Tsunami 1

A friend of ours was going to go to Thailand for her and her husband's 25th wedding anniversary. Since one of their kids was visiting from college, and they wanted to celebrate Christmas together as a family, they decided to take all five of their children with them to Phi Phi island. They called in September to make reservations in a hotel on the beach, but to their disappointment, they could only get a hotel on the side of a hill. It meant they couldn't just walk out of their hotel room to the beach, which was something they had done before, and enjoyed the luxury of that. But, they decided they would not let something like that ruin their vacation. December rolled around and they flew to Thailand, anticipating one of the best trips of their lives.

On December 26th, they woke up a little early and decided to go to the restaurant for some breakfast. It was about halfway down the hill, and had a great view of the little bay that makes Phi Phi island. They finished and thought they would go put on their swimsuits and start the day off with a swim in the ocean. The day looked good, and they were ready to start it off right! They went to their rooms and changed. My friend heard some yelling off in the distance, but wasn't sure what it was about. She noticed some smoke coming up off of the next hill and thought maybe there was a small fire that needed extinguishing. When all of the kids were ready, they started down the hill. They didn't realize anything was wrong until they got to the restaurant where they just had breakfast. It was in shambles, and they didn't know why. They continued to walk down the hill, and that's when they started noticing chairs and boats in trees. It slowly dawned on them that something devestating just happened. It took two days for them to have the ability to contact anyone, or even find out exactly what had happened.

The story goes on from there, about how housing was provided for them, how their documents were taken care of, and they were able to fly back to Taiwan more quickly than expected. On this end, I was watching every news report I could find about Phi Phi island, because in my mind, and knowing her kids, SOMEONE had to be in the water on that day. However, God had other plans, and what initially started out as a disappointment in having their hotel room so far from the beach turned out to be His Providential Protection that He worked in their lives in that moment. They've been asked why He didn't work in other's lives on that day in the same way, and I don't know. What I do know is that on THIS day, in THIS circumstance, God said "Not yet" and made a way for them to be protected.