Secondary: Rapid Response Assemblies
The wind and the rain and the weather
By Ronni Lamont
 Suitable for Whole School
Aim
To explore the impact of the recent storms and hurricanes across the world.
Preparation and materials
Assembly
- We may think that the weather’s been atrocious this summer but, over the last few weeks, millions of people across the world have been badly affected by flooding and hurricanes.
- At the end of August, the annual rains of the monsoon season in India were far heavier than normal, causing some rivers to break their banks and flood. In northern India, in a state called Bihar, the River Kosi broke its banks. Up to two and a half million people have been affected, with many taken to refugee camps because their homes have been flooded or even destroyed.
- The trouble with this flood is that the river’s defences were meant to withstand this level of water easily, but they didn’t. The governments of Nepal and India are arguing about who is responsible for the breach in the defences. In the meantime, people are without any food or drinking water and are starving.
- In the Caribbean, on the other side of the world, there has been a series of devastating hurricanes. You may have seen pictures of the islands that have been lashed by wind and rain. Hurricane Dean passed through the area in the middle of August and, since then, hurricanes Fay, Gustav, Ike and Hanna have all stormed through the region. The winds, measured at over a hundred and thirty-five miles per hour, have resulted in dreadful damage, flattening crops, causing houses to break up, vehicles to blow away and flooding. And people caught in the awful winds and rain have died.
- The small, poor country of Haiti has been very badly affected by all the hurricanes. Many people are homeless and without any source of food or fresh water.
- Even Great Britain and Ireland have suffered from flooding. People in the north-east and south-west of England and in Wales have been particularly badly affected.
Time for reflection
Reflection
Local people are always asked to shelter from hurricanes in buildings that can withstand the wind but, when the hurricane has passed over, often they have no homes left to go back to. People are left to rebuild their lives, literally from the ground up. Those that survive a hurricane or monsoon will return to farms where all the crops might have been destroyed and perhaps find that they are destitute.
We might find it difficult to imagine that sort of destruction and yet feel thankful that it happened so far away from us.
The people in India are used to bad storms coming every year, but this time it seems to have been made worse by the authorities failing to keep their promises to build better flood defences. How would you feel if you lost your home because someone didn’t build a dam properly?
(Pause)
The writer of this psalm, a very old prayer, knew exactly how this felt.
(Read Psalm 69.1–2, pause, then repeat the reading.)
What can we do to help people who are suffering in this way?
We can give money to the agencies that are appealing for help. They can then provide food and shelter for those made homeless by the flooding and hurricanes.
One of the things that happens when people are under acute pressure to survive is that they often become more willing to help one another. They look out for one another and, together, they aim to get their lives back to normal, even though they might still be in a refugee camp.
And here at home we, too, can think about our life together. We can consider the way we behave towards one another. And we can be thankful for all that we have, including the relative safety and security of our daily lives.
Prayer
(Read 69.1–2 again.)
We think of all those helping people who have been affected by monsoon or hurricane.
May the agencies giving aid work together to help the people who are suffering to return to their normal lives as quickly as possible.
Amen.
Song
‘When I needed a neighbour’ (Come and Praise, 65)
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