Jul. 1, 2007

July 2007 Prayer Letter

Dear Friends,

I had something interesting happen recently. A couple weeks back I was home alone. As you know, I live at the day center, so I should say I was alone one evening at the center. I was watching a soccer game on TV when I heard a loud noise outside that sounded like someone welding. Well, people are constantly doing all kinds of things outside on the street here, so I didn't think much of it. A few seconds later I heard the sound again, only this time the TV flickered on and off and then quit completely. I thought to myself, "Hey, I don't mind the noise of this guy welding, but whatever he's doing is affecting our electricity here (and my enjoyment of the game). I better go check it out."

When I went outside I saw a rather surreal sight. The electric box connected to the side of the center was on fire with thick black smoke billowing out and everything. Plus there was some kind of electrical fire happening with blue electricity around the box and sparks shooting out in a twelve-foot arc every few seconds. I was quite surprised.

My first thought was "I'm the only person here." My second thought was, "I'm glad I know where the fire extinguishers are." I ran and grabbed one of the extinguishers and put the fire out, making a huge mess in the process. Have you ever fired one of those things? It gets powder ALL over. However, as you may have guessed already, the problem with an electrical fire is that until the electricity is shut off (or it is somehow cut off from its source) the sparks keep flying and the fire keeps reigniting. I must have put the fire out at least ten times before I decided something else needed to be done.

The center is located in a very poor area of town. Our neighbors are mostly poor. So what would you do in my place? I opened up our large gate (the one we open to let cars or trucks in when needed) because I knew for certain that the neighbors would come to my aid. And come they did. Within seconds the father of one of the children who comes to the center had taken the extinguisher from my hands to help, two other neighbors had entered with extinguishers of their own, and one of the other fathers was calling the fire department. At one point I also remember seeing someone I didn't even recognize holding a very long (at least 20 feet) wooden pole in his hands as he stuck it into the electric box to try and break the wires apart that were causing the sparks and fire.

It was quite a scene. Of course, there were about thirty more people outside the open gate watching it all go down. Well, eventually the fire and sparks stopped. What I think happened is that the fire department called the electric company on their way to us and had them cut the power. It must have been that since the power was out on our entire street for a couple of hours until someone from the electric company came and (physically) cut our power line. By the time the firemen (and police) arrived, there was nothing left to do. Still, I got to write out a long statement about what had happened. That was kind of fun.

I think the moral of the story is, "I'm really glad the center is made out of concrete and not wood." Actually, I keep thinking about the difference between an emergency among the rich and one among the poor. The rich usually concern ourselves with minding our own business, not wanting to get involved, worrying about how we could get sued if we do get involved and things like that. The poor depend on each other. They get involved without a second thought. If your house is going to catch fire, I recommend you have it do so among the poor. You'll get lots of help putting it out.

Love,
Paul

paul.rase@wordmadeflesh.com