Recovery from tsunami will take years

Gifts from local UMs
can help church offer
aid to quake survivors

Indonesian survivors of the Dec. 26 tsunami will need United Methodist help to rebuild their lives for up to 10 years.
That was Bishop Joel N. Martinez’s assessment last week after four days in Indonesia. He saw the aftermath of a magnitude 9.0 Indian Ocean earthquake and the massive waves it generated.
Southwest Texas United Methodists can help the long-term tsunami recovery effort in three ways, Martinez said:
> Give as much as possible to the United Methodist Committee on Relief’s South Asia Emergency Fund (Advance 274305). One hundred percent of those gifts will go to recovery work in Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka and the other nine countries affected by the Dec. 26 disaster.
> Make Medicine Boxes or Health Kits and send them to the relief committee depot at Baldwin, La. Directions for how to do that are available at www.umcor.org.
> Support the March 6 One Great Hour of Sharing denominationwide special offering even more generously than in past years. The annual offering covers relief committee administrative costs. Consequently, 100 percent of all Advance Special gifts can go to designated recovery projects.
Volunteers in Mission rebuilding teams will be needed in the future, Martinez added.

“The level of destruction (in Indonesia) is incomparable to anything I’ve ever seen,” Martinez said.
The bishop said he had witnessed what massive flooding, tornadoes and hurricanes could do while serving in both Nebraska and Texas. But the destruction on the Indonesian island of Sumatra—which he visited—was many times worse.
“Everything was flattened, except for a few sturdy buildings like mosques and churches, for miles inland from the beach,” Martinez said. “All the residential areas were obliterated. The smell of death filled the air.”
The epicenter of the Dec. 26 earthquake—the strongest recorded around the globe during 2004—was just off the northwestern shore of Sumatra. The island—especially Aceh Province on the northern end—suffered the most extensive damage in the region. More than 100,000 people died, and another 600,000 were left homeless.
The UM relief committee is currently helping provide medicine and short-term shelter for survivors, Martinez said. The committee’s long-term emphasis will be on building sturdy permanent housing and supporting microeconomic redevelopment with small loans so people can resume their lives. That work could take five to 10 years.
Martinez, president of the denominational mission board, led a nine-member United Methodist delegation to Sumatra Jan. 12 to 16.
The United Methodists went at the invitation of the Methodist Church of Indonesia. The visitors had three goals:
> To share prayers and show pastoral concern for earthquake survivors.
> To see the situation firsthand.
> To begin planning for long-term recovery work with representatives of the Methodist Church in Indonesia.
“We were impressed with the sophistication, training and work (Indonesian Methodists had done) on prior disasters,” Martinez said. “We believe we can work together with the Indonesian church, but some things will be beyond the capability of the Indonesian church.
“Therefore, we will have (United Methodist) people in the country for years to come.”
Everywhere the United Methodist group went, Martinez said, Indonesian church, government and military leaders were welcoming and expressed appreciation for the willingness of U.S. Christians to help.
The United Methodists visited:
> A damaged Methodist church in Banda Aceh, capital of Aceh Province. Banda Aceh, just 155 miles from the earthquake epicenter, was the major city hit hardest by the disaster.
> Refugee camps in Biruen.
> A Methodist hospital in Medan.
At each stop, Martinez said, church representatives prayed with people and heard their stories.
“We assured the people we had come out of a sense of love and compassion in Christ for them,” Martinez said.