An Education Quote

"Much education today is monumentally ineffective.  All too often we are giving young people cut flowers when we should be teaching them to grow their own plants." - John W Gardner (1912-2002)

Queensland, Australia needs continued prayer

Brisbane flooding may have been abandoned by international press but there is still a park bench sitting wedged in a tall tree in Goodna. Sadder still are the ghost shops and homes...where people still fight dried mud and it's consequences. Or should it be 'fried mud' as the heat keeps hitting us at sun up; humidity is also at it's best as it squeezes out a free and easy feeling of breathing. Oh how I take almost guilty pleasure in the joy of airconditioning! I noticed today that cement is still being pumped under the Ipswich Motorway in little dribs and drabs though a garden hose sized hose as giant trucks rumble high above. You can see where the river eroded the edge of the man made hill, where it had no business to be. And you wonder if the Ipswich Motorway designers had calculated what an enormous cement swimming pool/dam they were creating in flood times - the rows of shops alongside the Motorway bear witness to this. Or would they have been hit despite the new cement monster of a motorway was that we were all nagging for but a few years ago - weary of slow commuting to and from Brisbane.

Some flood hit residents have returned to their shells of homes, and make do. Others are lucky enough to have elsewhere to live for a while.  Brisbane City is reported to have hit an all time high for homeless victims as lower income renters have nowhere to call home. I thought Evacuation Centres were to remain open until everyone was properly housed - so why are people being reported to be sleeping in cars?

And yet our focus and prayers today are shifted to those who are about to face yet another Queensland crises up North, as the catastrophic CycloneYasi threatens to rip lives apart. Like ants humans run have run hither and thither to safety. They squash and jam together in safe places. At lunch time ABC radio reported that some children had been separated for their mother as evacuation centres left people stranded outside - too full, doors closed! Many have sand banked this morning in desperation in places where Anna Bligh, Queensland's Premier has predicted a 7 meter wall of water.

Hopeless we stand and watch Yasi decide where to take it's path.

Please pray that many would turn to God and know His peace at this time. Please pray for Doug's cousin and family in Townsville too, as we worry about their Queenslander house being battered by Yasi.

Here are a few of the 3781 Cyclone Yasi news articles available on the web!

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/weather/were-scared-cardwell-a-ghost-town-ahead-of-yasi-20110202-1addw.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/02/australia-cyclone-evacuation-idUSL3E7D205M20110202?pageNumber=2
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/02/australia-cyclone-evacuation-idUSL3E7D205M20110202 http://www.qld.gov.au/cyclone/

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/weather/cyclone-yasi-generates-social-media-storm-20110202-1adgr.html 
http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2011/02/02/3127780.htm