Hurricane Hits Home

As I write, at this very moment, a great storm is raging across the Gulf of Mexico, and will hit the state of Texas very soon. This
is Hurricane Rita, which has traveled from the Atlantic to its present location off the coast of Texas. Although it has weakened to a Class 3 hurricane from Class 5, it is expected to reenact the destruction so recently observed in neighbouring Louisiana.

It has been but three weeks since Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana, and it is still fresh on our minds. Texans have welcomed the evacuees from Louisiana, and "southern hospitality" has taken on a whole new meaning. As we saw the droves of people coming to us from a devastated land, we may have thought this would never happen to us - and yet, here we are a few weeks later with many seaside counties and towns evacuated, and with another hurricane, quickly bearing down on Port Arthur. Although the damage is inevitable, at least we are more prepared for this than New Orleans was. Texas Homeland Security seems to have a handle on things, and most people have evacuated those places in which it was mandatory.

For me, Hurricane Katrina seemed kind of far away. New Orleans is in a whole 'nother state, and besides the many evacuees who came, Texas wasn't really affected by it much. However, Hurricane Rita is a lot closer to home, hitting the Texas coast. This time it's Texans who're evacuating, and it's cities in Texas that are being battered by a hurricane. We may have thought it wouldn't happen to us, but now it is.

This evening I saw the Governor on the news, asking Texans everywhere to be praying for their state in a time of disaster. I have, and I will! In a time of trouble, we must all look towards Almighty God.

As hurricanes have and are devastating the coasts of Louisiana and Texas, I will be praying for the evacuees and victims, Texans and Louisianians alike. I also encourage all members of the church to do likewise.

Lingua Latina

Latin was originally the language of Latium (Lazio in Italian), the region of Italy which includes Rome. The speakers of Latin were surrounded by people who spoke other tongues—many related to theirs, but some completely unrelated. To the west, Osco-Umbrian languages were used, and to the north were speakers of Faliscan and Etruscan. Faliscan was very closely related to Latin, being in the same branch of the Italic subfamily. However, Etruscan was in no way related to Latin—in fact, it was not even in the Indo-European language family, to which even our English language belongs.

When the Roman Empire was established and grew, Latin became a wide-spread language. The other languages of Italy gave way to this new world tongue, and are now known only by a few documents and inscriptions left to us. However, Latin never really died, as did its neighbours in Italy such as Etruscan and Umbrian.
Latin was the language of the Romans, and then of the Roman Empire. Along with Greek, it was the lingua franca of the known world, and spread as far as Britain and what is now Turkey. Although not all people in the Empire gave up their languages in favour of that of the Romans, many learned the new language.

After many years, the Latin of the various regions of Europe changed and became so different as to be mutually unintelligible to the other dialects of Latin. These became the Romance languages of today, such as Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Romanian, Catalán, and many others.

Thus, Latin lives on in many parts of Europe and North America in its descendents. However, it is evident that Latin did not remain in some parts of the Empire. The Germanic languages of Britain and Germany are still spoken today, and you won’t find many speakers of Latin languages in north Africa either.

The Brendan Voyage

Out on the stormy sea, near Ireland, was a small leather boat, tossed by the waves.  Five men were its only crew, desperately trying to keep their tiny craft from sinking below the waves.  A Celtic cross was painted on the tattered flax sail.

Is this the craft of the Irish Saint Brendan, who, according to legend, sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to the New World long before the Vikings?  No, it is not, but instead is a modern attempt to prove the story true.

These men are setting out in a tiny leather boat simply to see if it could be done.

Not far from the rocky shores of the Emerald Isle, the frame of the boat bends as the waves toss it high, and then drop it.  It is almost destroyed by a near collusion with a huge ship.

Will these adventurers reach their goal, or will they die in the ocean?  Only time will tell.

This narration was written by Benjamin Bruce as a school assignment, after reading the first chapter of The Brendan Voyage, by Tim Severin.