sb

The day I lost my son, made me question my faith.
I'm sure my faith isn't to blame for my loss but if there is a God and he is omnibenevolent and omniscient, why?
Why would he let such a thing happen?
Was it me? Did I not have enough faith in him? Was it my son?
I still don't know.
But, having my son taken away so suddenly, I'm not sure if it weakened my faith, or made it stronger.
I felt as though I had been betrayed, by my son, and especially by God.
Surely he would be the proud owner of a world without death, and there would be no such thing as hurt, or disbelief. He should let everyone be peaceful and loving, no such evil should exist.
But this is reality, and reality appears to be ugly.
Why should such a disaster be allowed by God to take place? Surely he would shake his head and say no, and stop it all.
My son was innocent. He didn't do anything to deserve this. And to have such a precious thing as life to be taken away from him, at such a young age, in an instant, I think, is wrong.

I'm not so sure what to believe any more.
But if there is a God, I won't lose faith in Him.





SB

The Twin Towers

As I turned on the news I heard the terrible news of the Twin Towers attack, as the images flashed before my eyes I kept thinking was she in there? I closed my eyes and I said a small personal pray to God praying that my beautiful Sister wasn’t in the tower, and then ran out the door sprinting down the road towards the Towers. Sprinting down the road seeing all the horrified faces of the public I had doubt that God wouldn’t  save my Sister? A tear rolled off my cheek and wiped my mind of all the thoughts of doubt, why would God disappoint me? We are both strong Catholic’s so he had no reason to kill my Sister? I could feel my feet bleeding from the blisters my shoes gave me but I wasn’t bothered I reached the Tower and lots of Police, Ambulance and Fire men were there they wouldn’t let me run in and get her so they took me to the area where the dead were. I screamed to the man. “What’s the point God has saved my Sister I know he has!” Then he replied with “Miss I’m sorry but you have to check.” As I walked towards the dead I was praying out loud holding my Rosary Then I saw her I saw her crushed… I fell to my knees and cried “Why!” I screamed “Why!” I saw the bracelet that I gave her for her 18^th, that was the only thing not crushed it said ‘Believe in yourself and God and he will save you when in trouble’.

6 Months Later

The news was still talking about the disaster it was just reminding me of Gods betrayal! We had done nothing wrong? I had never questioned God? So why did he punish me by killing my only family? I had tried to forgive God my talking about it to Priests and Nuns but none of them could change my mind.

Since that day I have never prayed or sung to God or to any God from any religion I don’t believe in it anymore as my one and only God had gone and betrayed me like this…

IB

Natural Disaster- Hurricane

Entry 1

Dear Diary,

I am still hiding in our shelter, alone, cold and worried. I am waiting for the storm to pass; I can still hear the wind howling through what’s left of our village. I don’t know where my family is, I think I might have lost them.  For two hours I have been praying solidly, never in my life have I prayed so much. I pray repeatedly in my head ‘Please let them be safe’.

I was in the garden bringing in the washing  when the wind picked up, hair flapping in the wind, I stared up into the sky, and the sky was dark and gloomy, as if it was going to rain. Hurriedly I collected the washing in my basket and started to walk into the house. When suddenly something caught my eye, I stopped and stared open mouthed, I dropped my washing basket. I stood glaring at the ugly twister in the distance; it was dark and grey picking up whatever it could find on its travels. Bundles of hay started to roll towards it and that’s when I knew this was a matter of life or death. I ran inside and up the stairs to find nothing but empty rooms ‘Where are the children?!’ I gasped. I ran from door to door praying to find them. I couldn’t find my husband, Harry, either. Realising they were nowhere to be found, I gathered the items which I would treasure forever. I scooped up a family photo of me and my parents and one of my children, husband and I; and my large pot of money that I stored under my bed for safe keeping. Sprinting down the stairs I glanced around one last time to check if there was anyone there. I bounded out the door to try to get to the shelter.

Battling against the wind, dust and dirt flew into my eyes which made the situation even worse, I could barely see. ‘Almost there’ I thought to myself struggling towards the opening of the underground shelter. A few steps away from the doors, I reached out, straining to clench the handles. I took a few steps more and flung the doors open. I clambered in, the doors clattering in the viscous wind; it was a fight to close them because of the strong wind. Yet I managed. I sat down at the table in the corner of the room, considering whether to go out there again to find my family, but I came to a conclusion that I would not help as the wind was getting stronger and stronger and I would barely get anywhere because of the wind and I would most likely and up losing my life as well. So I sat for two hours praying solidly.

Entry 2

I fell asleep in the shelter, when I awoke I found that the hurricane had passed. Slowly and consciously I stepped out of the shelter to find that my house had been torn from where it used to stand. Tears fogged up my sight. I blinked to let the tears escape, and also to make my vision clearer, looking across land where houses used to stand happily, I saw the beautiful land which it once was, turned to a horrid wasteland. Where torn off parts of houses lay, and a child ran across the dry land screaming for her mother. I ran over to her and held her hand, I told her that we would find her mother and not to worry. I took her to a safety local shelter where she was re-united with her mother. With tears of joy streaming down their faces, they were over the moon to be together again. I turned to find the information desk, to ask whether my family had signed in. But to my utter dismay the office lady said there hadn’t been anyone who had signed in with my name.

At this point I turned to God and said ‘Why?, Why would you let this happen?’ Floods of tears ran down my cheeks. I realised they were gone. ‘If you are so strong and powerful, why did you let this happen?’ Since then I have doubted my faith and belief in God.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

H.H

Unexpected earthquake

One day I was farming my crops in the field, the sun was out and it was baking, I could feel my back burning while I was working away. Then suddenly, I saw a thick fog slowly appear before my eyes. I ignored it. Then, a few hours later the sky began to dim and I heard a huge bang, I began to get nervous. At first this noise lasted for only a few seconds, and then the sound became longer and lasted for minutes, the noise was similar to the sound of a freight train roaring past. By this time I was wondering away from the field back to my house where all my family were. When I was at home I could feel the ground shaking slightly, my lamp fell from my desk and by this time I knew this was the start of an earthquake. Some of my relatives were crying, I tried to comfort them, as I knew what I needed to do, so I shouted, “Everyone! Get under the table! Hold on to the table legs! Quick!” I’m sure by this time, everyone was panicking. The loud noises were drumming into your head, getting longer, louder, we all held hands and began to pray. All of my family were Catholics, so hopefully our strong beliefs were enough to save us all. But it wasn’t. Unfortunately, my mother, two brothers and cousin were killed. We all prayed to God as long and hard as each other, so why didn’t God save my family? My mother was the strongest believer I’d ever known and if she couldn’t be spared, I had no hope, no faith in God anymore, from this day. Because if God is as powerful as he says, why didn’t he stop the earthquake immediately? And if God is so loving, why did he let one of his strongest believers die? And if God knows and sees everything that’s happened and about to happen, surely he could have stopped this? Right?

I.M.

Tornado!

My house has been demolished by the tornado. It has been 9 days and I am still looking for a place to stay. I have been dying of thirst and hunger.

A little girl, about 6 or 7 asked me for a little bread but I told her that I won't have enough for myself. She started to beg and plead but I refused to give her any. She then walked away and sat down in the corner to pray. It got dark and everyone made a bed with the scraps around them. The next morning it was day 10. Another day without any food and water because I finished it yesterday. I got up from the sidewalk and went to look for food that anyone had. As I approached a corner a little girl had some bread and water. It was the same girl that came to me for bread. I asked the little girl "Where did you get the bread and water from?" she said "From God."

I started to judge my faith. What God is this that gives miracles? Is this my God? When came back to where I was sitting before the girl came to me and offered me bread and water. She said God doesn't want everyone to die, and smiled. I started to pray like others were doing and asked God to help me. The next day I found a book next to me. It said bible across the front. I flicked through the pages and landed on Matthew chapter 14. A verse 13 and 21 was highlighted. I read it. It was surprising how God uses someone to show people what he can do. Today I pray every day about what I’m thankful for and everything I have. If this tornado didn't happen I would never have found God and what possible things he can do.

SO

The day  that all hell broke loose

Exactly a year ago today the World Trade Centre was brought to destruction after a terrorist group reached their aim which was to kill as many American Citizens as possible. The day it happened I was in school in the middle of a chemistry class learning about what elements react better with others. Suddenly my principle comes into class and tells us that there is a terrorist attack on the WTC and the Pentagon.

Before that day I didn’t realise how much I take for granted.  I was so scared because I knew that my father was in the World Trade Centre.  My mother and I had no contact with him what so ever there was no mobile signal.   We were evacuated from school we were all huddled onto the tennis courts to be registered.

 Everyone around me was crying and screaming. There was white smoke everywhere that covered the roads like a blanket. I started panicking and then for the first time in my life I reached out to God, I discovered a faith that I never thought I would ever connect with. I suppose when you really want something you’ll do anything to make sure that everyone you love is safe.

That afternoon when I my mum and I were waiting to hear from my dad, we got a phone call saying that my father was dead. They said he was on the 37^th floor and he wouldn’t have made it out anyway. If God is so omnipotent, all powerful then why didn’t he stop the bombers? If God is also omniscient, saw and knew what was going to happen then why didn’t he save my dad? If God is all loving why did he let the other people in the building lose their lives in such a tragic way?  What was the point in praying to God when I he didn’t do anything to help. He just let it all happen. Even today I struggle to reconnect with God, maybe it has something to do with all that happened on September 11^th 2001.

This is a moral evil as the terrorists were responsible for all of those deaths and innocent lives lost.

 

 

KS

 

 

 

Tornado

Dear diary,

At roughly 1 pm yesterday afternoon disaster struck my beloved hometown. A life changing tornado hit my town destroying anything and everything in its path. This devastation will never be forgotten as it has caused so much pain and suffering to this town. The tornado took so many innocent lives but why? 

I’m afraid to say that I seriously doubt my faith, I thought God was omnibenevolent, I thought that he loved us? Why would someone who loves every single one of us so much let this town suffer so severely? Maybe God doesn’t love us enough to save us from terrible disasters. I’m also wondering why God didn’t save the lives of those who were praying not to be harmed, although he did answer my prayers when I needed him so I’m very thankful for that. I’m deeply questioning why God is making this town struggle to put money together to help rebuild the town when he knows that we were already struggling with fixing the town up before the tornado hit it. I’m aware that everything God does happens for a reason so maybe this was a sign for everyone in the town to come together as a community but I still can’t get over that the fact that God claims he loves us but yet he didn’t save us from the tornado. I still have faith in my God but I have to say that I’m uncertain of how big my faith currently is.

In this world today there’s so much pain and suffering that many humans have to endure from but this tornado that this town has suffered from is natural evil and this has had nothing to do with humans.

FS