I recently received a mission newsletter via email telling of the on-going work in Ecuador and mentioning how El Nino is affecting life there. Let me share a bit of it.
Since semi-retirement, she and her husband live on the coast and travel from there to her various areas of service within the country where she has served for well over 40 years. Her ministry has experienced much change during that time.
Many years ago, she and her husband (who now watches from heaven) initiated and developed an educational program to train native people to be pastors. In these past few years, she has seen local people develop to where they can handle that ministry themselves. She turned it over to them and now serves in an advisory position with frequent stints of teaching in those schools.
One of her most recent endeavors was to start a Christian elementary school in the city of Quito. She continues to support that ministry in every way imaginable from seeking sponsorship for the children to bringing a new worker into the ministry to teach English in that school.
As I mentioned, my friend lives on the coast. In fact, I had the privilege of visiting over a couple of nights in the very home in which they are now living. I stayed in one of the downstairs rooms which is sometimes flooded by high tides.
Now, with the very real and imminent threat of El Nino, she is in the process of having a sump pump installed in the back yard to pump water back into the street to avoid damaging those downstairs rooms. (I never thought of a sump pump in the back yard, did you?)
Schools in the coastal area are holding classes six days a week, hoping to finish their school year before January when El Nino is expected to affect them most severely.
We constantly read and hear of how El Nino will affect the United States this season. I’ll not join the forecasters to say if or how we will be affected, but the possibilities are many and many of those are severe.
In the wake of the worst wild fire season in the western part of our country due to extremely dry conditions, one has to wonder what El Nino may bring forth.
Well, the weather is one thing everybody talks about but, at the same time, it is something nobody can do anything about.
Floods may come just as the fire storms came. There may be other weather phenomena just lying in wait to take their toll.
We have no safety net to protect us from these unwanted events. But, if we have accepted Christ as Savior, we do have a safe haven that is our refuge in trying times – not the sump pump in the back yard, not over 40 years of service on the mission field, not starting a school or sponsoring a child in a Christian school, but in totally trusting Jesus day by day, even moment by moment.
Though fire storms and El Nino may wreak total devastation, we are guaranteed Jesus will still deliver us safely to heaven when He calls our name. Find your assurance in Him (John 3:16).
