Hi everyone

As I'm sure some of you are also watching this event live on TV from other parts of the world, I'm touched by the story of the current rescue mission in Chile of those 33 miners who were trapped underground - over 2000 feet or half-a-mile deep - for 69 days now. As I write this, the 18th person has been rescued, and the shuttle is now on its way up again with the 19th miner - a 15 minutes slow ascend to the top - with 14 more miiners still to go. There are also 5 others who were sent down to assist those left underground, and possibly a 6th rescue worker will be sent down as well.

While watching this, I can't help but also think of our two missionaries - Fr Napa (Peru) and Sr Saane (Bolivia?) - who might also be witnessing this amazing event right now from their neighbouring countries. One of the rescued miners by the way is a Bolivian! I wonder how Fr Napa and Sr Saane feel and experience on the ground the joy, the spirit and collective faith of their respective communities as one miner is being rescued one after another. I won't be surprised if a public holiday is celebrated there right now in order for everyone to witness such a triumph-ful mission. I may not have been born prior to 1969 to witness the landing on the moon event (even if I was, I would have been under a mango tree then!), but this is close to that kind of experience I think. Coincidently, NASA is said to have been involved here as well in designing the rescue shuttle.

Simply amazing to watch!