Wednesday, October 13, 2010

The Best Way to Learn History...

...is to experience it for yourselves!



What an awesome, amazing, wonderful day in history today turned out to be!  I am so thankful my children have the opportunity to be home all day.  There is no better way to learn something than to experience it for yourself, to get your hands on it, or in today's case, to watch it unfold live right before your eyes. 

In cases such as today's rescue of 33 Chilean miners after being trapped underground for 69 days I am so thankful for the technology we have that allows us to be eyewitnesses to history being made!  Had my children been in public school they would have been stuck behind a desk all day only hearing about the rescue once they got home, if at all.  This is the kind of stuff that will be in their children's history books!

Instead they watched each and every miner come up out of the ground, hug their families, pray and thank God, and we engaged in several really good talks throughout the day... things related to mining, how and where the collapse was, where Chile is, the desert, how much we all want to speak Spanish fluently, and more.  Just as important was hearing all the personal stories of the different miners and seeing that even though we may look a little different and speak a different language, we're all human... feeling, experiencing, and thinking the same things.  Nurturing compassion for others in our children is one of the most important things we can do for them, and today was a perfect opportunity to do so.  (As a side note we also learned the truth of the scripture about how our sins will 'find us out' as we watched the miner emerge whose wife had met his long-time secret mistress while he was trapped underground!)

Welcome home miners, and thank you for letting us be 5 of the 1.2 BILLION people who witnessed your miracle today!  God bless you all!


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am not sure what moves people's hearts so Im thankful that one blogger has even noticed Chile, as I have because Im from there of course. I live in the US for a long time, but I still relate to them, as I do to football and apple pie, of course quilting, one of the things that moved me most is how humble , thankful they were not blaming anyone for this tragedy and acknowledging their Creator.Thank you for your kind concern of my people.

Christy said...

Anonymous, we were honored and humbled to be an eyewitness to this wonderful miracle and celebration. We were even cheering with the people there... "Chi Chi Chi Ley Ley Ley... (we don't know spanish so we had to make up our own words here...LOL) Chil-lay!"

Anonymous said...

Thank you Christy for your kind words, that is why I was thankful too for them and their families . They have never and I have not yet heard a political agenda about this event. I think this is what unites us in common , to love your fellow human and to do so with a genuine mind , I saw no other secondary purposes at the time , so it was a true reunion for all those people and I think the whole world was watching because of this , we dont see this much anymore, a true genuine concern for people for each other..The cheer they chanting is usually associated with soccer games however they changed it in order to express their joy, and their welcome home to their compatriots , welcome back from a horrible place we are so happy you are alive with us. It is Chi chi chi le le le los mineros de chile ..the miners of chile .. Historically our country has been very classist , we have a strong British influence , more so than Spanish because the British helped us to become independent from Spain, tea time and unfortunatley other things not so good have been with us. However , in this case we all united as one people to say thank you to what would be considered the poor and lowley "class" of our country. Traditionally ( and Im not proud of this) these people were overlooked maybe as some do Appalachian people like in the movie Coal miners Daughter. This time, the classes united by one mind and one heart, to love our fellow countrymen and not a type or class of person, this is what makes this event so special to me, to us, we as a country were able to get past that old way of thinking praise God! Whent he president gave those miners hugs, it looked like he really cared and was able to not even notice how dirty or how they smelled am Im sure not very nice, it reminded me of how Jesus hugs us with our dirty from our sins, and stinky from our old ways ,yet He overlooks this with so much love and forgiveness , He just wants us back with Him, His nature, His Mind, His love for us so beyond all the other stuff we can carry..God bless you and your family for watching for trying to understand, for God's people are everywhere in this world, we come in all colors ,sizes, genders, backgrounds and we never know when we meets these wonderful people until we see their Minds, like you Christy. By the way I also homeschooled our son until he was in highschool , he is now married twentysomething and has a little baby girl who is our joy! Gods love to you and yours!! Chilean friend

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Christy said...

Anonymous, your first (actually second) comment came throught just fine in it's entirety so I just left it instead of the other two since they were just repeating what you said (so well, btw) in your first, longer comment.

I am so glad you have commented and let us know your feelings on the rescue since you have an insight not many of us Americans have. I find it fascinating to read your words and am so thankful you have shared.