Random reflections on a Saturday
14/03/15 05:32
We’re a little jumpy in the hills. There hasn’t been a lot of moisture in our winter storms and the hills are dry. We’ve had a week of wonderfully warm temperatures, which have invited us back outdoors and make walking in the woods fun, but it isn’t a typical March walk. The snow is gone and all of the moisture has been sucked up by the ground. You don’t come in with muddy boots, which is typical for this time of year. And the ground crackles under your feet. This doesn’t bode well for summer. So we are eagerly awaiting our spring storms. April, May and June can be wet months for us and we’re hoping for rain.
It is rummage sale week at the church, a time of amazing feats of volunteer labor, impressive generosity of spirit, and a good time for a few casual conversations with some wonderful church leaders. I haven’t been around as much this year as typical, with a few too many meetings and a bit of a head cold that saps my energy, but I have had a few good conversations with folks thanks to all of the activity at the church. One of our faithful church leaders is a wild lands fire fighter and he was telling us a little bit about the fire west of Custer that burned about 60 acres on Tuesday. The black hats were out working the fire and by Wednesday they had things under control, mostly cleaning up a few remaining hot spots.
Of course fire season is most intense in late summer and fall and to get to that season right now, you have to go to the southern hemisphere, where Chile is experiencing devastating fires. The port cities of Valparaiso and Vina del Mar are being threatened. According to BBC news, 4,500 people have been evacuated and another 10,000 more are likely to be moved today. Over the years I’ve looked at enough pictures of fires to know that they often are taken with very long lenses that make it look like the flames are closer to buildings and other objects than they appear in the picture, but the photos on the Internet are alarming. It certainly looks like the fires are really bearing down on populated areas. The reports say that some of the area’s most impoverished communities are most threatened. That could mean large numbers of people who have few options about where else to go.
Along with those threatened by the fires in Chile, my prayers are with those trying to recover from the South Pacific cyclones. It has been a year of particularly intense storms all along the East coast of Australia and out into the Pacific. There is a lot of open water in the Pacific and sometimes big storms rush through the area with little impact on human life. Then, from time to time, a really big storm takes a direct path across an island and leaves devastation in its wake. That is what happened on Vanuatu. Vanuatu is a collection of 65 islands between Australia and Hawaii. It is home to more than a quarter of a million people. And it took a direct hit from Cyclone Pam, packing heavy rains and winds up to 170 miles per hour.
People emerged from storm shelters in the capital, Port Vila, to find their homes destroyed. Streets are littered with roofing, uprooted trees and toppled power lines. They have just begun to discover the impact of the storm on human life. The death toll will continue to rise over the next few days as they are able to get out into the rural areas and discover what has happened. With all communications systems down, it is impossible to know what happened to folks living in low lying areas in rural communities. Entire villages are expected to have been destroyed.
By comparison, things are relatively calm here in the northern hemisphere.
Reading of these disasters, however, is a reminder of another thing about which I’ve been praying this Lent. On Sunday our congregation will join with many other congregations in receiving One Great Hour of Sharing. It is a special offering that allows disaster relief agencies to have funds and resources available in advance of disasters so that response can be quick when it is most needed. If we wait until disaster strikes and then turn to folks for help, there is no less generosity, but the time it takes to raise the money means that the response is slow. And in a disaster slow response means lost lives. One Great Hour of Sharing funds also help with development and other important ministries, but it is the disaster response component of that offering that is so important.
We are reminded constantly that life can be unpredictable. We often think of disaster as something that occurs to other people in other places. It has been a long time since the 1972 flood devastated our city. We know that we are not immune to natural disaster, but we don’t spend much time thinking about it. From time to time we have some small disaster preparedness meetings and drills and practices, but we don’t often think about what a really big event would mean.
And that brings me back to the rummage sale. The church leader with whom I was talking about the recent fire in the hills spends a lot of time preparing for the big fires. In the off season, when he isn’t out their on the front lines fighting the fires, he is training, preparing equipment, getting things ready. His equipment is loaded on his truck and his truck is pointed in the right direction to save time should the phone call come. His life is about being ready to respond when the need occurs.
I am honored to know people who have chosen such a path of service to others. I am inspired by their dedication and sense of service. There are some genuinely tough challenges in this world. And there are some wonderfully dedicated people who are prepared to meet them.
With all of my prayers of concern, I know I must also offer a prayer of gratitude. We have been blessed with some genuinely incredible people and I have been blessed to meet some of them.
It is rummage sale week at the church, a time of amazing feats of volunteer labor, impressive generosity of spirit, and a good time for a few casual conversations with some wonderful church leaders. I haven’t been around as much this year as typical, with a few too many meetings and a bit of a head cold that saps my energy, but I have had a few good conversations with folks thanks to all of the activity at the church. One of our faithful church leaders is a wild lands fire fighter and he was telling us a little bit about the fire west of Custer that burned about 60 acres on Tuesday. The black hats were out working the fire and by Wednesday they had things under control, mostly cleaning up a few remaining hot spots.
Of course fire season is most intense in late summer and fall and to get to that season right now, you have to go to the southern hemisphere, where Chile is experiencing devastating fires. The port cities of Valparaiso and Vina del Mar are being threatened. According to BBC news, 4,500 people have been evacuated and another 10,000 more are likely to be moved today. Over the years I’ve looked at enough pictures of fires to know that they often are taken with very long lenses that make it look like the flames are closer to buildings and other objects than they appear in the picture, but the photos on the Internet are alarming. It certainly looks like the fires are really bearing down on populated areas. The reports say that some of the area’s most impoverished communities are most threatened. That could mean large numbers of people who have few options about where else to go.
Along with those threatened by the fires in Chile, my prayers are with those trying to recover from the South Pacific cyclones. It has been a year of particularly intense storms all along the East coast of Australia and out into the Pacific. There is a lot of open water in the Pacific and sometimes big storms rush through the area with little impact on human life. Then, from time to time, a really big storm takes a direct path across an island and leaves devastation in its wake. That is what happened on Vanuatu. Vanuatu is a collection of 65 islands between Australia and Hawaii. It is home to more than a quarter of a million people. And it took a direct hit from Cyclone Pam, packing heavy rains and winds up to 170 miles per hour.
People emerged from storm shelters in the capital, Port Vila, to find their homes destroyed. Streets are littered with roofing, uprooted trees and toppled power lines. They have just begun to discover the impact of the storm on human life. The death toll will continue to rise over the next few days as they are able to get out into the rural areas and discover what has happened. With all communications systems down, it is impossible to know what happened to folks living in low lying areas in rural communities. Entire villages are expected to have been destroyed.
By comparison, things are relatively calm here in the northern hemisphere.
Reading of these disasters, however, is a reminder of another thing about which I’ve been praying this Lent. On Sunday our congregation will join with many other congregations in receiving One Great Hour of Sharing. It is a special offering that allows disaster relief agencies to have funds and resources available in advance of disasters so that response can be quick when it is most needed. If we wait until disaster strikes and then turn to folks for help, there is no less generosity, but the time it takes to raise the money means that the response is slow. And in a disaster slow response means lost lives. One Great Hour of Sharing funds also help with development and other important ministries, but it is the disaster response component of that offering that is so important.
We are reminded constantly that life can be unpredictable. We often think of disaster as something that occurs to other people in other places. It has been a long time since the 1972 flood devastated our city. We know that we are not immune to natural disaster, but we don’t spend much time thinking about it. From time to time we have some small disaster preparedness meetings and drills and practices, but we don’t often think about what a really big event would mean.
And that brings me back to the rummage sale. The church leader with whom I was talking about the recent fire in the hills spends a lot of time preparing for the big fires. In the off season, when he isn’t out their on the front lines fighting the fires, he is training, preparing equipment, getting things ready. His equipment is loaded on his truck and his truck is pointed in the right direction to save time should the phone call come. His life is about being ready to respond when the need occurs.
I am honored to know people who have chosen such a path of service to others. I am inspired by their dedication and sense of service. There are some genuinely tough challenges in this world. And there are some wonderfully dedicated people who are prepared to meet them.
With all of my prayers of concern, I know I must also offer a prayer of gratitude. We have been blessed with some genuinely incredible people and I have been blessed to meet some of them.