Of Frogs and Fire

It’s about time for another blog entry. Let’s see… I could share with you the latest developments in our CPM strategy, or about our recent baptisms. Exciting growth has occurred in some of our house churches, and we have seen at least one new group start in the past couple of weeks. But it’s summer time, so let’s do something a little light hearted. I’ll tell you about our zoo.

Some of our animals are self-acquired. Daisy, our dachshund, has been with us for nearly ten years. She’s getting a little gray around the snout, but her playful antics make her appear younger. Her favorite toy is her tug-of-war cloth rag that subs as her bedding. She chews off, and sometimes swallows, parts of the rag, causing her to have occasional coughing spasms. Daisy’s favorite trick is using her front left claws to slightly open our screen door, then sticks her nose in it before it closes all the way. Next, she takes the same paw and shoves the door open wide enough for her to dash through before the spring closes it.

On our covered front porch we have a very large bird cage, currently housing only one parakeet. We’ve had several before, but fate hasn’t been kind to our birds. Still, this one loves to chirp away as she jumps and flies from one branch to another.

Then there’s our cat. A couple of months ago, Martha heard the crying of two kittens in the rafters of our roof. Apparently abandoned by their mother, Martha took them in and cared for them, with the hope that they would wonder off on their own once they were big enough. After all, dachshunds and cats don’t normally get along.

But Daisy must have sensed that these cats were special to us so she hasn’t attacked them. Still, a week ago, one of them wondered outside the gate and we haven’t seen him since. The female has took a fascination to the parakeet and climbs on top of its cage each day for some play time, pacing the bird as it flies inside the cage. Strangely, the lonely bird seems to welcome the big ball of purring fur that sits on top of its cage.

Then there are the animals that are not self-acquired: the spiders, the lizards, and the frogs. Oh, the frogs (really toads). Some of them are bigger than my two fists put together. They have gotten fat eating the left-over dog and cat food that sits outside. I’m too tender hearted to kill them, so last week I began raking them into a small trash can and, one by one, tossing them over our 6ft high wall that surrounds our house. As they leave the trashcan, projected into the air, they spread their fatty legs as if to fly. I hear the thud when they belly flop on the other side, and have observed them hopping away, seemingly unscathed by the journey.

Such is life in the tropics. It was 2 years ago this month that Typhoon Frank devastated our island, flooding over half the city and taking many lives. This morning at 4 a.m., a 6.4 earthquake woke us up, rocking us in our beds for about half a minute. Centered about 80 miles southwest of us, the quake occurred where the Philippine plate meets the Eurasian plate. Part of that boundary is marked under the ocean by the Philippine Trench, the second deepest point in the world, just off the east coast of the Philippines. It gives rise to several active volcanoes along the Pacific Ring of Fire, including Mt. Kanlaon, visible from our house, which last spat out steam and ash 5 years ago.

So, these are the things that Martha is going to miss when she leaves next week on her journey back to the States for college. Over there, you have to deal with the storms of life and the occasional earthquakes that come out of Congress. All of which makes Heaven that much more attractive. And that’s what I’m here for, to help show people how to get there.