Minutes to Memories

Steve Tibbit is one of the funniest human beings on the planet. When Steve & Cheryl started attending our church services, it was usually the highlight of my day for Steve to walk by after my sermon and say something hilarious.

Steve & Cheryl have the best hearts on the planet, too. When they returned after evacuating from Hurricane Katrina, they immediately went to work serving their neighbors. They lived out in the country where most of the people were completely stranded because their cars were flooded, so Steve & Cheryl would come to our church building, load up their truck with supplies (as you see in the attached picture), then go all around their community distributing them. Steve even gave one of his old cars to a neighbor.

All of this combines to make the Tibbits a lot of fun to be around. After attending here for a while, they began to bring their friends, Ryan & Barb Craig, to church services, too. I eventually had the pleasure of baptizing Barb (who isn’t a big fan of water!) one memorable night.

A little while after Hurricane Katrina, Steve & Cheryl sold out and moved back home to Arkansas. And some time after that, Ryan & Barb (who lost their house to thirteen feet of water with no flood insurance) were transferred to Shreveport, Louisiana.

We miss both families a lot.

Fifteen minutes ago I came to the office and had a message on the answering machine. It was Barb telling me that Steve & Cheryl’s house burned to the ground last night. Everyone is fine, but they lost everything.

I feel a bit sick to my stomach right now. Picturing Steve & Cheryl loading up food for people who lost everything, and now, picturing them today on the other side of the fence…

I tried to call Barb back, but I had to leave a message. She is headed to be with the Tibbits, and I told her to find out what we can do to help – money, supplies, whatever. We can start with praying.