Just three days ago I reported to you about some very poor brothers and sisters in Malawi who lost their homes to a cyclone last fall, and how you helped through the Disaster Relief Ministry. But as I write (March 14), another cyclone (Idai) is ripping across Malawi, deluging that small, poor African nation with rain. The very morning my report hit your inbox, I received a disturbing email from the same partner in Malawi, telling me heavy rains from that cyclone were, at that moment, flooding vast lowland areas of the country, severely damaging or destroying homes, meager possessions, food supplies, and taking dozens of lives.

"I was in great fear sleeping in the open skies, wet by night rain and showers, hit by day's sun heat and all flying and creeping creatures.”

Suddenly you are cut off from the world. That’s how the 14 families of Palo Verde feel.

While taking photos of the devastation caused by the volcano Fuego, a man came walking by me with a shovel. Seeing my questioning eyes, perhaps, he stopped to explain his mission.

I’m leaving today from my home airport of Pittsburgh and heading to Guatemala City to meet survivors of this summer’s volcanic eruption that left 200 dead and thousands homeless.

As of this writing, 75 are dead and 200 are missing. Unlike the Hawaiian eruption, its Guatemalan cousin's has been explosive, pouring millions of tons of ash into the air and onto surrounding communities, many of which are extremely poor.

If you read Part One of my report about our disaster response in the Southeast Asian country of Laos, you learned how a small, localized natural disaster swept away an entire year’s worth of recently-harvested rice in one night. Now I want to tell you the rest of the story…

Does anyone remember Hurricane Harvey? Irma and Maria have done a good job upstaging him, but for the folks whose lives were turned upside down in the region of Houston, Texas, where the storm deluged some areas—only one month ago—with over 50 inches of rain (Noah would sit up and take notice at that one, I think), the road ahead still looks pretty bleak.