Hope for the vulnerable and the forgotten.

We are thrilled to be a part of an organization that is/has been responding to this type of devastating situation where people struggle to have the resiliency to face such challenges.

17 ¶  The flood continued forty days on the earth; and the waters increased, and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth.

18  The waters swelled and increased greatly on the earth; and the ark floated on the face of the waters.

19  The waters swelled so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered;

20  the waters swelled above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep.

21 ¶  And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, domestic animals, wild animals, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all human beings;

I read these verses from Genesis 6 the other day. For whatever reason they hit me in such a strong way – much more powerfully than ever before. I don’t really like being all alone in a boat in the middle of a lake, given that I am not a great swimmer. So I can’t imagine being on the ark, seeing absolutely nothing under the heavens but water as far as the eye can see. I would think that there must have been moments of doubt for Noah as he spent day after day in the rain, seeing the waters rise around him until he could see nothing but those waters.

Maybe this hit me so much harder because of the apocalyptic pictures and video that we have been seeing from around our world as flooding devastates country after country and people after people. Vietnam. Myanmar. France. The Philippines. The US. Indonesia. And the list could go on. This flooding often seems to be of Biblical proportions. And this flooding leaves a trail of death, destruction and deficiency of the basics needed for life in its wake.

 

No doubt you have heard about the tsunami that has destroyed so much infrastructure and so many lives on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia. Medair has sent out an Emergency Response Team to Sulawesi. You can see more (and a short video) about their deployment here: www.medair.org/tsunami/.

Medair also reached Luzon in the Philippines within 24 hours of Super Typhoon Mangkhut wreaking havoc on the lives of people there. An Emergency Response team went there as well. 3 days after their arrival, the team did their first emergency distribution: www.medair.org/stories/reaching-remote-communities-philippines/.

And Medair has also been assisting in the international response to the Ebola crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is largely passing under the radar of many of us. Here you can read globally about how Medair is working in very difficult conditions to fence in the Ebola epidemic so that it doesn’t ravage vast tracts of Congo and move into neighboring countries.

We know that the vulnerable, and sometimes forgotten, people in these places face some of the same despair that I suspect Noah must have struggled with as he looked out of the ark’s window and saw nothing but water all around him. Christine & I are thankful to be a part of an organization that is responding in Christ’s love to give hope to these vulnerable people for whom an emergency distribution can be the difference between life and death, or where people might die of a horrible hemorrhagic disease if Medair didn’t help to fence it in!  Would you please pray for strength for these teams ministering in these places – and for hope for those people whom they serve!