This is a picture of the Cathedral in the Central Square in Christchurch, New Zealand, which has been badly damaged in their earthquake yesterday. We wrote earlier about our visit to Christchurch; it is a beautiful city which had already been struck by a damaging earthquake before Christmas. We stayed for two nights in a small hotel just steps from this Cathedral, and we are so sad for the whole country for the loss of lives, buildings and homes, and sense of safety and security.
We also heard about the four American missionaries who were killed by Somali pirates; it is especially hard for us to imagine such hatred and violence in the midst of the very loving, generous and peaceful Tibetan people. Our prayers are with the families of these four people, and we also are hoping that our community at home in St. Cloud supports our Somali immigrants there, who left their homeland because of this kind of violence. Our Somali neighbors are also good people who have strong and loving families, and who seek a peaceful life in America's democracy.
Pat and I feel very blessed to have travelled to New Zealand, Australia, and India and to be honest we have felt safe in every country and very welcome as visitors to these countries. As a matter of fact, the most menacing thing that has happened to us occurred this morning: as we walked the two miles up the mountain to our volunteer program, a nasty looking dog growled at us, and then must have signaled his friends because we had ten dogs following us for quite a while. Pat doesn't like dogs anyways, but since we didn't get rabies vaccinations, we were a bit unsettled. He made sure he put me between him and the dogs ....
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