When the sea roars and the earth shakes

 

Be still, my soul! the waves and winds still know

His voice who ruled them while He dwelt below.

Lutheran Service Book 752

The “dog days” of summer are winding down and, it’s hurricane season in the Caribbean! The season when hurricanes form runs from June to November, but the storms are more likely between August and October.

Hurricane Ida made landfall as a Category 4 storm, in New Orleans, August 29, 2021. Ida blasted ashore as one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the United States, knocking out power to all of New Orleans, blowing roofs off buildings and reversing the flow of the Mississippi River as it rushed from the Louisiana coast into one of the nation’s most important industrial corridors. It hit on the same date Hurricane Katrina ravaged Louisiana and Mississippi 16 years earlier, coming ashore about 45 miles (72 kilometres) west of where Category 3 Katrina first struck land. Ida’s 150-mph (230 kph) winds tied it for the fifth-strongest hurricane to ever hit the mainland United States.

A little more than a week earlier, Hurricane Grace pounded Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, downing trees and causing power outages for nearly 700,000 people. Then Grace moved on to the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz, causing severe flooding and mudslides that killed at least eight people. Before striking Mexico, the storm showered torrential rains on Haiti, a country still recovering from a 7.2-magnitude earthquake in Haiti on August 15.

Northern Venezuela and Colombia only have a 1 to 5 percent chance of a hurricane strike in any given year. The northernmost part of Venezuela, namely the Paraguanà Peninsula, the Paria Peninsula and the islands (but sometimes also the northern coast), is located in the southern end of the trajectory of hurricanes. But it can happen. From August 7 to 9, 1993, Tropical Storm Bret moved across northern Venezuela and Colombia. Mudslides resulting from the heavy rainfall claimed 173 lives, while 10,000 were left homeless, and property damages totaled $25 million ($37 million 2008 USD).

But although Venezuela seldom has to deal with full-fledged tropical storms, we are affected by “tropical waves”. A tropical wave is an area of low pressure in the atmosphere moving westward from Africa into the Atlantic. Tropical waves last from a couple of days to several weeks, with new waves forming every few days. On satellite, these disturbances appear as clusters of thunderstorms and convection originating over North Africa and traveling westward into the tropical Atlantic. By providing the initial energy and spin needed for a hurricane to develop, tropical waves act like "seedlings" of tropical cyclones. Approximately 60 percent of tropical storms and minor hurricanes (categories 1 or 2), and nearly 85 percent of major hurricanes (category 3, 4, or 5) originate from tropical waves.

Even if they do not cause hurricanes, tropical waves often bring with thunderstorms and flooding rains. That’s what we have received over the past few weeks. Tropical waves 38 and 39 have destroyed over 8,000 homes and forced about 35,600 citizens to refuge in shelters. Besides affecting 116 roads and ten bridges, floods and landslides have damaged power stations in the states of Amazonas, Barinas, Bolivar, Delta Amacuro, Merida, Monagas, Tachira, and Zulia. Multiple floods and mudslides in in the neighboring state of Mérida have left 20 people dead and more than 1,200 buildings destroyed.

In La Caramuca, we have only had to deal with power outages. Our solar panels continue to work well, keeping the lights and security cameras going and the cell phones recharged. All the rain means excellent crops of fruits and vegetables. Luz Maria and I share the produce with our neighbors, those who stop by the mission and those we visit on evangelistic calls.

There also was a 5.2-magnitude earthquake in Portuguesa, another neighboring state, on August 25, and a 4.9 quake off the coast of Sucre state on August 30.

All of which brings to mind Luke 21:8-11. “There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.” As with many Biblical prophecies, the Lord in these verses speaks of two impending catastrophes, the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the world, with one foreshadowing the other. So he warns his followers of the persecution that will precede the city’s downfall, and of false prophets who will predict the end of the whole world based on natural disasters and terrible wars. 

“And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:25-28).

For those of us living in these days, the Lord’s words also apply to hurricanes, earthquakes, COVID-19 and even the persecution of believers in Afghanistan and other parts of the world. Like the first-century Christians, we are not terrified by cataclysm, for we not the end will not come until the day God has pointed. Nor do we regard them as random events, but signs that great day will come. “All these are but the beginning of the birth pains,” says the parallel passage in Matthew 27:8.

All-powerful and eternal God, mercifully defend us from fires, floods, war and pestilence; from drought and storms, want and famine. Amen.

By grace we stand and serve

Venezuela's Rio Caroni

By God’s grace,life and ministry continue at Epiphany Lutheran Mission of La Caramuca despite a rising tide of misfortune around us. And when I speak of rising water, I am not necessarily being metaphorical.

Heavy rains have caused severe floods in states along the Venezuela’s major rivers, such as the Orinoco, resulting in extensive property danage and loss of electricity, telephone, Internet and other basic services. Thousands have been left homeless as the river has overflowed its banks to record levels. Swamped streets and homes provide more habitat for mosquitoes, furthering the spread of diseases like malaria and dengue fever at a time when medicines are in short supply. The floodwaters also have brought with them anacondas and other river-dwelling snakes.

General Rafael Urdaneta Bridge (Wikimedia)

Maracaibo, Venezuela’s second-largest city with a population of about 2 million people, is located on the western shore of the strait that connects Lake Maracaibo, the largest lake in South America, with the Gulf of Venezuela in the Caribbean Sea. The city’s lifeline is the General Rafael Urdaneta Bridge, a 5.3-mile-long structure that connects Maracaibo with the rest of the country. In early August, a fire destroyed a transformer on the bridge and it was closed, leaving the city without power for several days. News of a collapsed bridge in Genoa, Italy, raised fear that the Maracaibo bridge also might collapse, since both bridges were designed by the same engineer. On August 31, tranformers exploded at an electrical substation, further frustrating efforts to restore power to Maracaibo. There are reports of people eating spoiled meat as a result of lack of electricity for refrigerated storage.

Also on Friday, August 31, most of Caracas, the national capital and largest city, was left without electricity in the second such outage in 24 hours. The city has been suffering chronic shortages of water as the system designed to supply water to the high-altitude capital has deteriorated.

On August 21, a 7.3-magnitude earthquake occurred off Venezuela’s northeastern coast. The impact was felt in five Venezuelan states and some Caribbean islands. There was some property damage, but no loss of human life.

Here in La Caramuca, our main concern remains the country’s continuing economic crisis. The government has issued new currency with five decimal places erased in effort to solve the problem of having to hand over stacks of inflated bills for the simplest cash transactions. Yet very little of the new currency is available in our area. Prices are now posted according to the new currency, so we have to calculate the equivalent in the old currency (which amounts to millions of bolivares).

New patio roof.

Nevertheless, we press on with preparations for the new school year which begins on September 14. There is a new roof over part of the patio to provide additional protected space for Luz Maria’s afterschool tutoring. And no more iguana droppings during Sunday Bible class.

Adios, Edie Jorns

During the Sept. 2 Sunday service, we give thanks for the life and work of Edie Jorns, who passed away on August 28. Since 2006, children from La Caramuca have received Christian education scholarships from LeadaChild, the mission society that Edie and her husband, Jim, founded after serving as Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod missionaries to Guatemala in the 1960s. LeadaChild, originally called Children’s Christian Concern Society, at first was organized to support a school in Guatemala (now named after Edie Jorns), but now supports projects in 22 countries, including Venezuela. I had had heard of Edie and Jim’s work while I lived in their native state of Kansas, but it was not until 2006 that Luz Maria and I both got the chance to meet them.

Luz Maria with Edie.

Edith L. Jorns was born on January 5, 1933 in Topeka, Kansas, to Walter T. and Anna Schmid. He graduated from Topeka Lutheran School and Topeka High School. She received her bachelor’s degree from Kansas State University, Master of Social Work from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and a PhD in adult education from Kansas State University. In addition to her work with LeadaChild, Edie worked as a school social worker until her retirement in 1996. She was instrumental in helping to establish the Kansas Association of School Social Workers and was its first president. She was recognized as the Association’s School Social Worker of the Year in 1986-87. An active member of St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in Manhattan, Kansas, Edie served on many boards and committees, as an organist and Sunday School teacher and in the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League. She is survived by her husband, their children and grandchildren.