The People of Sichuan, and joy

A friend from ISF, Rolphin, created this website that everyone should check out:

www.sichuan-earthquake.org

It's a website where you can read translations of real-life stories from survivors of the awful 7.9 Sichuan earthquake. Here's what Rolphin says about the site:

I just want to let you know that some of my friends and their friends and I are organized together to translate some stories about the 7.9 mag earthquake in Sichuan, China, where my hometown is. These trivial stories are not published by the mass media in English, yet they are all examples of admirable human spirit and emotion.

I would be very appreciated if you can forward this website and these stories to your friend, who merely know the earthquakes from numbers of death in the news report. Tolling up to 50,000 of death, yes, tragedy, but they are not NUMBERS, they're LIFE, they're places I've walked, people I've talked to, air I've breathed, blood that connects between us. They're just not NUMBERS.

We hope to let more people know more about this period of struggle, beyond the death toll and financial damage. If these stories touch you, we hope you could respond in some way. It may be humanitarian aid in any way, or letting your friends and family know these stories, or simply just appreciating loved ones and letting them know you care. My dear friends, I thank you for your time and support, and hope that these beautiful souls in heaven, and the determined survivors have touched you.

The website is really sweet, but heartbreaking. What a tragedy, yet praise the Lord for the survivors and people who gave their lives to save others.

On a much much more joyful note,
Bryce and Susan had their 3rd munchkin, a boy, on Friday! You can read about it here. Mother and Baby are doing well, although Susan's obviously tired. What a beautiful blessing! Keep their awesome family in your prayers!

...

This has been quite the month for me. All of the death, pain, and horror we've seen on the news, not to mention how many people I've had to say goodbye to recently (many people I know are leaving Tucson), as well as seeing my sin more and more in very plain and frustrating ways...it has just been hard, and I've had many tearful moments. Yet at the same time I'm finding myself just really, truly enjoying myself and the blessings I've been given, mostly my friends, my family, and the hope we have in Him of His return and His destroy-ance of evil. I've been blessed so much, and the Lord deserves praise for those things.

Now I can't believe that I actually am on a 3 week vacation from work and school. dang, I'm probably just as nervous about this as I am the rest of the summer when I'll be working... I hope these upcoming weeks won't be wasteful.