Flood

How God brought us through a trying experience.

Lindriani and her husband, Pastor Hiras Sihombing, pastor a 150-member church in Klender, Jakarta Conference, West Indonesia Union Mission. They have a young son, Jeremy. Iindriani is known to many as Annie. She graduated from Indonesian Adventist University. She loves working with her church members, playing the piano, and focusing on childrens education. She enjoys reading articles and books about childrens education and childrens activities.

Rain came without ceasing for three days and three nights. Well, it ceased for a little while, just long enough to let us walk to the store for our daily needs and for us to travel and visit our nearest church mem­bers. However, most of the time, we were surrounded by the sound of water falling on the roof. Radio and television broadcasters were telling the news of the flooding taking place in certain areas. The pictures of drowned houses and flooded streets filled the television screens.

On that particular morning, I woke up early be­cause I wanted to make it to the office before the traffic jam. The rain was still falling, but not as hard as it had the night before. I hurried to the public trans­port station. (Normally, my husband takes me to the office, but he was attending a ministerial gathering in another town.) My mother lives nearby, and I took my son to her house.

At 10 a.m. I received a call from my mother. "Your house is flooded," she said, "Where did you put all the personal and family documents?"

I replied, "Those are in a safe place."

She asked if there was anything else she needed to save. I assured her that only the documents were needed. I then asked her how high the water level was. She said it was one meter high. She added, "The water is coming very fast; we cannot save anything but your documents and your books. Don't worry about Jeremy; he is safe at my house."

My first reaction was calmness. Knowing that my son was safe was all that mattered. Then, slowly, the worry began welling up inside me. I called home and asked one of our servants, "Did you save the photo albums?" Yes, they were saved. I put the receiver down.

Then I called again, "How high is the water now?" I was told both my bed and the sofa were undewater. The servants were still in the house at that time, and they updated me every half hour about the water level. I called my husband and told him about the situa­tion. He was unable to leave the seminar because the toll road was closed due to the flooding.

I went home to check on the house. Water was ev­erywhere. The servants had already turned off the electricity, so there was nothing more to do. I locked the door and trudged through the flooded streets until I reached my mother's house.

The rain continued to fall. The news reports con­tinued to show scenes of the city. Almost everything was covered with water. The rain level ranged from ten centimeters to three meters high. Eventually, the water even reached my mother's home. Though she tried to convince us to stay, my father agreed it would be best to leave the house. However, we were not sure where to go. We were surrounded by water. By 11:00 p.m., we knew we had to try and make it to safer ground. We prayed that the car would not stall in the flooded streets. God answered our prayers, and we made it to a hotel that was full of people whose houses had been flooded. Fortunately, there was room for us.

The next morning, we heard that the water had sub­sided, so we went home. My floors were covered with thick mud. My home-sweet-home now smelled. I also found the table, chairs, and refrigerator turned up­side down. The clothes and books were soaked. The walls and even the ceilings were wet. We could not close our door because the wood had bulged. Fortu­nately, the combination of water and electricity did not cause any terrible accidents.

As I looked at our home, I knew it was time for hard work. I spent a few minutes analyzing the dam­age. I reminisced about our furniture. Though the furniture was not cheap, neither was it expensive, so I found some joy in knowing the furniture had not been terribly costly. I felt God’s comfort for I knew that had I purchased fancy furniture, I may have been more upset with the havoc this flood brought. Since I did not have anything fancy and expensive, the feel­ing of loss was less. It is really true what is written in Matthew 6:21: “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Miraculously, our electronics still worked. My husband told me jokingly, “God knows that we cannot afford new ones, so He made the old ones work well.”

This event led me to think of the first flood. I imag­ine that the people outside the Ark tried vainly to save their most prized possessions. Like me, they trav­eled to higher ground as the flood rose. Our local television stations broadcast pictures of people on their roofs, soaked and shivering, waiting for help. Some of them had no chance to leave their houses because the water came up fast. Some of them thought they were safe but found their houses drown­ing. They held out hope that rescuers would come to save them.

I wonder if the people in Noah’s time had that kind of hope. They probably felt sad, tired, and upset. Their feelings were probably much like ours. Like us, they thought of their losses and feared drowning. The big difference is that they perished, while we still have another hope.

Eventually the flood subsided. With hearts flow­ing with gratefulness for God’s guidance, we began the clean-up process. The time passed quickly, for we felt we were not only cleaning up our town, we were cleaning the unfaithfulness from our hearts. We praised God for His safe-keeping and love.

Lindriani and her husband, Pastor Hiras Sihombing, pastor a 150-member church in Klender, Jakarta Conference, West Indonesia Union Mission. They have a young son, Jeremy. Iindriani is known to many as Annie. She graduated from Indonesian Adventist University. She loves working with her church members, playing the piano, and focusing on childrens education. She enjoys reading articles and books about childrens education and childrens activities.