“We had the nicest house in the village and they still are not yet over the shock, my wife and the children,” said David Wood, looking at the journalist at his bedside in the hospital. He had a broken leg and several stitches in his face.

“Yes,” answered the man of the newspaper. “A rainstorm and a landslide…. Your wife and kids were lucky that they just escaped through the back door. Half of the hill has disappeared in the sea.

“No,” said David. “That is not luck, but God’s almighty hand, who saved them. And perhaps you don’t know that the psalmist said that we should worship and acclaim His exalted Name, All ye high and lowly; God alone is holy! Are you not a Christian?”

“Well, sir, I grew up with it, but nowadays, we live in a new era.”

“No, on the contrary. I would be nowhere now without Him”, said David.

• • • • •

Anita Wood and the three children, Gordon, Susie and Yvonne were brought to a motel in the village close by. They realized that they had lost everything. It had all happened so unexpectedly and so quickly. There had been no time to pick up anything, while the floor started to move away from under their feet. They had never dreamt even about the possibility that such a thing could happen to them. There had been a terrible noise of breaking and cracking, the back door fell open, glass was breaking. But they realized that at least they were alive and well, except Daddy who lay in the hospital.

There came a man from the local Council to fill in some papers, and another one from the insurance. They assured them that all kinds of arrangements would be made for them. The biggest surprise however was when some people of the Church came with a big box with useful things to reorganize their life as a family. It was an act of love. Practical help. Unpacking the box brought them in a kind of festive mood. One surprise after another.

They could imagine now how it would have been for people who come out of a war, leaving everything behind, and then receiving gifts from well-meaning people, especially brothers and sisters in Christ. How happy could people make each other, if they wanted to. The manager of the motel brought them a big fruit basket, from a shop in the main street flowers were brought, and a bakery gave a plate with cakes.

“The start of a new beginning, thanks to the Lord,” Anita said. Yvonne, the youngest, looked confused but content that she got a new doll out of the box.

Outside the wind had died down. The newspaper came with pictures that showed the waves that had lashed the coast had been up to ten meters high. Trees, boats, sheds, plus the house of the Wood family were swept away and battered in pieces. The interview with David was also there, and the journalist had left nothing out. It filled Anita’s eyes with tears when she was reading David’s humble testimony. ❖