We are Scott and Joanna, and we’ve been married for nineteen years. Our family of five live in Houston, Texas.

When Hurricane Harvey struck, our one-storey house in Houston was flooded with five feet of water. We own a small gym business, and that too was similarly flooded. All of our possessions—from our furniture to our cars to the exercise equipment in the gym—were damaged. We lost literally everything.

But we thank God that we were able to get out of the house ahead of the full impact of the floodwater. Right before the hurricane, Scott was listening to a message by Joseph Prince about how the Lord saved the Israelites, bringing them out of Egypt to safety. In it, Joseph explained how the Lord instructed them to eat the Passover lamb with their boots and belts on because they needed to be ready to go, to leave.

On Sunday morning, when the floodwaters began rising, Scott got up for work and realized that’s what we had to do—we had to leave immediately. He woke the rest of the family up and got us all out of the house just minutes before we wouldn’t have been able to escape. We thank God for the timely encouragement that Joseph Prince’s message gave us. His teachings have really birthed a hope in us that gives us strength in difficult times.

We also praise God for His amazing restoration after the destruction of Hurricane Harvey. When the storm passed, a friend of a friend offered a rental home for us to stay in—free of charge—up to the end of the year. That was a great blessing to us financially, because we still have regular bills to pay for both the house and gym.

Then, a neighbor of Scott’s friend heard about our situation. As the owner of a mattress store, he decided to donate four new mattresses to us. What’s more, the mattresses were of a really good brand, and they were waiting for us at the rental home before we’d even moved in!

But the blessings didn’t stop there. We’d lost all our equipment for the gym, and we were anticipating having to make new purchases in order to resume the business. But one day, we received a call from a company that had been raising money for small-business owners in Houston. They had gotten Joanna’s name from a local organization that she had joined only a month before. After visiting us, the company decided to give us a grant of $7,000! On top of that, a couple who are very dear to us wrote us a check for a generous amount of $10,000 as soon as the flood struck. With the $17,000 we received, we were able to buy all the equipment we needed for the gym, without any payment on our part!

That’s still not all. Out of the blue, Scott received a call from someone who said they had a car for us, and just gave us the car—a brand-new 2010 Ford Taurus! Just before the flood, we’d wanted to get a car for our youngest son who’d soon start to drive, and this gift was better than anything we could have gotten him.

Scott’s high school friends also made donations, and we experienced other overwhelmingly amazing ways in which the Lord provided for us to help us rebuild our home after this disaster. Honestly, we could write a book on how He has been so faithfully present in our situation, moving friends and strangers to generously supply what we needed! His restoration has been so miraculous that we are now lacking absolutely nothing. We are still waiting for the house to be rebuilt, but this whole episode has had an incredible impact on our family, especially our sons—they see what the Lord is doing in our lives.

We are extremely thankful for Joseph Prince’s ministry. Even though the hurricane was devastating, we have been able to see how God’s grace far exceeds every negative thing that has come our way. Because of Joseph’s teachings, we have this newfound hope that keeps us encouraged, even through trials.

Thank you, Joseph Prince, for showing us that our heavenly Father loves our family. We know that He’s going to take care of us, and we can always look forward to experiencing His goodness, even in bad times.