The largest funeral we have ever held on the mission field or anywhere else.

     It was late on a Saturday several years ago when the warning was given to the upper Baja that an El Niño storm was headed towards us, especially towards Rosarito.  Many places along the coast were evacuated.  Then the storm hit in the wee hours of Sunday morning and as the gray Sunday dawned the devastation was seen on all sides!  We decided to go ahead with the services and assigned some of the young workers to start the services while we checked on members.
     Going to the top of a bridge overlooking an area where a large family of our membership lived we were horrified to see nothing but a vacant lot!  The house was completely gone.  But, a young mother of the family came running hysterically to the bridge, followed by her teenage brother and sister.
     The horrible story unfolded.  They had awakened to water coming into the little wooden house and began to get the children in their arms.  They knew they had to get out.  The young mother had two small children under her arms, the teenage girl had the baby and the teenage boy had his mother by the hand.  Suddenly, as they were stepping into the water just outside, a wall of water came roaring down the gap where the house stood and they were all suddenly in the swift churning water.  A dirt dam a farmer had built to divert the water to his crops had broken.
      As the house collapsed the corner of the roof fell on the grandmother and she was jerked out of the boys hands.  The teenage girl had the baby swept out of her hands.  The young mother was tumbling in the water when she felt two young bodies and threw them on a roof of a house they were passing.  The two teenagers and the young mother escaped to find the children that were tossed on the roof were, in fact, neighbor children.  The grandmother and the three grandchildren were gone!
     Later thar day their bodies were found in a morgue after they had been dug out of the mud some blocks from the home.  Then began the task of preparing for the funeral.  They were just 4 of many bodies that were recovered.  There was not time nor facilities to embalm all the recovered bodies so as soon as they were cleaned up and put in caskets we met at the church for their funeral services.  By this time it was nighttime  What a sight -- those four caskets lined across the front of that little mission church!  What a night we spent with the grieving family!    They were buried the next day.  That was a big task for us,    But His grace is always sufficient!  Bro Don