Disaster

One week and a half ago, Peter and I were woken up at 5am by a phone call from a friend of ours in Freetown.  His house was being flooded.  A few hours later we would find out the depths of the tragedy that was unfolding.  August is the height of rainy season here and at 6am the rains caused a mud-slide that was wiped away the homes of thousands of people.  It also killed hundreds. As of yesterday, 493 bodies have been buried, with hundreds of people still reported missing.  There are three holding centers for the displaced with 250 unaccompanied children (can't find their parents).  It is reported to be the worst flood in Africa in the last two decades.  

Reading the stories has been horrible.  But on Monday afternoon we got a call that made it hit even closer to home.  We have a man who has been cooking for Peter and helping us with  various household things for the last two years.  Peter’s known him for many more years.  He called us on Monday to tell us that his son’s friends had called him because they thought he might have been one of the flood victims.  He wasn’t going to be able to come to work because he had to go down to the morgue and try to see if he was there.  He called that night to say that by the time he was able to get down there, it had been too dark to identify anyone, so he was going to have to go back the next day. 

Tuesday afternoon he called Peter, crying that his only son had been lost.  What do you say? How do you comfort someone who has just lost everything?  In Sierra Leone, most people don’t set up retirement accounts.  They invest in their children.  They spend their money on school fees and other things to help their children succeed, not only because they love their children and want them to do well (they do) but also because the better job their child is able to obtain, the better they will be able to care for them when they are old.  Because in most households men control the purse-strings, sons are usually in a better position to help than daughters.  Not always, but usually.  So not only did our friend lose his child, his only son, it’s like he lost his life savings as well. 

One of the saddest things that I keep hearing from the people here in response to this tragedy is “Please God, I know we’re wicked but please have mercy on us and stop doing this to us.  We have to start doing better so God will stop this.”  To be honest, one of the biggest things that I have struggled with living here is reconciling the Jesus and I know and love with the pain and destruction that I see every time I walk outside my house.  I don't know where the line is drawn between God’s intervention, sin, and natural consequences.  I know that this kind of thing had to pass through God’s hands in order to happen, but I also know that He is WEEPING with his people and His heart breaks along with my friend.  Statements like the one above just bring to mind thoughts of the gods of ancient Rome and Greece, needing to be appeased in order do do this or not do this.  That’s not the loving Creator that I know.  So I will wrestle with the tension, once again with how He could be loving, powerful, and still allow my friend to lose his son. I will once again imagine myself as Joseph, sitting in a prison cell, feeling the fullness of the injustice around me but recognizing that I have no idea what God is doing outside the walls.  The massive victory and salvation to come when the time is reached.  I will be frustrated with poverty leading to deforestation that allows hillsides to be weakened.  I will be discouraged by corruption that facilitates the ongoing cycle of poverty, and I will do what I can. 

Another missionary and I gathered up clothes, blankets and some money that we had here.  Marie brought me all of the money that she’d been saving.  We bought some foodstuffs that an organization involved in the rescue and displacement effort asked for and took it to them in Freetown.  There are a lot of things that I don’t know and don’t understand.  But right now, I will focus on what I do know, which is Jesus.  I will cling to the image of Him dying on a cross because that sealed for me, the proof of His love forever.  I know this life isn’t the end but we have the hope for eternity.  And I know that my job is to love Jesus and love the people He places before me.  So I’ll set my heart and my mind to that.