SEND! magazine Second Quarter 2005: Rebuilding Lives after the Tsunami
Rebuilding Lives after the Tsunami
Pastor Shantha was away from home when the waves came, but when he heard the news, he returned as quickly as he could. He was greeted by rubble where his home once stood—and the news that his wife, two-year-old daughter and mother-in-law were all dead.
His 11-year-old son, Nuri, was also swept away but managed to grab onto a tree. When the tree was uprooted, he reached for a light pole, but it too was soon carried along in the boiling waters. The boy then spotted a cow swimming by and grasped its horns, but the animal began to sink. Miraculously, Nuri was able to pull himself up on a water tower platform, where he clung for hours until he was rescued by the army.
Days later, Shantha sat on the pile of bricks and concrete that had once been his home and shared his story with a Gospel for Asia coworker.
The day before the tsunami hit, Shantha traveled 30 kilometers (19 miles) to conduct a special Christmas service at his church. Because he had no way to transport his family, they stayed home. Gifts and new clothes were purchased and plans made for a family celebration together on New Year's Day.
Shantha now faced loss like he had never known before. Three generations of his family were wiped out in just moments. His home was demolished. All his material possessions were gone.
As he finished narrating his personal tragedy, Shantha began to poke through the rubble. He discovered a shoe, then a shirt. He pulled an item of clothing out of the sand—a dress belonging to his wife—and carefully brushed it off. Nearby he picked up a tiny anklet that his little girl once wore. Next to a pile of bricks lay a baby bottle. A few blocks away, Shantha found his wife's new Christmas sari tangled in a bush.
"Bits and pieces of his life are scattered all around the area," described his coworker. "Nothing is usable again."
On the Scene
The human toll and destruction from the December 26 earthquake and resulting tsunami are in themselves distressing. Even more staggering is the suffering of those who managed to survive—but now face a new existence without family members, homes and the tools of their trade. Many have been plunged into deep despair and depression as a result of their trauma—and some have even lost the will to live.
Not long after the deadly tsunami ravaged so many coastal areas of Asia, Gospel for Asia President K.P. Yohannan traveled to Sri Lanka and India.
"I was not prepared for what I encountered on the beaches there," he says. "Just to see the raw, sheer suffering of not just one individual but thousands was an emotionally draining experience."
In India, K.P. learned of one desolate woman who had lost her husband, her four children and her parents to the deadly waves. She had given birth to another child the day after the tsunami hit. A member of the GFA relief team found her walking toward the ocean with her infant.
"I don't have the courage to kill myself," the woman said in desperation, "but I heard a rumor that another tsunami was coming. I hope it will take my baby and me away."
One GFA missionary who traveled to several relief centers reported that the common thread in virtually every conversation he had with survivors centered around the future: "They are very concerned about how they can begin working again and earning their living."
Within hours after the tsunami hit, Gospel for Asia missionaries were already on the scene of some of the most devastated areas in Sri Lanka and India. Their initial relief efforts involved tending to immediate survival needs: food, clean water, clothing, medicine and temporary shelter. Along with the physical aid they provided, they also carried with them a message of hope—distributing New Testaments and Gospel literature to the survivors, sharing Jesus' love, and offering biblically based trauma counseling.
Today a force of more than 2,000 GFA workers—pastors, missionaries and Believers Church members—is ministering among numerous transition camps in these two nations.
And these believers are discovering that despite the suffering and horrible tragedies that surround them, God's kingdom is not being hindered. In fact, hearts are more open and receptive than before, with people desperately searching for some sense of meaning and purpose in their shattered lives.
A team of GFA missionaries had previously gone to one Indian village to share the Gospel, but they'd been beaten up and their literature was burned. After the tsunami hit this village, however, these men went back to offer aid—but not without fear and trembling. They had no idea how the community would act or respond. But as they were cleaning up and helping the survivors, one man—the original organizer of the opposition—came up to them, quite a different man than before.
"I never knew your Jesus loved me so much," he told them.
Because of the prayers and gifts of Christians around the world, men and women like this man are experiencing the love and compassion of Jesus in a very tangible and personal way.
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