Disaster Strikes

I'm still laying on my bed as I write this and it's 10.45am on Friday morning and this is not me.  I am never in bed or on the bed this late in the day.  But today my eye is swollen and itchy and I was feeling a bit worse for wear and I was embarking on my own little pity party.  That was until while scrolling through my blog friends sites and my emails and watching the early morning news on the telly, I heard a story from the beautiful island of Samoa.  As you probably already know there has been a terrible Tsunami hit Samoa.  The small island is devastated and they suspect there will be 100's dead.  We have lost about 5 Australian's that we are aware of and there are still more unaccounted for.  We are praying they will be found well and safe.  But the news report was so sad, the background scene the hospital, what wasn't washed away at least and the morgue.  The reporter, the poor man looked quite stunned and not sure which way to look.  Apparently the ambulances had been streaming into the morgue all morning.  Then came the story of the 14 year old girl who had lost 11 members of her family and yet she was bringing food and water to the Australians who had been found alive and who were in the hospital.  The Samoan people have 3 priorities in their lives the reporter said, the church - God, family and their island.  What a wonderful child, how kind and resilient she must be. 

Then in Indonesia they are struggling through the aftermath of an earthquake.  The vision on the news is terrible.  Broken bodies, crying, frightened children and dazed men and women wandering the streets.  They are estimating near 5,000 dead in this disaster.  So I had to put my pity party on hold.  My eye is sore, itchy and annoying but my bed is dry, warm, clean and my family are safe and well.  I know that recently in Alabama you also have gone through much flooding and loss.  I am so sorry for you all.  The world was once a huge place, with places so far off we never knew what was happening there.  How the people lived, what they lived through, now with the introduction of satelite television, the internet, and mobile phones, we see immediately all that is happening around the world. 

So to that young girl in Samoa bless you, bless you, bless you.  To the volunteers, the doctors and nurses, the military men an women flown in to help Thank you and God bless. To the many who are grieving now I am so sorry for your loss, I am so sorry.

The earth moved,

The ocean roared,

I cried,

You ran and screamed,

The clouds opened,

The rain came,

And all around the world was changed.

Some were lost,

Some were saved,

Some came to help,

Some gave.

We watched and prayed,

We cried and gasped,

We gave thanks that today it wasn't us,

We were thankful for the kindness showed.

Hope is all we have to cling to,

Hope that we will find alive those we love,

Hope that we can rebuild,

Hope that we will come through this.

We hope.