This happened last week in India and the sequence of events left me happy first … and then aghast!
Basically there was this little kid who fell into a deep narrow pit and couldnt be reached. A massive rescue operation involving the army was made and with a touch of technology and lots of emotion we soon had an entire nation praying and hoping that Prince survived. After 60 hours, Prince survived and everyone heaved a sigh of relief – including the Prime Minister! It was a typical Readers Digest epic with lots of drama.
You can find the story in the Times of India and at CNN news coverage

So far so good.
The next day revealed a dark side! Amazingly every minute that Prince struggled with his parents tense and crying and millions praying there was this large bunch of gamblers betting large amounts on whether the boy survived and if so how long etc etc. I was aghast at this. Unbelievably cruel – the amount betted was 150 crore rupees (34 million dollars)!!
Here’s a link to the articles
Times of India article
The news at Yahoo

I wonder what the value of a human life has come to. People dont seem to realise that someone called Jesus GAVE UP his life for them and this is priceless! The way God loves us means we are worth more than mere money or material. I wish the people betting realised it. They need to hang their heads in shame.
God loves each of us as if we were the only ones that existed – it’s a personal selfless love that transcends all barriers. He loves us just the way we are.
What we are worth is not because of who we are or what we’ve done but because of what God has done for us. Billions of rupees or dollars cannot make Him change His love for us.
Thank God for that!
I’ll end quoting I Cor 13: 4-6
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.