Our Christmas vacation was certainly one to
remember. I'm sorry to write such a long email, but I thought I would tell
you the whole story.
We decided to leave the city for a week and go
to Nasuli. This is an international missionary community and SIL (Summer
Institute of Linguistics) conference center up in the mountains about 2 1/2
hours from Cagayan de Oro. Many people there are working at translations
and revisions to the Bible in various languages. It's smaller now than it
used to be since the school no longer operates, the airstrip is in another
location, and part of what used to be Nasuli is now a part of a resort.
But, it is still running with people living there and guest houses as well.
We rented a two story cabin.
Bringing the boys' bicycles was a great idea.
The boys could wake up and go directly outside to ride around and explore
the place. They could climb trees, play baseball, basketball, and soccer,
and just enjoy the great outdoors. It's cooler there, like a pleasant
summer day in New York. It was such a breath of fresh air ...for three
days, anyway. Then things changed.
On the night of the 27th, the rest of the family
was asleep, but I stayed up to finish reading a biography of Hudson Taylor.
It was 10 or 10:30 when I went upstairs to get ready for bed. When I went
in to check on Isaac and Ethan, I looked out their window and noticed that
the ditch between our house and the playground was full, and water was
still flowing down into it. It was raining pretty hard, but then it usually
does here. I went on to bed. But as I was lying there, I kept hearing
this thumping sound. I couldn't figure out what it was. I got up and
looked out our bedroom window which faced a big field where we had played
soccer that afternoon. Instead of grass, I saw a raging sea. I looked at
our car (the mission's SUV -see photo
"back patio"). It had water up to the hood and the back end was slowly
turning 45 degrees from where Jeff had parked it. "Our car is floating
away!", I yelled to Jeff (between the rain on the tin roof and the flowing
water, it was really loud). Being awakened from his sleep, he thought I was
dreaming until he also looked out the window.
I have to admit that I panicked. I prayed,
nearly crying, that God would stop the rain. But then I realized that my
focus was on the circumstances rather than on the Creator. I was giving all
my attention and emotion to the water while addressing God. I forced myself
to give my attention and emotion to God while being aware of the water. So
I began to sing about his strength, and I was calm. I stayed upstairs with
the boys and kept an eye on the water level outside thinking of what we
might have to do if the water kept rising. Actually, in about 10 minutes I
could see it start to go down.
While I was upstairs, Jeff ventured outside
where there were people with flashlights calling out. (We found out later
that a couple teenage girls were swept away by the current. One was holding
onto a tree, but the other ended up in a nearby sugar cane field. Neither
were hurt. Also, a family whose house was pushed against a tree (see
photo "off foundation, against tree"), were holding onto another tree
with the water swiftly flowing by them. And still another woman was
stranded in the same manner.) Jeff thought perhaps he could help, but the
current was still too strong and he had no flashlight. Then, thinking about
the two tall and narrow propane tanks that were behind our house, he
ventured to check on them. Sure enough, the one that was apparently empty
was gone. The other that was being used was floating like a boat tied to a
dock. He righted it, and thankfully there was no harm done. Having done
that he came back to check on us. After the water had gone down more, he
ventured out again using the cell phone as a flashlight.
After about half an hour the water had gone down
considerably and the generator was back on. We could turn on the lights and
go downstairs. Where our floor used to be was mud about 2
inches thick! Thankfully the foot of water that had been in the
house drained away (see photo
"livingroom damage"). (Jeff said that when the electricity was still
out he could see the tiny irridescent eyes of minnows and crayfish as they
swam around the livingroom.) Jeff and I got to work right away to
begin scooping and pushing the milk chocolate colored watery paste out of
the house. At about 1 am we called it quits for the night. With no water
to wash with, we toweled off as best we could and went to bed. This would
be a long day.
Knowing that there was no water to clean up
with, we tried to keep the boys upstairs. Ben and Ethan, who had awakened
in the night and seen the damage, were more obliging. Isaac, who slept
through the night, was very interested in seeing what was going on and
wanted to help. With all the excitement and activity, we didn't hold out
for long. Soon all three were helping with mud removal and exploring their
new surroundings.
The productivity of the boys lasted for awhile.
But boys are boys. Soon I caught them in the midst of a mudball fight.
Snow is one thing; mud is another. The only water we had at this time was
from the lake that had once been the playground, picnic area, and basketball
court (see photos "lake...",
lake2,
lake3). Of course, this
was brown water. So, I brought in buckets of that, soaped up the boys,
rinsed just enough to get most of the soap off, and then dried them
throughly. In the process, I discovered that Ethan had cut his toe, and it
was full of dirt! Jeff got the precious drinking water and washed it out
while I went in search of more drinking water and some antiseptic.
The really great thing about this flood is that
we made friends with the other people at Nasuli. A family from China, who
are working on an updated version of the Chinese Bible (which hasn't been
done for at least 100 years), helped us get the mud out of our house and
clear the front porch (see photo
"our front porch"). They also brought us to someone who could help us
with Ethan's cut and also provide us with a late lunch and ease the pain in
my back. That night when it started raining again, the Chinese
family invited us to stay at their house which was unaffected by the flood.
The next day the water in the new
formed lake was gone and the plumbing was working again. So we got back to
work removing the mud from "our house." It was nice to be able to use water
to flush out the residual mud and to clean up with. We decided to sleep
there that night. Perhaps we would leave the next day, since we were
running out of clean clothes and cleaning them would be a challenge.
The next morning before packing, I decided to
hunt around for Jeff's sneakers. Now, before the flood Jeff had put them on
the back porch. (Why? So that he wouldn't track mud in the house!)
Needless to say, they were swept away by the water. I saw the direction
that the water was flowing during the flood, so I set out in that
direction. I talked with people about my quest as I was going. When they
looked at me in disbelief at what I was doing, I explained that size 13
shoes are nearly impossible to find here. Surprisingly, I found one right
away. It must have floated on the water because only part of it was in the
mud. I searched for the other, but as the morning wore on, I couldn't find
it. I returned with the one shoe.
While I was hunting, Jeff decided to tackle the
car. He and Isaac scooped out the mud from the floor inside. They also
removed as much of the corn stalks and grass as they could from the under
body of the car. Jeff discovered that the car would start, so we decided we
would just go on home. But one of the people who live at Nasuli told Jeff
that he was just reading online about what to do with cars that have been in
deep water. He advised getting it looked at by a mechanic before we drive
it any distance. So, we decided to have Jeff try to drive it to Malaybalay
(about 10 miles away). He made it there and found a mechanic who could
check it out as soon as he finished with the truck he was working on. There
was water in the gear box which the mechanic drained, and he regreased
everything. I'm so glad for that man taking the time to share what he had
learned, or we would have broken down on the way home.
While Jeff was away at the mechanic, I got a
phone call. One woman I had talked to while on my quest to find Jeff's shoe
was at another family's house when they found a large shoe in their yard.
Upon learning that it was a size 13, she knew to whom it belonged. I never
would have found it, since the house was 100 yards from where I found the
first shoe and in a different direction! So both of Jeff's sneakers were
mostly clean and waiting for him when he returned from the mechanic.
Well, by the time Jeff returned, it was too late
to head for home. We stayed for one more night in "our cabin." Ethan was
nervous about it, but after talking it over he was fine. (Later he said it
was the electricity going on and off so many times that frightened him.) We
would stay for church and the community lunch that was planned for the next
day and then head for home afterward.
I was glad to go to church there and also glad
we still had some relatively clean clothes to wear. It was peaceful to sing
hymns with piano accompaniment and hear the people around me singing,
instead of the usual choruses with electrical instruments being blasted
through speakers so loud that I can't even hear my own voice. Having
the service start at 8:30 am and finish by 10 am meant that it stayed
pleasantly cool in the church, which was also a benefit.
We were all packed up and ready for our trip
home by lunchtime. After a delicious lunch (semi-potluck), we stayed to
hear various people share their experiences during the flood. Though some
had fairly traumatic experiences, they did not seem traumatized. They each
knew whose hands they were in. After the sharing time, we headed for home.
Well, that was our memorable Christmas
vacation. Surprisingly, the only things of ours that were lost in the flood
waters were Ethan's flip flops and our wooden baseball bat (things easily
replaced here). The baseball gloves that were outside in a plastic bag and
the bicycles that were also outside got caught up in the chain link fence
outside our house (see photo
"bicycle & gloves"). So, they didn't float away. One of our books and
one toy was ruined by the mud in the house. Everything else that was on the
floor we could salvage, being washable. Though Jeff's laptop case was on
the floor, the laptop was on a desk, so he didn't lose any of the work he
had been doing. By the way, it's now been about 12 days, and Ethan's cut is
nearly healed with no signs of infection.
We are so thankful for God's care
over us.
-Rhonda
