Today I saw for the first time what devastation the floods caused to families along the Brisbane River...
Danielle (my fiance) and I decided to volunteer through City Church Logan campus to go and help people affected by the Queensland floods with cleaning and restoring their houses. We arrived at the church at 7am and were welcomed by a group of other volunteers sacrificing their Saturday sleep-inns to help people getting back on their feet.
The lady we were helping in Graceville, Mary, had the bottom floor of their house totally flooded and water came up to half a meter on the top floor. She has lost everything on the bottom floor...furniture on the top floor were damaged and the yard was a festy pool of mud. Standing on the rear balcony of her house, it was hard to imagine that only a few days ago everything was under water in that street...I guess looking at all the news reports does not paint the real pictures. Its when you step into the heart of where it all happened when you realise the true devastation of the flood. It does something to you when you see the water line on the walls of all the rooms. To imagine that everything in your house were totally under water must feel very surreal after the water has lowered back into the ground and you see the river flowing back to normal.
When we left, Mary was very happy that most of her walls were cleaned, her back /side yard looked better, her furniture could go back and her house and her kitchen and othe rooms,including her kitchen could be used again. Her electricity will also be switched on early next week.
I can go on and on describing what I have witnessed today and what kind of damage I saw,but there's something else worth mentioning. Today I saw men and women that do not even know each other drove up to people that they also did not know and offered to help them clean their house. It felt amazing just to rock up at someone's doorstep and offer to help him or her with whatever they need.
My prayer is that the spirit of help and support among strangers must not become a distant memory as soon as people's lives here are back to normal, but that it will grow into not only a phenomenon, but a way of life. Personally I think that is what true Christianity is all about. And in the words of Jesus, 'In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16).
