The lady of depression
 
    We met this lady early on in our exploration of the damage done by the typhoon.  When we first spoke with her we were standing outside her home in the middle of a down pour and all of her furniture and personal belongings were totally soaked and her situation was dismal. It was depressing for everyone.  One could only imagine how this women felt.  I took this picture while we were telling her that we were here to help her.  I think she had hear that statement before, but had reached such a hopeless state that the words meant nothing to her.  The woman standing with her is Yolanda one of our Canadian team members.  
    We began to measure her house and record the measurements in our record book as we again told her that we would repair her roof.  Still, she was not going to let herself go and believe that this was actually going to happen to her and her home.  Cau, our Vietnamese helper called the metal distributor on his cell phone and ordered the materials.  This got an immediate reaction and the smile began to spread across her cheeks and lips.  Later that afternoon the metal roofing and eye beams arrived, plus we had given her money to pay for repairs to her walls that would support the new eye beams and secure them in place.  What a change this woman now expressed with her smile.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Here is Yolanda giving this woman another embrace.  What a difference  a day can make.  This woman was located in the center of an area that we were concentrating on near the Love of Art Center in Da Nang.  Everyday I would walk by this woman’s house and see this smile.  The lady with the smile was how I would remember her.  She was so happy and grateful  to have received help, real help, not just words of help, but real help that she became part of us and always came out when ever we would walk by.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Here she is at her road side restaurant that she has set up to feed the construction workers and school teachers who work and attend school in her neighborhood.  She makes two to three dollars a day working her restaurant.  That smile just will not go away.  “Once I was sad, now I am glad”...  You’ll find that verse in the book of Bob, (chapter 1 vs 1).
 
Jesus, said,  “If you’ve done this to the least of these, you’ve done it unto me” (now that is from the Bible).
 
Only two more days in Da Nang.
 
Bob
 
 
 
 
Hopelessness at its worst...
Wednesday, November 22, 2006