Today the sisters were talking about what is going on for the rest of the week. Today being the day after the feast is a rest day...I feel as if I've been resting since I've been here, but as I am not one to "look a gift horse in the mouth"...(what does that even mean??), I will take the rest day and be grateful for it!!!
But, anyways, as the sisters were commenting on the week, they began talking about Friday, Sept 11th. Immediately upon hearing the date, my heart saddened and I was thrown, as I always am when hearing that date, back to the day itself in my mind and remembered the visuals and intense feelings of that day. I was not in New York, although I do have family that live there, nor was I in Washington DC or in Pennsylvania on 9/11/01, I was at home, in my living room with my mother watching the second plane go into the second tower. I remember going around during the day, to ECC, to dinner at my brother's house all in a fog of disbelief and worry about what was going to happen next. I remember my parents coming back from the adoration chapel that night saying the chapel was packed with people praying. I remember friends who have stopped going regularly to church beginning to go again with renewed fervor praying for the people who died, the first responders, the people who lived and for the enemy who planned this horrible attack. Our country was in a state of shock, anger, horror and fear.
As I was talking about it with the sisters, I thought of the typhoon they suffered through last year. Definitely different experiences as here in the Philippines, the disaster was through nature, and the States, it was caused by terrorists, but the fear felt through both experiences was similar. The sisters had prepared for the typhoon as it was forecasted in advance of the storm. They had cleared out of their home in the city and all gathered at Providence Home, which is near the river, however it is relatively small and wouldn't seem capable of doing any damage. The sisters and helpers boarded up the windows and doors as best they could and saw that they had supplies to get them through the storm. When the typhoon hit, they lost power and the sound of the storm was deafening, they said. But then there was a surge of the water that caused serious flooding... I mean serious. Water began entering Providence Home around 11p.m. despite the fact that the river is small and the house was secured. Soon the water covered the floor and was increasing rapidly. The water was flowing so hard that the sisters felt the best thing would be to seek shelter in the attic where the water was unlikely to reach. However, soon that security would be broken as the water continued to rise in the house, climbing the stairs to the attic where the sisters and many children sought refuge.
There were several attempts to rescue the Oikos family. At one point, they all tied rope around each other and placed baby Abby in an open styrofoam box thinking they would have to escape out the window and pull each other to safety. But with the water raging as it was, it became clear that attempting an escape like that would prove deadly. So the sisters stayed there and turned to God in their distress. It was 3 a.m. when the sisters began praying the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. They were in tears, fearful for the children and for the other Oikos sisters and families not with them in the attic. They prayed the chaplet two times when they noticed the water, which had reached the top stairs of the attic, was beginning to recede. It took a few hours, but little by little, the water was lessening and soon the sisters could come out of the attic... only to find devastation downstairs.
Everything they had was gone. Computers, books, food, photographs, chairs, tables, even their cars were swept away in the ferocious current. What remained behind was a muddy mess, made dangerous for all of the glass on the ground that made further exploration into the disaster impossible as no one had shoes. With time came help, boots, canned food and rice. It took two months to clean up the properties ruined, for the two residences in the city, Nazareth Home and the Oikos office were both flooded to the ceiling as well during the surge. Days and weeks were spent cleaning and sifting through treasures that were watered down to garbage leaving even what was left behind of no use as the sewer system was over flooded as well. They told me the smell of the area was horrible and they all became sick from the stench, the waste left behind and weeks and weeks of eating canned foods.
Even now, whenever asked about the typhoon, telling the story brings them right back to the day, just as 9/11 does for me. Disasters have the power of leveling us, of stripping us of our own power or will. Whatever the cause, natural or human, the devastations and horrors that invade our lives rip control right out of our very hands. All of the trifling things that seemed so important to us melt away in the face of death and destruction. I think about all of those people who sought comfort and healing in the Lord in the days following the 9/11 attacks, and I am sure in any disaster areas, God is called upon in desperation for safety and protection. It's a wonder after a million years that He doesn't just throw up His hands and say "No way, Jose!! You didn't want me in the good times, why should I help you in the bad times??" It is good for us that God does not have a human intellect!! It is good that He doesn't hold grudges or pick favorites.
But I can't help but think that reliance on God in all times, good and bad... including Him into the mundane and frantic times of our lives...isn't the way to go. I have complete and total faith that anyone who calls out to God in any capacity or instance, whether a long-time believer or an atheist reaching out for his last ray of hope, will be saved in one way or another, whether here on earth or in Paradise with Our Lord.
For the Oikos sisters, reaching out to God is a daily occurrence. These lovely people who live so simply helping the poor rely on God's providence for everything they have. Praying to God throughout the day whatever is going on is a part of their daily lives, as involuntary as breathing. We are, even now, entering the rainy season here in the Philippines. It may happen that another typhoon will hit this area, it's even probable. The future is unknown... typhoons, terrorist attacks, devastation of any kind can hit at any moment. There is no where on earth you can go to escape it, but turning to God before disaster strikes makes the acceptance of all that happens after easier. To that way of thinking, I'm in the best place possibly I could be!! xxoo
