Small World...so Very Large

This post isn't going to be as peaceful as the post that I just wrote. It has been something that I have been thinking about for the last day or so.

I know that many of us have been following the huge earthquakes in China that has been so devastating. At first, I didn't pay much attention to the information. The death toll was shocking...and maybe that was why I had the disconnect.....even though I am so thankful that I am not dealing with the horrors that that nation is having to deal with right now.

Tim made a comment to me last night that really made me sit up straight and pay attention. He thought that the earthquake took place in the province that is home to the 5 Chinese students that we have had in our house over the last 4 years. Today, I opened up the paper, and sure enough....Chengdu was one of the major centers of devastation.

Then I read the story about a high school that is about an hour from Chengdu. The story mentioned that they are guesstimating that the entire senior class was killed in the earthquake. They haven't confirmed that...because everyone is still buried in the rubble. I don't know if any of our students went to that particular high school. I do know that they were all students at schools that were a short ways away from their homes in Chengdu. That is just the way that it works there.

Tonight...as all this started to sink in...I began to wonder about the fates of our students. How do we even begin to find out if they are alright? Our emails to them have rarely been successful. Even if it were to go through, who is to know if they even have internet connections up and going amidst the chaos. If we were to send a letter....there is untold amounts of time before we could even hope of a response.

To think that we know several someones that could be involved in the devastation of China makes the world seem so incredibly small to me. Yet....when I think of the impossibilities of finding information about our students....I realize how incredibly huge our world really is. It all makes me look at the earthquake with a whole new set of eyes.

Pretty scary.

I am not very good at remembering our girls' Chinese names. While they were with us, they adopted American names...and that is what we used. If I were to get my lazy bones off the front porch, I am sure that I could dig up their Chinese names. But, I know that God knows who they are....even if I use their adopted American names. If you think of it.....please pray for:

Amy.

Yo-Yo.



Albee and Charlene.

Albee. (yes....we had two of them!)