene of devastation I could only wonder and thank the Lord that we had been wonderfully preserved from harm .

After wards as I reflected on  this terrible night   I remembered how  much work had been recently completed on our neighbours house..  They had  spent thousands of pounds having the bricks repointed, the roof re slated and new windows fitted. The Lord reminded me of how I had felt at that time  A surge of jealousy as they had the ability to do all this work

It had all seemed so unfair.  We were serving the Lord, living by faith and yet  were unable to do any such work.  Ten years earlier that a young Christian carpenter who had been fitting a new window frame in our bathroom wall, David  had warned me that the bricks in that wall were only of one thickness and that they  were loose. In fact the pointing had disintegrated and the wall was only kept in place by the hollow and mound of the bricks themselves.. We had not been able to call a builder as we did not have the money. So we had left it and the years had passed.    Now I could see, with a grateful heart  the Lord’s protecting hand. It shall not come nigh thee….