Already this year disasters have come in many forms: heat, fire, flood, wind, tornado, hurricane, earthquake — you name it, this country has had it. But two observers of disasters hitting the U.S. believe we aren’t having more than the usual. “Thanks to technology and engineering, we have more people living in more vulnerable places. Our infrastructure is aging and more vulnerable,” they say.

The affair started across the room in a Sunday school class when the pastor’s wife received a text from a handsome member of the congregation. The text was a simple, “What a pretty dress, you look beautiful today.” This compliment brought something alive in her she hadn’t experienced in a long time. She began trying to remember the last time her husband – pastor of a large church – had given her a compliment. Thus began a six-month affair before its discovery. It is one of dozens of stories that therapist Trudy Johnson can tell about the pressures of serving the church, not as the pastor, where the strains and stresses might be expected, but of the wife of the pastor.