Typhoon Morakot

We missed the biggest typhoon to hit Taiwan in 50 years. 

Right before we left Australia, Typhoon Morakot hit Taiwan (pictures & story here), toppling buildings & flooding whole villages/towns.  Some places in the south got nearly 3000ml of rain from the one typhoon!  (That's nearly 6 years worth of rain for Michael's hometown in Australia!)

A couple of days after arriving back, Michael had the opportunity to go down south with many of the students from the SBS to help with some relief work for a few days. They worked hard cleaning mud out of houses -- some with a meter of mud, some with "just" a foot.  By the end of the day, they could feel some muscles they hadn't felt for awhile, & they all had fun standing in line for their turn at the shower (2 showers per 100+ people :-P). 

The damage was extensive & the clean-up process will continue for a long time!  Pray for the people on the southern part of the island as they deal with all of this and pray for the whole island -- that people would open their hearts to God!