Tropical Storm Aftermath

First off, for those of you who have seen news of the sink hole, it is clear across the capital from us. The area of the country we are in has seen the least damage and disaster from the storm due to our good infrastructure. The majority of deaths have been out in the country where people are still living in mud and tin shacks, on the hillsides.

There was a lot of damage to roads around the Antigua area, but we are now able to get into that city. Our secondary ministry, L.A.C.E.S and their school are located there. All of our students have been accounted for, but many have lost all but the clothes on their backs to mud and water damage. We hope to help directly with that after our time at teacher work days is finished. At this point it looks as if we may help with delivering water and food to some of the greatest affected families from the school.

Please pray for the many people in the country who have lost so much and are displaced. It affects more than the poor, but they are affected the most. Also, please pray that the airport will reopen quickly as there are many ministry teams trying to get out and in, as well as many of our teachers from the school. The news tonight said it should reopen tomorrow which would be wonderful.

A few Photos

These are from our house and the area. Everything around here is fine, drying out and all. Our friends who live up in the mountains have heard that about 100 people have died in their area from landslides. Everyone we know is safe, as far as we know, Joy has not heard about all of her students from the school in Antigua.
From L-R: A small pile of debris, we called it ash but really it is dirt, that our gate guard had to shovel off the driveway. The grooves in our plastic roof (over the laundry room) filled with said debris. A dump truck in the middle of our boulevard park divider thing - they were out with small metal shovels cleaning off all the streets and putting it in trucks like these. Who knows where it will go from there.

Soggy

So, how much fun can we have in a 60 hour period? Well, let us see: Thursday night between 6 and 7pm Volcan Pacaya started erupting -- but we knew nothing about it. See, the rainy season just started so rain in the evenings is rather common place. And with the rain comes some changes in temperature so when it sounded like hail around 7pm we thought nothing of it. When it started "thundering" about 30 minutes later we also thought nothing of it.

We literally knew nothing about what was going on until about 7:30 the next morning when Abigail and I (Ken) left for school -- Abigail asked me, "Daddy, why is it all black out here?" Still I refused to have a clue, "Oh Abigail, maybe the rain came from the other direction last night and washed the dirt and dust off the roof and covered the ground and cars (about 15 feet away from the house).

I asked Alba, the wife of our gate guard, "Where did all the dirt come from?" -- to which she replied, "Oh, Pacaya erupted last night between 6 and 9pm" -- to which I said (after picking up my jaw off the ground), "Seriously!?"

It wasn't until later in the morning until I put 2 and 2 together to get 4 -- the hail wasn't hail (falling sand/ash) and the thunder wasn't thunder (Pacaya's eruption). Duh!

Well then the rain came back... and it rained... and it rained... and it rained... and finally Saturday noonish, while chatting with another teacher after graduation, we found out that the rain wasn't because of the normal rainy season -- rather it was because of the tropical storm Agatha coming in from the Pacific. Oh -- good to know about, right?

Well, these are things we'd likely known about much sooner if our Internet at the house had been working. It's been out since sometime Tuesday which has played havoc with our ability to stay current on such important newsworthy stories (like the Canadian and American Embassy Warden's messages regarding the coming Cyclone/Typhoon).

Alas, better late than never -- eh?

Anyway off to check more news -- while we have working Internet.

-knme

Hail, Debris, All the same right?

Will post more later, with pictures, but wanted to let everyone know that we are fine. Our guard has been shoveling ash off the driveway all morning, but that is the most we were affected by last nights volcanic eruption.

Stones and Cannibals

Find me another school that prompts this kind of conversation from a kindergardener:

Abs: Mommy, I want to go to China. Wait, no I don't because in China you can't go to church you'll get arrested.
J: Where did you hear that?
A: Eli (a classmate.)
J: And why is that?
A: Because the government wants everyone to worship a stone. I mean, What good does it do you to worship a stone? Can a stone help you? Duh!

Hmmm...This launched a discussion of bringing the Bible to unreached lands, how maybe in the future China will be open to missionaries and she will go there, the story of Jim Elliot. Goodness, I love that my 6 year old can carry on such intelligent conversations. I do pray that someday she will be able to hear the voice of God clearly and will follow Him wherever he asks her to go, even if that means China. We'll work on her presentation a little before then though, I don't think the "Duh" would really benefit her.

Give me 10

I continue to marvel at how fast the year has gone. There are just ten days left of classes!

Friday afternoon we celebrated the service of Joe, Sharon, and Lois at CAG. The holes they leave will be very difficult to fill but we also continue to trust in the Lord that He will fill them.

Joy had her 2nd-to-last school event last night (Middle school Murder Mystery party). Tomorrow she will be participating in the Baccalaureate Ceremony at Union Church and then I believe she will be done.

For me, to some extent the end of the year will be my busiest time as I will be aiding in final grade storage and generation and review of report cards and transcripts and beginning upgrades to the school's central servers.

We will move into our new home 4-6 June. Then our next family event will be our return to the USA/Canada for a quick furlough (18 June through 31 July).

Well, that is all for now. We look forward to seeing all of you over the time we will be around.

In Christ's service,

-knme

A Test of Flexibility

All was good and peaceful, until I drove onto campus and saw smoke pouring out of every building. A little concerning since we had a recital scheduled in the chapel tonight. I wouldn't even have batted an eye if the buildings were on fire, because that at least would have been unplanned for. Fires overrule schedules, period. It was however, smoke from the fumigation which had just happened. Fumigation which closes everything down until the next day. Fumigation that was not communicated to those of us who needed, and had reserved, the use of the buildings this evening.
Oh well, the bugs in the chapel might still live. I thought about rescheduling, and then realized I had no time (and really the kids that suggested it were just nervous.) At that point we had (not me, the maintenance man) already opened the doors and windows in there and were waiting for the smoke to clear. I thought, we can just start late, but was quickly reminded that we really couldn't enter the building for 8 hours. Hmmm...plan C. We hold our breath, take short trips in and take all the stuff outside and have the recital there. So that is just what we did. A few wind blown pages, lots of dead bugs thanks to the rigged up lights, fear of rain on the piano, and great performances later - my first ever all outdoor student recital is finished.
Just think about how that would have rattled the old Joy. Not anymore! HA - I've got this flexibility test aced (at least tonight.)