Stories from the Field

May - June 2005

Tsunami Picking Up the Pieces

Written by TA - personnel in Aceh
Pictures by DA – volunteer in Aceh

A person must have a discerning eye to find beauty in the midst of destruction. Most people looking at the variety of broken plates and glass gathered by one volunteer would see only shattered kitchenware no longer of any use. But this volunteer saw something different. Picking up the various fragments of glass, she points out the beautiful colors and hues. She lays the bits and pieces out in a line and declares her intent of making a mosaic that will glorify the Father. From piles of rubble, art will emerge. Perhaps this is the way God looks at the various disaster areas. While we can only see destruction and loss, He sees the opportunity to create something beautiful from the ugly. Instead of seeing the number of people lost, He looks instead at the number who can now be saved.

- Pray Isaiah 55 on behalf of the people who have lost so much from the tsunami. "'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways,' declares the Lord. 'For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so will my word be which goes forth from my mouth; it will not return to me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.'"