Losing and Gaining

The past few days, these eyes have seen much loss. Not my own personal loss: the loss of others. The loss of a 70-year-old man out of whose house I shoveled mud and now-useless possessions into the street as he showed me the Bugs Bunny drawings on the walls of his granddaughter’s room and told me about how he had lived his whole life in this destroyed home. The loss of a mother, whose now-ruined desire to have a stylish, well-presented home is evidenced the mud-splattered pile of home décor magazines found in a ruined dresser, chaotically turned over in a mud-filled bedroom of a once-beautiful house. The loss of property, personal possessions (in some cases, absolutely everything), security, comfort, privacy, peace of mind.

Now, I’ve lost a few things the past few days as well. I almost lost consciousness when I was standing in line to receive a Hepatitis injection at the Red Cross station near the disaster (David said my face was yellow). I chickened out yesterday, but bravely received two injections today, as my comrades kept me distracted, talking, and most importantly, seated.

I also lost my tennis shoe and my pride today after stupidly making my way through a lake of calf-deep mud. Having one’s sock-clad foot ooze into thick, soupy mud is an odd feeling – you feel utterly sick at the thought of it, but it’s almost enjoyable in a primordial, boyish kind of way. But, I found my shoe again (after much pulling and tugging and nearly falling into the soup), and was rescued from my predicament by a rubber-boot-clad Mexican who knew enough English to give my mud lake adventure some colorful names as he carried me back to shallower mud.

We’ve also lost some creature comforts. Running water, for one. I returned to the apartment today covered in brown gunk, ready for a hot shower, but due to a lack of city water (flooded and contaminated water system), there was no option but to wipe myself off the best I could and hope for some kind of water soon. So, we had the joy of bucket showers today. But apart from our very minimal “losses”, we are not suffering at all: only a few inconveniences.

The pastor had some wisdom in his words yesterday when he mentioned how the greatest loss to be seen in this natural disaster is not the loss of property, security, or convenience. The greatest loss is the closed hearts of the people to the Gospel of Christ. God has given them a great opportunity to lose their connections to this world by removing all their built-up kingdoms of wealth and material possessions in one night (sounds very much like Jesus’ parable of the rich fool, does it not?). And the response? “Well, let’s just get along the best we can, clean it up and start again, pull ourselves up by our bootstraps.”

This is the greatest loss. It is the greatest loss because the greatest gain lies before them in the person of Jesus. Paul, who had all the makings of a successful, respected Jew told the Philippians:

I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I might gain Christ and be found in him.

Rubbish. Contaminated muck. Mud mixed with sewage and corpses from the cemetery. That’s what Paul considered the best his flesh had to offer, compared to the riches of knowing Christ, which is the greatest gain. Gain. Gain!

Flood Pictures

Here are a few photos from the flood damage. And perhaps I should add a qualifier to the last post: not all of Parral is under water, and those parts that were under water are now just full of mud. Thank goodness, the water is receding due to two days without rain.



This was our old house. Thank goodness we moved out nine months ago!

Parral under water

Just thought I'd update everyone on things around crazy Parral. It's been raining more than wet season in Seattle here lately, and Parral just isn't well-suited to receive this much rain (for being 400 years old, its drainage system isn't incredibly functional). Saturday night, many parts of the city were flooded, because the river that runs through town rose up in several places. It was so bad in parts that some houses were completely flooded or in some cases, just washed away. I've never seen such power in nature up-close and personal.

The grandparents of a family in the church (a well-off couple) had the river rise up behind their house and flood their house terribly. I wish I would've had my camera with me to take pictures. Unbelievable. I went there to help their family take the non-destroyed items out of their house. At its highest point, the water had risen to about neck-level (from the water marks on the walls), and left everything else absolutely COVERED in mud - thick, sticky mud. The floor was covered in about 2-3 inches of mud and dirty water, all their things were chaotically strewn about, the windows busted out, the bathtub and sinks were full of mud and water. There were broken dishes and shattered furniture scattered about, giving you the idea that the water came rushing in with such a force to break windows and even deposit large logs carried by the river into the living room. The 500-lb. piano was completely upside-down. Imagine the power necessary to turn a quarter-ton piano completely upside-down. I've never seen anything like it.

I went walking along the street where we used to live, in the big house next to the park (these grandparents lived close to our old house). The house is completely gutted by water and mud. Destroyed. I was floored by the fact that we were living there 9 months ago, and now it's useless and worthless. Amazing. That whole neighborhood (where we used to live) was flooded out. The park was destroyed. The tennis court's chain link fence was smashed to the ground. All the playground equipment was destroyed and 30 meters from where it used to be. There were CARS stuck in the middle of the park, carried there by the water. I walked down to a friend's house near that area, and her whole neighborhood was flooded out, except her house and two others next to hers. Talk about divine grace. I saw a big delivery truck turned over on its side, and next to it, caught up in an uprooted tree, some sort of Plymouth resting on top of a cockeyed, washed-out VB Bug.

The mud is the vilest thing. It's everywhere. There is no escaping it. In the streets, in the houses, in the yards, filling cars. I got back to the apartment (thank God we're on the third floor, even though the water didn't get to us), took off all my clothes and stuck them, shoes and all, in the washer!

So in brief, it's been a wild weekend. There are no classes today. I know some of the students and their families were affected (I saw one family from the school whose house was flooded as I walked in the neighborhood next to the park), and there's still some danger in some parts of the city although the river is decreasing in size, thank God.

But all of us gringos are OK, there's no cause to worry (the river would have to be huge to reach us). Please pray for the families in the church that have lost their houses. One man's house is completely gone. Washed away without a trace. He's got absolutely nothing. Pray that God would use this time of suffering to try and prove his people's faith.