I am taking a moment to ask for prayers for a people, for rescue workers and governments, and for financial support – through recognized international charitable organizations – for a people we may not know or ever meet. In Guatemala.
Poverty. Bandits. Tobacco. Coffee. Volcanoes.
Name four five things in Guatemala that many in this hemisphere are more aware of this week.
Recalling the Pompeii excavation and casts of its many victims, I find myself thinking of the one of an entombed dog that represents to me the horror that befell people two thousand years ago. Here, now, we have people who until this past Sunday knew “someday” the mountain would spew out, but did not know it was “today”. From the bits of news we hear that children and adults are among victims. The ecological toll and the toll on the wildlife must be far more severe. But at least one dog was rescued by his brave, compassionate master.
https://globalnews.ca/video/embed/4255097/
While everyone in the United States has been distracted by the latest belching of Kilauea on the island of Hawaii, it has been erupting constantly for the past thirty-five years. Tourists, until May 7th, flocked to see and be seen near the lava fields. But there are other volcanoes along the rim of the Pacific Plate – the Rim of Fire that are not subtle, not predictable, and certainly not quaintly irritating to residents and tourism.
The Volcan del Fuego forty miles outside the capital Guatemala City in the Central American country erupted on June 3rd and more today, burying dozens of victims. Children, adults, dogs, and who knows what was once living are buried in pyroclastic flow and ash.
https://www.space.com/40794-fuego-volcano-eruption-satellite-photos.html
Via Facebook, an image of a school that the charity connected with my church supports brought it home to me. The current image shows the school blanketed by mounds of volcanic ash where happy schoolchildren had posed in a “before” picture. I hope the world community can move expeditiously to help comfort the grieving.
It's a Dog's Life 