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| News & stories |
Gifts for tsunami relief efforts continue _ from unexpected sources
SALUNGA, Pa. – In his recent visit to EMM headquarters, Frits Triman, chairman of PIPKA, an Indonesian Mennonite mission agency and one of EMM’s partners in Asia, reported on a trip a PIPKA team made to Aceh 40 days after the tsunami.
Of the 4.5 million people in the province, over 220,000 are confirmed dead or missing. As the PIPKA team drove into town, they passed a mass grave of
around 20,000 bodies. After witnessing such extreme loss and devastation as well as the subsequent relief efforts, Triman said the main task now is to give people back their livelihoods.
“This has been a very closed region,” Triman said. “Before the tsunami I would have been afraid to visit, but now the villagers welcomed us and begged us to stay. In some settings we were the first Christians they had ever met.” Triman said that PIPKA teams are working in four villages to help restore salt and shrimp farming and fishing industries. They are also helping to restore potable water. EMM has shared $124,000 of relief funds with PIPKA to assist with these efforts.
In expressing thanks for the gift, Triman shared stories of two other special gifts contributed for the ongoing relief and reconstruction efforts in Aceh. The first was a gift of $10,000 from a house church in China. The church took up an offering to aid tsunami victims, then prayed about whether to send the money to India, Sri Lanka, or Indonesia.
At first they crossed Indonesia off the list because ethnic Chinese have often been persecuted in Indonesia. But as the church prayed and discussed further, they felt they should give the gift to Indonesia – precisely because they were persecuting the Chinese. They wanted to obey the words of Jesus, “Love your enemies. Do good to those who persecute you.”
The second gift came from the River of Life church in Cambodia. This small, rural, and extremely poor congregation took up an offering to give to Indonesia for tsunami relief.
They gave 51,300 Riel, the equivalent of $12.44. Triman said it couldn’t help but remind him of the story of the “widow’s mite” from Luke 21, who, though poor, gave faithfully. In addition to the funds shared with PIPKA, EMM gave an initial gift of $5,000 to EMM worker
Mr. Vellaramala, who was in south India for a baptismal service when the tsunami struck. He provided medicine, food, clothes and other immediate material assistance for villagers in the coastal areas. If additional funds become available, Mr. Vellaramala and partnering churches hope to assist 14 villagers who are in need of fishing boats, nets, and other household items.
– Jewel Showalter
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