Surreal

That's the only way I can describe what is happening on the Gulf Coast. Seeing places that I know and love in New Orleans and Biloxi either under water or totally gone is nothing short of surreal. Even after growing up in south Louisiana and living through hurricanes and the aftermath that goes with them, I cannot even imagine what it is like to be living through this. Honestly many of the pictures I've seen remind me of Sarajevo, Bosnia. There was an area in Sarajevo that had been nicknamed "City of the Dead" because the houses there were so mangled from the house to house fighting. It nearly brought me to tears when we were driving through there and I saw children playing soccer in front of an apartment building that was riddled with holes from bullets and mortar shells. But that pales in comparison to what I have seen going on in New Orleans and the Mississippi coast. It looks like a war zone.

We've spoken with friends in Baton Rouge who said that the population of the city has doubled with all the refugees. There are reports there of violence at gas stations. One of our friends told his wife that he didn't want her going to the gas station because people were waiting for women to swipe their credit cards, then attacking them and stealing the gas.

This is all evidence of the fact that this world is stained by the taint of sin. No matter how much secular humanists try to tell us that people are naturally good at heart, times like this show that our natural state is one of selfishness and sin. We need to pray not only for the physical and temporal safety of those on the Gulf Coast, but for their spiritual and eternal safety that can only be found through faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior.