Toowoomba and the Flooding in Australia –

In 1999, we met an Australian couple who were living in Port Moresby.  They were from a city in Queensland called Toowoomba.  In the past twelve years, both of our families have moved several times and we lost contact with each other.  However, Toowoomba has once again been in the forefront of my mind ever since the floods starting deluging Queensland and an “inland tsunami” hit Toowoomba.  A 7 meter (or almost 23 foot) wall of water flooded the town in minutes.

The news has been full of heart wrenching stories.  In one, a 20-year-old man told how his parents had desperately made a hole in the ceiling as the torrent of water filled their house.  They lifted his 15-year-old sister up onto the roof and then he followed.  His mother was standing on a kitchen bench and he immediately reached down to grab and pull her up, but she and his dad were already swept away and presumed dead.

In another case, two young boys and their mother were clinging to trees waiting on rescue personnel.  When help arrived, they reached for the older boy as he was nearest, but he said, “No, take my brother.”  When they came back for the older boy and his mother, they were gone, and again presumed washed away and drowned.  Scenes of similar tragedies have played out in the states of Queensland and Victoria since the floods hit the country in January.

In emailing our friends who live in Brisbane, Queensland, they expressed how everyone is getting on with the job of cleaning up, but are still much in shock from the devastation and destruction that the floods have left behind.  Three quarters of the state of Queensland has been declared a disaster zone.  It is estimated that the damage will be worse than that of USA’s Hurricane Katrina in 2005.  The flooding will impact the whole country as Queensland is where much of the seafood, fruit, vegetables, and coal are produced.

The same week that floods hit Australia, we saw on the news that there was severe flooding in Brazil, Sri Lanka, and the start of major flooding in Wales.  We’ve been praying for each country and that these events would bring people’s thoughts to the things of eternity and the things of the Lord.

 Spiders and Persistence –

For some reason, spiders seem to thrive here in Australia.  They are hatching out right now and we see baby spiders all over the house and each day have to use the broom and vacuum to get rid of them.  There are a couple of places in the yard where bigger ones like to build webs from one tree to another tree.  Again, each day we go out and knock down these webs.  However the next morning, a new web is back in place.  These big spiders hide in the day time and work at night, so it’s hard to stop the cycle.  I must be getting more laid back because now I think of their persistence and am starting to feel sorry for them and how we knock down their web each day.  No matter how many times their work is destroyed, they rebuild.  What an object lesson from nature!

 Were You Just Reading Proverbs 23? –

The other day I asked Frank if he would please write on the grocery list, “gluten-free bread.”  (I have a gluten intolerance.)  Later, I went to write down a few more grocery items and saw that he had absent-mindedly written down, “glutton-free bread.”

    A friend in Christ,
    Sister Cyd James