We live in a divided world.
Love. Hate.
Creation. Destruction.
Black. Brown. White.
There is no escape…
Typhoon Haiyan ripped through the Philippines just one week ago. The city of Tacloban was destroyed. Over 10,000 people were killed, and thousands more are still missing in the rubble. Buildings were torn apart. Homes were washed away. Bodies were swept into trees and littered the streets when the flooding ceased. Destruction was Haiyan’s goal. Destruction is what Haiyan caused.
Families of these children lost their homes in 2009 due to Typhoon Ketsana.
But there is hope on the horizon…
Haiyan has left millions of people homeless. Millions of people helpless. Children can’t find their parents. Parents can’t find their children. Brothers and sisters look for one another. Many of these people searching will come up empty handed and it breaks my heart.
We were not hit in Manila, but you can see some of the outskirts of Haiyan in this photo.
We live in a divided world. But….
Disaster brings the world together.
I have been in the Philippines for two weeks, working with Kids International Ministries. As soon as we heard about the destruction Haiyan was going to bring, we began to prepare to send supplies. Boxes on boxes of blankets, clothes, and food sit in front of our house, waiting for the moment the truck comes to load up. Meals for 300,000 people have already been sent to Tacloban. 10 people from KIM went down to the city to offer their assistance.
This year, I have learned, that sometimes it takes an accident, a disaster, a death; sometimes it takes something that knocks you off your feet for the world to come together in unity.
How do we define the word “UNITY”? After all, we hear it all the time. Unity in jobs. Unity in our schools. Unity in our church. But what is the implication behind the word? Is it nothing more than a group of people working, learning, or worshiping together loosely, linked by a common goal or belief?
Perhaps unity begins as nothing more than an empty cup; a framework created to house something bigger than itself. A vehicle created to contain a combination of ingredients, each with their own special qualities that make them unique. Each of them filled with elements and properties that make it suited to fulfill its purpose.
Together each piece makes its own valuable contribution, regardless of its use as a singular idem. Individually, each idem is, by no means, worthless. But when combined together by the hands of a skilled Creator, they become something wonderful. A delicious blend of unity…
