Snowmageddon 2020

It’s certainly been a wild week here in St. John’s Newfoundland. You’ve likely heard about the massive snow/wind storm that we had here 7 days ago. We’re still recovering from the whopping 70-90cm of snow that fell and the city is still in a State of Emergency (SOE). Among all of it, I’m trusting that God is in control over the weather.

“He gives snow like wool;
    he scatters frost like ashes.
 He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs;
    who can stand before his cold?”

(Psalm 147:16-17)

On a personal level, I’ve actually quite enjoyed the time overall. It’s been nice to spend a lot of time at home with my wife Leanne and to be able to relax and take a break from the busyness of life. Leanne has probably felt a little more of the “cabin fever” and is more eager to go out and do things. But we’ve been able to go on a few walks and spend some time playing games with her parents who live just down the road.

We also didn’t make out too bad with the snow. Fortunately, unlike other basement apartments we’ve seen, our walkway was completely empty of snow. This was due to how the wind was blowing the snow. So thankfully, we were able to shovel our driveway and that was about it for us.

The storm, or “snowmageddon” as many people are calling it, has made me proud to be a Newfoundlander. It’s made me proud to be a Newfoundlander because of how resilient we’ve been and because of how much fun we’ve had as a province throughout the storm. To see so many people making the best of a bad situation is really great. For instance, a lady thought that she had gone into labour during the snowstorm, so what did she do? She got driven to the hospital on a skidoo. And another woman who actually had a baby during the storm, needed some help clearing the snow in front of her house. When she got back home to a lot of snow, she had a full crew of random strangers come and help her shovel her out.

And that’s just a couple of many stories of how people have helped out their neighbour’s. It’s great to see the loyalty and kindness of Newfoundlanders in difficult times helping each other out. Mark Critch made a video that describes this very well. My favourite quote in the video is this:

“Newfoundland and Labrador is the only place on earth where disaster could strike and you’d find yourself wishing you could be there for it.” – Mark Critch

You can watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-VBVr9Rk9U

We are a proud and loyal people here. But we also have a great need for the gospel and we struggle with a lot of sin. A reality that we have to face is that so many people were more concerned about buying beer than groceries. In difficult times many Newfoundlanders will turn to alcohol instead of Jesus to comfort them and get them through it. Please be in prayer for us as we hope to spread and live out the gospel in our city. Pray for the people of St. John’s, that they would come to know Jesus as their saviour, comfort, and rock during these hard times.