I wish I had documented a hard copy of this testimony when it happened but I didn't. I can only share from my and my families memory. Details like time and day of the week are missing, but the whole of the event is still clear.
I was laying on my bed when I had a vision. A vision usually happens when we are awake. I was awake and a vision/picture of a flood came before me and my home church, Lakewood Church was above the storm. I saw news crews, people dropping off items, others in need picking up items, people in wedding clothes, people sleeping there and Lakewood being a safe place. I stood up after seeing the vision and told my parents. I had no idea what it meant. In my young mind I worried it was the end of the world (haha) and people were going to hide out at my church (haha). My vision didn't give me the context of the event. I just knew what I saw nothing more or less.
This is where my memory falls short. I don't know if it was later that day, a day after or a few days after, but at some point my family was watching TV together and my mom calls out for me to, "hurry, hurry, look at the TV. It's what you saw!" I run out and see my vision on the news in real time. I was 17 years old at the time.
One news article reported back in 2001,
" In the hard-hit northeastern part of the city, more
than 3,300 people took refuge on Saturday night in the Lakewood Church,
which eventually became the largest refugee center of more than 30
across the city.
"People just started coming and kept on coming
because they had no place else to go," the church's pastor, the Rev.
Joel Osteen, said. "Eventually, city workers started dropping people off
here in dump trucks because they were the only vehicles that could get
through the water."
Short of food by Saturday morning, Mr. Osteen
recruited two brothers- in-law with Chevy Suburbans and a family friend
for a visit to Sam's Discount Club, where they spent $3,000 on
ingredients for sandwiches.
"Every time we returned with a load of food, the
crowd of people would have gotten larger and we'd have to go make
another trip," he said.
But by today, the local news media had reported
about food shortages at the church, and area residents bearing food,
diapers, clothing and bottled water created a traffic jam in the streets
outside the church."
My family and I watched it play out on TV and later volunteered with the church to help fix up people's houses and clear out all the trash.
One lady who was interviewed stated as she surveyed the damage, "I was raised in this house. I'm 54 years old. And I've never seen anything like this."
One lady who was interviewed stated as she surveyed the damage, "I was raised in this house. I'm 54 years old. And I've never seen anything like this."
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