The news as I know it…..

Well, just as I was about to write a blog about how I have nothing to write a blog about, this week happens.  Brent and I were starting to feel life here had become hum-drum and that blogging about it would be bor-ing, when Monday it started to rain.

It rained all Monday afternoon, all day Tuesday and then finally took a break Wednesday morning.  (It’s raining right now.)  Most people who have come to visit have gotten to see how quickly Niteroi floods when it rains.  This is the heaviest rain we have seen since we have lived here.  Buses weren’t running, no one would send a taxi, and our doormen actually wouldn’t let us leave our building all day Tuesday.

I have to admit that I didn’t know rain could be so dangerous.  Then came all the reports of people losing family and homes to the mudslides.  People here can live cheaply on the side of a mountain.  It’s available land in a place where space is at a premium.  Over 200 people died in our state alone because of the unrelenting rain.

Then today, while Zane and I were working at the church building, a man cautioned us to close our doors and we couldn’t understand why.  Then we saw all the other storefronts pulling down their heavy steel doors and the people were all running in one direction off the street.  A mother and her daughter stopped in front of the church contemplating where to go.  I asked them if they wanted to come inside and they immediately entered and the woman began trying to calm her daughter, Bruna.  “Look, it’s okay, they’re locking their doors.”  That’s when I noticed little Bruna was shaking.

“What’s happening out there?” I asked.  I got some water for Bruna as her mother explained, “Some of the people who live on the mountain, are rioting.  They don’t want to go to the shelters while their belongings are still in their homes, even if they are falling down.  The police won’t let them stay there, it’s not safe.”  We talked a little longer, and after 30 minutes, her husband called and told her it was now safe and she and Bruna left with Zane who volunteered to see them safely home.

All different reports are still coming in regarding how many stores were vandalized.  Today the threat of a riot shut down at least 4 neighborhoods in our city, including our downtown.  Traffic was stopped and people were hiding indoors.  This has been a week of much bad news.

I’ve never been one to watch the news, usually I know what Ellen DeGeneres tells me.  In Edmond, I didn’t usually need to know what to do when it rained, and I didn’t worry much about riots.  I didn’t rely on public transportation and I didn’t know people who lived in a shack on the side of a mountain.  Please pray that God can use this catastrophe and devastation to bring people to Him and the comfort that only He provides.