An Amazing True Story That Will Inspire You!

Hope Underground:
The 34 Chilean Miners—A Story of Faith and Miracles
by Carlos Parra Diaz (as told to Mario Veloso & Jeanette Windle)
(Imago Dei Books)
ISBN: 978-0-9869799-5-8
October, 2011/157 pages/$14.99

For several suspenseful hours on October 13, 2010, the attention of the entire world lay centered on a solitary spot in the Chilean desert. It was there that 33 trapped miners emerged to fresh air and freedom and the eager embrace of jubilant family and friends, after having spent ten weeks entombed one-half mile underground. Their emergence brought an end to the greatest mine rescue of all time.

As told to writers Mario Veloso and Jeanette Windle, Hope Underground: The 34 Chilean Miners—A Story of Faith and Miracles (Imago Dei Books) records the personal journey and spiritual involvement of a local, unassuming minister with the miners and their families. In a series of circumstances that would change his life forever, Pastor Carlos Parra Diaz rose to prominence as he became the influential chaplain of Camp Hope—a makeshift tent community established not far from the site of the mine collapse.

Yet Hope Underground is clearly more than just Pastor Parra’s story. Rather, it is the story of all who came together at Camp Hope focused on asking God to do a mighty work on behalf of the miners and the overwhelming evidence of His response that followed. Told simply and from the heart, Pastor Parra describes not only his own involvement with the families at Camp Hope but also introduces the reader to those miners, family members and officials who extracted nuggets of hope from the situation and then used them to instill faith in others.

For most people, this spectacular rescue is already yesterday’s news. However, for the millions who prayed for a miracle, this event has become a spiritual heritage for the whole world, a stirring reminder that God listens to the pleas of His children.

Readers are introduced to women like Maria Segovia, the “mayor” of Camp Hope, whose quiet strength and steadfast faith daily encouraged others. We meet the miner whose wife gave birth to their first child during the ten-week ordeal—a daughter they named Esperanza (which means Hope). And no reader will soon forget the youngest miner who boldly insisted there were 34 in the mine instead of 33 because, as he explained, “God never abandoned us.”

Though on its own, the story of his involvement would provide fascinating reading, what Pastor Parra gives us in Hope Underground is so much more. With humility and reverence, he leads us through the story of Camp Hope to a new realization that God remains a never failing presence to everyone willing to call upon His name.

MY THOUGHTS:
Although I remember the Chilean mine collapse, I did not pay that much attention to it at the time it occurred. After reading this book, I wish I had. Pastor Parra has documented an event that God used to demonstrate His power and move hearts of individuals, not only in Chile but around the world. Far from the world of mega-churches, televangelists, and sold-out contemporary Christian music concerts, 33 miners and their families united in prayer asking for a miracle, believing God could not only preserve the lives of the miners but could impact the very equipment being used in their rescue. While books of this nature can sometimes be a bit dry and can drift into trying to explain why God acts in certain ways (and end with those involved suddenly developing huge "ministries" that actually turn the focus from God to themselves), this is a refreshingly authentic and humble book. Pastor Parra and others, like "mayor" Maria Segovia, faithfully served in such an important way during the crisis and then quietly returned to their previous lives, forever changed by what happened during those 69 days in 2010 but seeking only God's favor, content with where He has placed them. This book will encourage and inspire you - I highly recommend it!



READ AN EXCERPT!


Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from The B&B Media Companyl as part of their Blogger Review program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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Flashback Friday - We Interrupt This Broadcast

Did you parents watch the national and/or local television (or radio!) news when you were growing up? Did they have a particular favorite network or newscaster? What about subscribing to the newspaper? Did they shelter you and your siblings from news or was it discussed out in the open? Were you easily frightened by news events? Did your parents explain them? What significant news events do you remember from your childhood? What stands out about them? What is the earliest historical/news event about which you say "I'll never forget where I was when ________ happened"? (And where were you?!)

Our TV went on every night at 5:25 so it would be warmed up when NBC News started at 5:30 and it didn't go off until the local news was over at 6:30. I remember Chet Huntley and David Brinkley anchoring the news when I was little, and I loved their sign-off: "Good-night, David," "Good-night, Chet, and good-night for NBC News." Other than that, to me, the news was kinda like the adults on the Charlie Brown specials: "Bwah bwah bwah bwah bwah bwah." Boring and completely over my head.

The first significant event I remember was the Apollo 11 moon landing in July, 1969. I was just a couple of weeks from turning 8 years old. We were out of town at my grandmother's apartment, and I remember that night being out on the steps with my dad. I looked up at the moon and said, "I don't see anybody." My dad tended to get a little gruff when he was flustered or not sure what to say so he sorta scolded me like I was being ridiculous - "Of course, you can't see anyone; it's too far away!" I didn't think I would see a person, but I thought surely I would see a black dot moving across the moon!

All of the Apollo take-offs and landings were a really big deal. I remember watching the modules splash down into the ocean with the parachutes and the astronauts being picked up by a helicopter and taken to a ship and placed in isolation until the doctors checked them out to be sure they didn't bring some weird disease back from space.


The Nixon era brought some significant news events as well, of course. A fun one was Tricia Nixon's wedding in the White House Rose Garden. That was like having a royal wedding and as a 9-year-old, I was mesmerized. A few short years later, I remember exactly where I was sitting on the floor in the living room as I watched President Nixon resign. Even though I didn't totally understand what Watergate was, it was a bit unsettling to discover that the President and his cronies had broken the law.




I remember how Watergate utterly consumed the news for weeks on end. This was years before cable and C-Span and yet it still seemed like there was interminable coverage of the probes and trials. I particularly remember Senator Sam Ervin, who chaired the Senate Watergate Committee. As a kid, I thought he was dull as dishwater and had to be at least 130 years old. He was indeed about 77, but it cracked me up when I Googled to get a picture; he doesn't look nearly as old to me now as he did 35 years ago!

Then there are the silly news items that stick in our minds. Of course I wasn't all that little when this happened (15) but when President Ford was running for re-election in 1976, he came to Texas and made a stop in San Antonio. After touring the Alamo, he was handed a plate with a tamale on it. He picked it up and bit into it, not realizing that you are supposed to unroll it and discard the corn husk! When the ladies realized what he had done, they unrolled it for him and he finished it with a fork. He was infamously known for the tamale incident just as Dan Quayle is forever linked with potatoe.


Now it's your turn to share your newsworthy memories and link up here so we can all enjoy them!

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Friday Odds & Ends

Amazingly, only one person besides the pilot was killed yesterday, and only two folks had to be transported to the hospital, when the pilot crashed his plane into a seven-story office building here. As I'm sure most of you have heard, he was an angry, troubled man, and prior to crashing the plane he set fire to his house.


Last night the media were still displaying their brilliant reporting skillz. A reporter at the scene on the evening news informed us that "You can see how blackened the building is."


Um, it's a black building, lady!

* * * * * * *
I passed a truck the other day from a business which will haul your junk away. Their slogan made me laugh:

Satisfaction Guaranteed
or twice your junk back!
I imagine that guarantee cuts down on complaints!

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My MIL sent me a few Maxine cartoons the other day. I was surprised to discover that the cartoonist is a man. Anyway, here are a couple of my favorites:




And since I coordinate our church's Care Ministry, I thought I could make some notecards from this:


Or maybe not. . .!
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Thrills and Spills seemed to be the theme of these Olympics. In the Women's Alpine Downhill on Wednesday, it was great seeing Lindsey Vonn win her gold medal, but -- ouch! -- there were some painful crashes. And I'm not sure which would be more heartbreaking: to fall right out of the starting gate as one skier did, or to crash just short of the finish line, as several others did.

And in the category "Crazy Sports", those snowboarders are something else. The Men's Half-Pipe event Wednesday night was amazing. Shaun White is incredible. Even after he had won the Gold Medal, he took an optional run - and scored 48.4 of a possible 50! The women are almost as crazy astounding. I cringed when a couple of them didn't clear the top of the half-pipe and fell/slid 22 feet down the icy snow.

And although I don't enjoy the men's figure skating as much as the pairs or the ladies, I thought the performance by the USA's Evan Lysacek was excellent. It's so fun to see the emotion when they make it through their routine successfully. I'm so glad he got the Gold!

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Breaking News

This is the scene where a small plane crashed into an office building a couple of hours ago. I drive past this building several times a week.

Of course, all the news stations are onsite with continual coverage and trying to beat everyone else to the punch in reporting. And, with apologies to any of my friends in the journalism field, it amazes me the things that these reporters say. One reporter asked an eyewitness who was in a parking lot across the street when the plane crashed into the building, "Does this remind you of anything?" The eyewitness just gave him "a look" and said "Well, of course it does!!"

Please pray for all those involved.


Pictures: Austin American-Statesman

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