120,000 dead with the numbers still rising. it's incomprehensible.
i'm working on a longer note, newsletter, photos and website update to tell more about roshini and caleb -- great people i got to know at litt-world in the philippines. they both live in sri lanka, in separate cities. here is a glimpse of notes on their welfare:
FROM ROSHINI
"I and my family are ok, but there is so much death and destruction around us in the coastal areas. My home town was not affected, but water rose outside our office, but did not come in to the building. I was there with two colleagues, rescuing important documents etc.. and we had to run....
The sheer magnitude of the disaster and human suffering are beyond words.... My office is involved in relief operations and we are working round the clock. Please pray for us and the many thousands of victims."
FROM CALEB:
"We collect things and helps and given to those people. Even today I am going to the north with some people taking things to distribute to them. In north at one church when they were having worship service on sunday with 48 people, all were washed out with the water and all died. And one of the pastor's family, there were 10 members died. Like this there are so many stories. Please pray."
FROM National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (Roshini works here)
Everyday, we receive desperate requests for help and assistance; the needs are overwhelming. We are in need of US$300,000 for initial relief efforts.
Due to the severity and the urgency of the need, we appeal that you respond within 24 hours.
Contact details for pledges or queries -
Phone – 94 -11-5511381 / 2 , 94-11-5511358 / 9
Mobile phone – 94 - 777-302699 or 94 -777-255469
E-mail – easl@systec.lk or efa@stmail.lk
Fax – 94-11-271823
Mailing address – NCEASL, No. 24, Ebenezer Place, Dehiwela, Sri Lanka.
Cindy here again.
it takes a bit longer to mail money, but take the time please! consider doing a quick online donation to a larger organization and also to the one above.
other places to donate. it's something we can do, doesn't feel enough i know, but something.
www.worldvision.org
www.worldrelief.org
www.unicef.com
www.savethechildren.com
www.doctorswithoutborders.com
http://www.donate.ifrc.org/ (red cross)
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/12/28/tsunami.aidsites/ (CNN website with lots of places to donate to)
Thursday, December 30, 2004
Thursday, December 23, 2004
hello, hello
gee, it's been over a month. thank you to those who checked in, or who emailed asking where i'd gone. that meant a lot.
there seems times you turn a corner in life. whether willingly or not. i've been feeling at the end of some things both inner and outwardly for a while. and suddenly, the end is ending and i'm turning toward new things.
i'm being vague in some ways. but maybe you understand. maybe you experience it too. i think we all do if we stop and recognize the patterns. like seasons and the passages of time.
in writing -- i've been exploring different things and making progress on those works in progress, but also time and holidays demand so much more. as with many writers, what always gets cheated is the writing time. please, you writers out there, catch me up. and if you aren't a writer, catch me up too.
many reasons for this last month's disappearance. usually when i ride a roller coaster, i like to put my hands up and scream with joy. but some roller coasters just don't let you do it -- you have to hold on cause there's no trusting that you'll make it to the end. life's been a bit like for a while -- sometimes the hands are up and other times they're clinging for survival.
another part, well, i didn't want to write and be a downer to anyone with holiday spirit. so stop reading if you're really happy about christmas. but for those of you who aren't, though i've tried for a month, i'm not in the christmas spirit. i'm going shopping tomorrow, don't want to, even resent it, sorry to say. i asked myself, what kind of person doesn't like christmas? that person seems to be me this year. once i was that person who baked and decorated with great joy -- i seem to recall her in my past. christmas was once the favorite holiday, now thanksgiving and my birthday win that race (yes, my birthday actually IS a holiday -- lincoln's birthday so there!).
now, i've had great christmas "moments" during different parties, time with the kids, school productions and such. but nothing of the true "spirit." will attend midnight mass for the second year, a new something for me even though i'm not catholic. something about it was beautiful to me. all those people gathered together, the singing and oneness of spirit -- usually i'm alone in the house stuffing stockings to help out santa clause. he does need some help you know. we might read the story of christ's birth on christmas and do christian-y things during the month (okay, not so much this year). but mass was so different and inviting to me. the idea that all over the world, it's happening, at midnight in the different time zones, thousands and thousands of people gather together in expectation. maybe that's what i'm missing in my christmas spirit, the expectation, the wonder, the worship. i'm just irriated at the lines, the several gifts i forgot to buy, the cost of it all, the weariness it brings, the pressure, the lost writing time (i will again admit), and the truth that so much of it IS the gifts -- maybe too hearing about christmas around the world from my litt-world friends where it's MUCH less commercial.
anyway, i wanted to say hello, hello. and though i'm turning some corners or mixing metaphors with roller coasters, i do so wish each of you god's grace and peace this week. especially on christmas.
my love to each of you.
there seems times you turn a corner in life. whether willingly or not. i've been feeling at the end of some things both inner and outwardly for a while. and suddenly, the end is ending and i'm turning toward new things.
i'm being vague in some ways. but maybe you understand. maybe you experience it too. i think we all do if we stop and recognize the patterns. like seasons and the passages of time.
in writing -- i've been exploring different things and making progress on those works in progress, but also time and holidays demand so much more. as with many writers, what always gets cheated is the writing time. please, you writers out there, catch me up. and if you aren't a writer, catch me up too.
many reasons for this last month's disappearance. usually when i ride a roller coaster, i like to put my hands up and scream with joy. but some roller coasters just don't let you do it -- you have to hold on cause there's no trusting that you'll make it to the end. life's been a bit like for a while -- sometimes the hands are up and other times they're clinging for survival.
another part, well, i didn't want to write and be a downer to anyone with holiday spirit. so stop reading if you're really happy about christmas. but for those of you who aren't, though i've tried for a month, i'm not in the christmas spirit. i'm going shopping tomorrow, don't want to, even resent it, sorry to say. i asked myself, what kind of person doesn't like christmas? that person seems to be me this year. once i was that person who baked and decorated with great joy -- i seem to recall her in my past. christmas was once the favorite holiday, now thanksgiving and my birthday win that race (yes, my birthday actually IS a holiday -- lincoln's birthday so there!).
now, i've had great christmas "moments" during different parties, time with the kids, school productions and such. but nothing of the true "spirit." will attend midnight mass for the second year, a new something for me even though i'm not catholic. something about it was beautiful to me. all those people gathered together, the singing and oneness of spirit -- usually i'm alone in the house stuffing stockings to help out santa clause. he does need some help you know. we might read the story of christ's birth on christmas and do christian-y things during the month (okay, not so much this year). but mass was so different and inviting to me. the idea that all over the world, it's happening, at midnight in the different time zones, thousands and thousands of people gather together in expectation. maybe that's what i'm missing in my christmas spirit, the expectation, the wonder, the worship. i'm just irriated at the lines, the several gifts i forgot to buy, the cost of it all, the weariness it brings, the pressure, the lost writing time (i will again admit), and the truth that so much of it IS the gifts -- maybe too hearing about christmas around the world from my litt-world friends where it's MUCH less commercial.
anyway, i wanted to say hello, hello. and though i'm turning some corners or mixing metaphors with roller coasters, i do so wish each of you god's grace and peace this week. especially on christmas.
my love to each of you.
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