The Floodgates of Heaven

Boom!! Thunder rocked the sky like a bowling strike, and the sound ricocheted off the hills of Tegucigalpa. It has rained almost everyday I’ve been here, but never like it did today!

My sheer amazement at the approaching storm quickly turned into apprehension as the wind blew the rain sideways and pelted down hail against our windows. “Is this normal?” I asked one of the Honduran teachers. “No.” she replied, and I stared at her in alarm. Today was Open House for the K-1^st and 6^thgraders, which had thankfully ended just a half hour before the monsoon hit, and many of the teachers had made some serious progress on their rooms, now feeling almost ready for Open House on Saturday. We prepared for rain as always, but never expected this big of a storm.

The principal was making his rounds, and he stopped by my room just when the rain turned directions and water started pouring through my windows. (My windows were shut.) He helped me grab everything off of the shelves and relocate it to the other side of the room, then he hurried to the next room where someone had left their windows open and door locked. (Most of the teachers' things were salvageable but some bulletin boards need to be reassembled.)

I wasn’t sure what to do. Should I stay in the room, staying out of the rain, or run around and try to help people wade out of their classrooms? I peeked out of my room and the rain was coming down hard. My classroom is on the second floor of the elementary building, and the third floor above acts as an overhang, but the rest of the building is open, including the stairway. I sloshed through the hallway reuniting with some other teachers who were also in shock and awe. It seriously looked like we were on the Titanic, the view from the open stairway was completely obscured by the thrashing rain, and everybody was running (more like splashing) around filling buckets and pouring them over the side of the building.

I returned to my classroom to find the water from the hallway seeping under my classroom door. Oh no! I didn’t have any towels or way to stop the overflow, and I threw open the cabinets in search of anything that would help plug the leak. I looked up and realized I had a large cardboard box, from my Promethean board that was just installed, and quick, ripped off a large chunk of it and stuffed it under the door. It worked! So with the threshold finally plugged, I sunk into a chair, relieved, though trapped in my classroom trying to concentrate on teaching preparations I still needed to do, trying not to mind that the bottoms of my jeans were soaking, and miniature lakes formed around my students' desks. I ended up staring out the window at the storm and praying that the rain would stop.

I thanked God for my safety and prayed for the school, for the decisions the administration make this year and on a daily basis, for the protection over the staff, and for wisdom and peace amidst the unexpected.

I prayed for my students and their well-being, that they would grow closer to God this year, that they would have the drive to learn, and that what they learned would transfer over to their lives.

I prayed for the other teachers, that they would continue to have positive attitudes, trusting God no matter what happens, that they would see the kids as God sees them. Praying especially for my fellow first-time teachers that they would have wisdom in the situations they encounter, giving love and discipline to the kids, and in navigating their ways around Tegucigalpa. I prayed that God would bind us more and more together as a community and use us daily to uplift, encourage, and challenge one another to live more like Christ.

Thanking God for my safety, I couldn’t help but think about the people I had encountered on the streets of downtown Tegucigalpa or the ramshackle homes on the side of the hill. I prayed that they would find a roof to huddle under, that their homes would not flood, and that they would learn to trust God even more through this.

I think God likes to be ironic, because as I was praying these things I glanced up on my wall where I have my classroom verse, which says, “Call to me, and I will answer you and tell you great and mighty things which you do not know.” (Jer. 33:3) Wow! What a promise! God is sovereign, He will answer, and He will provide.

As I’m writing this, the rain has ceased, and sunlight is streaming through my windows. The custodial staff is sweeping/mopping up the layer of water in the hallway, and the cheerful chatter of the elementary floors has returned. It will take some work to get everything back in its place and have the school looking Open House-ready again, but we can trust that God is sovereign and this year is His. He has not left us on our own to accomplish the task He’s given us. He is with us always; which is the most comforting promise of all.