Good News For Britain

Britain has been suffering through a very wet summer. Flooding is widespread with rivers out of their banks and villages submerged. But there is good news from Holland for the folks suffering through the wet spell. A man there has just built an ark and wants to bring it to Britain.

No, he really did build an ark.

Most of us, on learning that a substantial flood was heading our way, would probably haul the telly and the family photos upstairs before fighting for sandbags and bottled water. Not so Johan Huibers.

Instead, he reached for the Book of Genesis and his toolbox. The result is a DIY display of genuinely Biblical proportions.

What a shame he was not in Gloucestershire last week.

You would probably fit the entire population of Tewkesbury in here were it not for the elephants, the lions, the zebras and the rest of the animals - not to mention a steady stream of tourists.

Like me, these punters have seen reports that an eccentric Dutchman has just built Noah's Ark in Holland.

Like me, they are rather astonished to discover that, well, yes he has.

And the next time the Rivers Thames, Don or Severn break their banks, local residents might even see Johan and his cross-section of the animal kingdom floating past.

Because this evangelical father-of-three wants to take his 230ft wooden tub from its present home in a backwater of the Dutch canal system across the North Sea to Britain and the wider world.

"Next month, we tow the ark to Rotterdam," he tells me, "But it would be my dream to take it to Britain."

Right about now he'd be a welcome sight, in Britain or in Texas. Huibers is a devout member of the Dutch Reformed Church, which shouldn't be a surprise. And the reporter tries to poke at his faith a bit. But if you read through, you'll see why the reporter only made half-hearted attempts at that: Huibers, it seems, takes vacations. In various third world countries. Where he builds houses and schools for victims of natural disasters.

He doesn't bring it up but I later discover that he has spent many family holidays in the Third World building homes for victims of natural disasters.

On one trip, he built a technical school at an orphanage in Ethiopia.

Next up: a full sized replica. This one is a miniature copy, only 230 feet long. That would be exactly half size, according to the Bible.