Nova

I found this show quite inspiring from the standpoint of first, the miner's perseverance and unity in their initial seemingly hopeless situation and then their later overcoming of the uncertainty of their part in the task that was at hand in the mine. What they needed to do to help.

The rescuers were obviously the best at their jobs. The help that Chile asked for and received from the world that helped jell the elements of the plan and then the cacauphony that was obvious on the surface where the Chilean authorities were doing everything they could to bring the best of the best into play by any means possible was quite inspiring.

I also found it quite natural and gratifying that the families thought that the best they could do was to gather their faith in their religion and then bring the artifacts of that religion to the site of Camp Hope and pray and celebrate and to support from above to help ensure a good outcome. I found the cooperation that they - both the families and miners - got from the councilors, medical and psychiatric help from the US and Chile to be appropriately sympathetic to their religious bent. Something I share with them.

The greetings at ground zero, many of which I watched on live TV were quite touching. I flat out cried for joy. I think my favorite part of this piece however was your interview with Greg Hall, the general engineering contractor of the whole project (who is being made a Deacon in his Church back home).
Pardon me for quoting part of it: For me, faith was very much of it. I was asked the question, how much did this job change my faith? And I made this point. It was the other way around. We did have a couple -- a few times where, technologically, we were out of answers, we were trapped. And I had no idea -- none of us had any idea what to do. And we resorted to prayer. And I am firmly convinced that divine providence drilled this job. As a matter of fact, the man that was in charge of Plan A, when I was leaving -- he is a good friend of mine -- he told me, he said: Greg, you know something? That job was impossible. You could not drill that. God drilled that hole. …. I find that quite comforting.