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| Piles of ruined belongings at the side of the road |
Wow, what a week! I'm sure most of you will have heard about the devastating floods that hit Slovenia a week ago. There's been so much damage and many people have been left with nothing. I personally was not at any risk - I live on the second floor in the middle of the city, well away from and sources of water - but it actually could have been very different. 3 weeks ago, late at night, it was raining and I suddenly heard dripping in my flat. It was quite bad and I could start to see water soaking into one of my walls. I had no idea what was going on especially since there is a flat above mine. My upstairs neighbours were away at the time but I had the key. I woke my landlords up and together we found that the upstairs terrace had a blocked drain which meant that the water was seeping through the door jamb and into my flat. The upstairs flat was totally fine.
This was all very frustrating but the next day my landlords cleared the drain and totally unblocked the pipe. If we had not found out about this blocked drain, which only caused a little bit of staining and no long term damage, my flat would probably have been flooded when the big rainstorms hit. My story is nothing compared to the people who lost everything, but it was a good reminder to me that we don't know the future. We don't know what will happen in a week, a month or a year, but God does. Although I faced a minor inconvenience, this probably saved me from much worse damages. We may not understand why things happen, we may not understand why God allowed these floods to take place, but I am sure that God is still in control and has a plan. Sometimes he allows bad things to happen to protect us from something worse later on.
This week the rains have finally stopped and the clean up operation is in full swing. The government has declared Monday to be a national holiday of solidarity, to help those in need. Tuesday is also a holiday so this means a 4 day weekend.
Earlier this week, on Monday, I travelled to one of the affected areas to help a family connected to a church nearby. All along the road people had dumped their ruined possessions. We passed over the stream that had flooded and it was mind boggling to realise that it had been several metres higher only a few days earlier. Despite that, people had worked so hard and the roads were a lot cleaner than I was expecting. The house I was helping at had had 4 feet of water which meant that the whole downstairs and the garage had been affected. We stayed for several hours, throwing away things that could not be saved and cleaning some of the things that could. The smell of mould and damp was pervasive and of course they had no clean drinking water. I felt slightly guilty that I was able to go home to my clean, fresh smelling flat, knowing that I could drink the water and clean my clothes with no risk.
Please keep praying for the country of Slovenia and for all the people affected by these floods.
On a different note, I will be travelling to the UK next Friday with a group of teenagers to help with a Holiday Bible Club. Please pray for us as we prepare to go, we are already facing some last minute challenges. Please pray that things will go smoothly and that the young people will learn how to serve cross culturally. Please pray for the HBC and the church we will be serving with. Pray that God would be glorified and that we would be able to share his gospel with the children and their parents. Also, that we would have a good time together and that they will enjoy seeing more of my home context!
