Dear Friends in Christ -
"Never in my life have I seen something like this." A friend who is working with Wycliffe Bible Translators in Guatemala forwarded to me a video clip of the massive "derrumbe" (landslide) that took place in Guatemala on Sunday 1/4. It was taken by a geologist who was there studying the mountain. (It's on YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGYiD66i-Tg&feature=related). The clip lasts about 4:45; at about 1:55, the top of the mountain breaks off.
My friend, Beth, and her family are all safe, but have lost many people (16) from two small villages in which they work. It's hard to know what to say, what to think. I offer prayers for the families and friends of those who died, but that hardly seems enough. I am humbled, in my sorrow and distress, by encouragement from Beth herself, whose email to me and other family and friends closed with the following words.
"Though we and those from our village are all safe for the time being, uncertainty fills our minds, for the mountain continues to produce showers of falling rock, and underneath, the geologists tell us, lie faultlines and cracks marking the borders of the three tectonic plates upon which Guatemala rests, and these have been swollen with water by the recent rainy season, with its record levels of rainfall...
But I just remembered a verse--Psalm 46:1-3. "God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. So we will not fear, even if...the mountains crumble into the sea...so let the mountains tremble as the waters surge!" That writer was so certain of God's care, he actually seems to say, "Bring it on!"
Your prayers for God's help in this situation, and especially His strength to those who lost loved ones, are greatly appreciated.
Finding refuge,
Beth and Boris and children"
Please join me in prayer for Beth, her family and the people in her villages.
With them, and with you, in His grip,
Janet+
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