|
Home
Covenant World Relief Responds to Asian Disaster
ASIA (December 28, 2004) - Covenant World Relief is partnering with World
Relief International and a number of other disaster relief agencies to
respond quickly to needs throughout areas from Thailand to Somalia in
the aftermath of a massive tsunami that destroyed virtually everything
in its path Monday morning, resulting in the loss of life that is
estimated in excess of 50,000 people, according to CNN and the
Associated Press.
Families are flocking to makeshift morgues seeking lost loved ones as
hundreds of thousands have been left homeless in Indonesia, India, Sri
Lanka and Thailand, reports CNN News. The United Nations is asking donor
countries to dig deeper, saying this will likely be the costliest
disaster ever. "People need help fast," CNN quotes one man as saying in
Colombo, Sri Lanka, where flags were at half-staff. "There's no power,
there's no petrol, there's no movement, there's no support getting
through to the injured, and I believe there are bodies that need to be
identified and transported out of there. With this heat, sanitation
problems will arise."
A magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck about 7 a.m. Sunday and was centered
about 100 miles off the coast of Indonesia's Sumatra island at a depth
of about 6.2 miles. The quake triggered massive waves exceeding 30 feet
in height, one news source reported.
"By God's grace, all our people in our mission fields in Pondicherry,
Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh are safe from the tsunami waves which hit
the southern coast," reports K. Paul Devakumar of the IFCM Covenant
Church in India in an email update to David Husby, co-regional
coordinator for Asia for Covenant World Mission of the Evangelical
Covenant Church (ECC). "Communications links with our missionaries in
these places were totally cut off. Only this morning we could get in
touch with them.
"In Pondicherry, the waves came very close to our church," he continues.
"There has been a lot of loss of houses and belongings. We do not have
any words as we see the number of dead people who are buried in mass
graves. It all happened so quickly. The relief work is going on. Threat
and warning of another tsunami in the next 48 hours has brought a lot of
fear and anxiety among the people. Please pray. We are trying to
mobilize and organize for the relief. It will take months for the people
to recover from the calamity and get back to normalcy."
Covenant World Relief (CWR) is accepting donations to assist the relief
efforts, according to Jim Sundholm, director. "In fact, CWR funds are
already at work - but we could use more." A more detailed assessment was
provided by Tim Ziemer of World Relief International in an email report
to board members.
"Mark Smith, our disaster response division director, was diverted to
India on Monday while returning to the U.S. from Darfur, Sudan," he
writes. "He's presently in Chennai (formerly Madras), on the southeast
side of the Indian peninsula. This is the coastline of India that was
the most exposed to the direct line from the epicenter of the earthquake
that created the tsunamis and which suffered the most damage. Rabi, our
national representative, and Mark are doing an initial assessment.
"While still in it's formative stage (response plan), we plan to focus
on India ( reported death toll is at 5,000) and Sri Lanka (12,000)," he
continues. "We are proceeding with establishing partnerships that are
"like minded". We will consider their capacity and do our best not to
stretch them too far. The ECC (Covenant) disaster funding has enabled us
to respond immediately. Without that, we simply would not have been able
to do anything until funds came in. Please pray with us that we will
honor the Lord as we respond to this very dramatic tragedy.
Specifically, please pray for our disaster relief staff because they
have been stretched very thin with the ongoing work in Iran, the
Carribean and Sudan; and pray that funding will be received to enable us
to assist in ways that will honor the Lord."
Those desiring to donate to the relief effort should direct checks to
Tsunami Relief in area of Covenant World Relief, Evangelical Covenant
Church, 5101 N. Francisco Avenue, Chicago, IL, 60625. Mark gifts in
support of Tsunami Relief. More information will be posted to this
online Covenant news report as it becomes available.
Copyright © 2008 The Evangelical Covenant Church. |
|
|
|
