Jeff Hampton – Page 13 – Jeff Hampton, Writer

June 20, 2024

Getting it Done – Together

For Wilshire Baptist Church

While the windstorm of May 28 didn’t do much damage to our house, it took two weeks to repair it. Actually, the repair was made in one hour, but it took two weeks to find someone to do it. When I found that person, we got it done – together.

Our damage was minor: one piece of siding pulled loose and hanging from a second-story wall. The siding is made of fiber cement, which is heavy and prone to chip if not handled properly. It requires some expertise I don’t have, so I contacted two handymen recommended by two good friends. But with continued rain and no doubt a backlog of repair projects, the men were slow getting back to me. When one, Sidney, finally came and looked at the project while I was away, he texted me: “It’s a quick fix but getting to it may be a safety issue for me, so no guarantees.”

June 14, 2024

Shekinah

For Wilshire Baptist Church

Wilshire and the church at large recently observed two Sundays that highlight the Holy Spirit — Pentecost and Trinity — and those days often have me reflecting on the Branch Davidians. Not the misguided followers of David Koresh, who fed them lies about holy war and end times, but the peaceful followers of Lois Roden who preceded him. The ones who followed the movements of the Trinity and especially the Holy Spirit.

June 6, 2024

After the Storm

For Wilshire Baptist Church

City trucks have been crawling through our Embree neighborhood the past few days, slowly gathering the remains of shattered trees in the wake of last Tuesday’s storm. It’s slow, tedious work that blocks the streets and fills the air with the groans of motors and the beep-beeps of backup alarms, but it’s help we need and want so we welcome the noise and interruptions.

I mentioned the storm last week in this space and was ready to move on, but the continued rain and wind this week brought down more limbs and kept many people in the dark. At our house, we lost power for just a few hours, but our internet and cable services were out for several days and have been unreliable more than a week later. The continued rain has delayed the repair of siding pulled loose by the storm, and kept me from mowing with standing water and mud in the yard.