This is what we sent in an email so sorry if you get this in your email, I guess just delete it or stop reading this! But thanks to all those who sent us texts, emails and called us to make sure we were ok!! We were woken up around 5am by some texts coming in on our Canadian phone. We didn’t even bother checking them and just rolled over back to bed. Then the tsunami alarm went off, and being incoherent, I thought it was weird that they were doing a drill at such a random time of day. That didn’t hinder my sleep though! It wasn’t until it kept going off that we decided to wake up and find out what was going on. That’s when we checked our phone and found out a tsunami was headed our way in just a few hours!
Commotion picked up outside as everyone came out to find out what happened. We were shocked to find out that another earthquake had hit another small country and that it was even more powerful than the one that hit Haiti. But before we could process that, we had to grab breakfast and head to the Ohana Court where everyone on the base met for instructions. Thankfully the base is just above the evacuation area and the dorms are even higher than that, so we were pretty safe (and you’ll see in our photos the long, steep set of stairs we have to walk up to get to the main area of the base). Loren Cunningham, founder of YWAM and who also lives on the island, took the mic and shared some encouraging stories of how God had protected other missionaries from impending natural disasters through dreams and stuff. He also told us to not get prideful and do anything crazy! Haha and some boys actually tried to head into town…and were stopped by security.
We were told to stay within a certain area of the base to be safe, so everyone camped at the top to watch and wait for the tsunami. A lot of us were praying though and felt at peace, that nothing was gonna happen. And as we waited for the tsunami that never came, we watched a news report that showed how the tsunami was heading in our direction but then all of a sudden split and went in different directions. We’re so thankful God spared Hawaii from the impending wave…even though the kid in me wanted the once-in-a lifetime opportunity of seeing a tsunami…we’re really grateful for Him intervening.
So a few hours later, the Kona county lifted the ban and everyone was free to hit the beaches again. But by this time, people were either napping from the exhaustion of it all, families were playing or people were just hanging out. And turns out I had the longest nap of my life, guess I was more exhausted than I knew! We were all joking that it turned into a holiday, Tsunami Day, where we could do nothing but enjoy the company of each other so it was beautiful. Point is, God is mighty to save (Zephaniah 3:17) and is always wanting to take us into a deeper place of trusting Him. Faith, Hope, Love…
tami
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