WHAT YOU NEVER HEAR

The majority of my readers and fans are from the United States. The same goes for most of the readers of my blog posts. This is fine, and I appreciate it, but I have spent a lot of time in China this year, and there are things that we never hear about in the U.S.

Yesterday and last night we went through a mega-typhoon. Most of you probably didn’t even know that there was one since the news has been focused on Florence. Before hitting China yesterday, Mangkhut ravaged the Philippines. At least 64 people are known to have died, and there are likely many more. Right now, there is work underway to determine if more than 40 miners might be trapped in a cave-in caused by the storm.

Most people’s worlds center around their little piece of it. That isn’t a criticism, it’s just a fact of life. The problem is that the world is much larger than that. Missionaries learn that firsthand and then attempt to convey what they have discovered to the rest of us. Still, it is secondhand and just ‘stories.’

I have worked in Mexico and now in China. There are places that are extremely beautiful in both countries, but the areas that I work tend to be poor. Please believe me when I say that in the U.S. we don’t understand what poor means. A homeless person in the U.S. can still find a shelter if they need one, in most of the rest of the world no such thing exists.

These people are the hardest hit in a natural disaster. The little that they have is destroyed, and they have no place to turn. Socialism and Communism don’t guarantee that the poor will be able to get help, look at Venezuela or the old Soviet Union. People starve, die of the cold or heat and lack of the much-touted medical care that they need in many of these countries. China is a little better about the medical care, but you often have to wait a long time to get it, and you best pray that it isn’t anything major or you are pretty much out of luck.

Why am I writing about this? I have something to ask of you. It will take you a few seconds. Can you just say a quick prayer for those people that have been hit by Mangkhut? Nothing fancy, just a prayer for their safety and maybe that they come through it intact? Who else will do it for them if not us?

Have a good week everyone.

KM