Philippines: the day the earth moved
Debbie Meroff
Date posted: 1 May 2014
‘I grabbed my six-year-old and we were all screaming and praying for God’s grace. I saw our walls falling down, then we ran out.’ Dalia’s tears began to slip down her cheeks as she re-lived the terrifying morning of 15 October 2013. The 7.2 magnitude earthquake that struck the Philippines island of Bohol.
‘We stayed in an evacuation centre for two, almost three weeks, then in a tent. When we went back to check the church we found it destroyed. We still sleep in the tent but we’ve put it inside a small bamboo hut that we built during the rains. When people ask me, ‘how can you smile?’ I say I smile because I am alive! That’s something to thank God for.’
One way of winning
Debbie Meroff
Date posted: 1 Jun 2001
Ten years ago, Marcel Stoob was playing professionally on Switzerland's football team. 'Football was my passion', he says, 'and I was good'.
But then an Achilles heel injury put an end to his dreams for competing for the World Cup. When his young wife also suddenly died of cancer, it seemed like the end of the world. He recalled: 'I thought, why does God take everything away from me that I care about?'