Heaven knows I’ve had plenty of time to think lately...and to remember things and people from long ago. . In this self isolation my memory reverts to times past at odd moments...in a life as long as mine I have covered a lot of ground and known some interesting people. So yesterday the news of the locust invasion in Africa triggered a whole new set of memories. Michael was a man I met on a cruise. We got on well and after the cruise ended we stayed in touch. He didn’t live far away so we saw each other every month or so...He had been a fruit farmer in what was then Rhodesia. He had left the continent after an invasion of locusts. His farm had literally been eaten. He described how everyone had gone out, banging pots and pans to try to keep the trees safe but to no avail...in a couple of days they were left with desolation...everything had been eaten. He and his wife had packed up their belongings and come to this country. His description of the locust invasion was harrowing..watching everything they had worked hard for being consumed had left him deeply troubled. Until I heard this story I really had had no idea that this biblical scenario still existed...but this week I see from the TV news that it is all happening again. Ruin for those affected is happening now...and still in this age of modern technology we don’t seem able to stop it. Insects with this sort of power feels very weird in this day and age...but to see the devastation on the TV news bears out what he had told me with tears in his eyes. Praying is not going to cure this one. But it is all I can think of doing right now. Lord, hear my prayer.
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1 comment:
This particular invasion has been around on the internet and even a TV program about it and its effect on Kenya, where they have dedicated people who follow the locust swarms to spray them from the air with one particular insecticide which prevents them breeding. This is a critical business and locust swarms have been around for generations, but don't receive the publicity in the west as we don't have them here.
The last I heard was the the swarms were now heading for the Asia where the populations in their billions could be even worse effected than the African Continent.
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