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hey! I know it's kind of late and slow to talk about the tsunami and all, but as the coomon question goes, "If God really exists, where was he in this disaster? Why did he allow this to happen?"

I'd like to refer all the Christians to Genesis 50:20...by the way, it's about the story of Joseph... so in this verse, he says, "you intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives." Though the 'lives' he was talking about there was the physical life, it really applies in the tsunami incident too, but this time, it's the soul that God's trying to save...

For those of you who don't already know the stroy...it's story-telling time!!! Whee :)

Once upon a time... ok that's crap...

Well, a guy called Jacob had 12 sons (from 4 different women), out of which, the 2 youngest were from the women he actually loved, Rachel. His favourite son was one of the two, Joseph. He favoured Joseph more than any of his other children...and so, one day, he gave him a richly ornamented coat. Of course, Joseph's brothers were very angry...but they were even angrier when Joseph told them he had a dream that all of them were tying sheaves of grain and then his sheave suddenly stood upright while the other sheaves bowed down to it. He even made his father angry when he later told the family that even the sun and moon and stars were bowing down to him.

With this anger and hatred, his older brothers plotted to kill him one day. This was the day when all of the 10 of them were grazing on a field and Joseph was sent by his father to check on them. When his brothers saw him coming, they plotted to kill him, throw him into a well, and then tell their father that he was eaten by a ferocious animal. Only the oldest son Reuben, was against the idea. He pleaded with them to just throw Joseph into the well and leave him there (then he would come back later to rescue him). However, not long after Joseph was thrown in, the brothers saw some people who were going to Egypt. They felt that they would gain nothing out of killing Joseph, so in the end, they sold Joseph for about 0.2kg of silver...

Lots of things happened to Joseph in Egypt...he ended up being favoured by Potiphar (one of the pharaoh's), who bought him as a slave, because God blessed Potiphor's household when Joseph was serving him. However, Potophor's wife soon noticed him and asked him to sleep with her :( Eew... anyway, he obviously rejected he...but she ripped her clothes and screamed, saying that he took advantage of her...so... BOOM! he landed up in prison!

Anyway, in there he interpreted the dreams of two prisoners...a cupbearer and baker. He told them that dreams belong to God, so he could ask God for the meanings of those dreams... and they told him their dreams. Joseph interpreted them and true enough, all he said came true. The cupbearer was sent back to serve Pharaoh, while the baker was executed... but the cupbearer totally forgot to tell Pharaoh about Joseph, until one day, Pharaoh had 2 disturbing dreams. The cupbearer finally told him that there was a man who helped him interpret his dream and it came true. So pharaoh sent for Joseph!

Once again, Joseph consulted God to ask for the meaning of Praraoh's dreams, and guess what? Both said the same thing! They meant that Egypt would have seven good years of harvest and then seven years of terrible famine throughout the land. Gasp! yes I know...haha... Anyway, Pharaoh put Joseph in charge to collect all the food and store them for seven years to prepare for the famine. With this, Joseph became the second in authority in Egypt! Wow...

Seven years passed, and the fame finally came, just as God had told pharaoh in his dreams. Everyone must have been so happy because there was so much food even during a famine. :)

Well, even though Joseph's family wasn't living in Egypt, their food level was so low that they were starving :( They decided to venture to Egypt because they heard that Egypt had lots of food. Joseph's 10 older brothers were sent to get food.... yes and a lot of things happened again... they didn't recognise him and all, and he sort of forced them to bring Banjamin, his younger and real brother, to them otherwise they would not get any more food after that. And obviously, Jacob wouldn't allow Benjamin to leave because that was the last of Rachel's sons...but when they had no more food, he had no choice :'(

Anyway, after all his brothers came, he finally revealed hinself to them, and all of them wept happily... (so ironic..haha) But when Joseph's brothers asked him to forgive them, he simply said that even though they wanted to harm him, God took this disaster and transformed it to something that would save the lives of so many people :)

There you have it...so no matter what happens, even if it's bad, God will use it for something good :) Jeremiah 29:11 ~ "For I know the plans i have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future."


God bless you! :P