BAY OF BENGAL TSUNAMI

Most of us knew little of the lands that encompassed southeast Asia.  Little, that was, until the 1960's when a country

called Vietnam became a household word.  It lies east of Thailand along with Laos and Cambodia.  Thailand is an odd

Fishing village and beach south of Colombo wiped out by tsunami

shaped country with a long southern finger.  Its west coast runs along the Andaman Sea, part of the Indian Ocean.  Indonesia, just south of Thailand’s finger, is completely coasted by the Indian Ocean on the south coast of its major islands and just west and slightly north is the Bay of Bengal.

A huge inverted bowl shaped sea, the Bay of Bengal shores the east coast of

India, south coast of Bangladesh, the west coast of Myanmar, plus surrounds all of the island nation of Sri Lanka.

Just as the USA has the everglades, bayous, or swamps where people find room to live, each of the impacted countries have huge delta coastal areas where again and again people re-locate following floods or other water disasters.  Land is precious.  Quality space does not exist.  This is truly living on the edge, and each disaster takes its toll.

Indonesia, with its 13,000 islands took the full force of the tsunami.  In some cases, tiny islands simply disappeared.  Jakarta, however, much further south and just off the Java Sea was untouched.  None of InterComm’s ministry team in Jakarta were affected other than feeling the force of the quake.

Priyantha Senapatiratne, Sir Lanka

Christian missions immediately responded.  Our Indonesia Guest House host, Jim Kendall, reported that their Christian Missionary Alliance staff had joined forces with Missionary Aviation Fellowship using their 2 planes to initiate relief work.  Soon thereafter Samaritan’s Purse brought in their chartered helicopter.  When they first flew over the destruction, they were speechless.  One village survivor reported they watched tidewaters recede so quickly fish were flopping on the exposed sand.  Rushing down to harvest this gift of the sea, most of them vanished as the tsunami struck.  Over 12,000 people were lost in this one area alone.  The greatest losses were among the children.

Across the Bay, Sri Lanka was devastated along its east coast.  All of the simple houses on the west coast beach, the fishing village where we walked every day, the little restaurants, etc. were washed away.  Yet, in God’s great goodness, he protected our Project leader,  Priyantha Senapatiratne, and his family and none of our friends were lost.

Solomon Benjamin, Bangalore

Bangalore is in central southern India.  Solomon Benjamin, our next Project Leader, was spending Christmas with his family in Madras on the coast of the Bay of Bengal.  Although in a safe zone, they immediately became part of those offering assistance to people who survived.

Up the coast along the shores of Andhra Pradesh State, Evangelist Jakkula David, received this firsthand report.  One survivor and his family were in his coastal village home.  His sister-in-law had just begun to try on a beautiful new sari (India style wrap).  As the waters began to reach their house, her husband begged her to run with him for their lives. Her modesty, as she was in her under garments, cost them their lives, as the waters swiftly pulled the couple into the Bay in just seconds.  People lost everything.  Other Evangelists further up the coast shared similar stories. 

Myint Nwe, Myanmar

Even the low lying region of Yangon in Myanmar was flooded.  The house of Myint Nwe, our Project Leader, suffered structural damage, but, again, God spared the lives of our friends throughout his country.

Yes, some Christians were lost through this tragedy.  Yet, we praise God for His hand of mercy on so many other of our dear friends and co-workers.  The greatest opportunity for the sharing of the Gospel lies ahead in these regions.  As a normal form of life re-emerges, our Christian friends who gave so much of their time and resources will be able to return and begin sharing Christ.  In some areas, people will hear the Gospel for the first time.  Please pray for the harvest yet to come out of this tragedy.  Allow God to turn your compassion for these affected souls into prayers of souls for Christ.

THE PRICE OF BAPTISM

Dr. Iris GR Paul from Orissa, India shared:

“It is awesome as we see God preparing for the baptism 29 adults.  7 belong to the Kondh Tribe and 1 to the Gowdo Tribe.  All have memorized the Lord’s Prayer, Psalm 23, Confession of Sins, and the Apostle’s Creed.  These people were all illiterate 3 years ago when we started the work among them.  Because of the anti-conversion laws, each will require a court affidavit.  They are now saving money for their stamp paper from the government.  We are very carefully teaching them because they will all face much persecution.  Once they take baptism and declare that they are Christians, they will lose all government help.  Their children will not be able to study free in the government schools nor will they be able to freely secure school books from the government.  I stand in awe to see the depth of their commitment to Jesus and their willingness to forego all their government privileges, and I stand in awe to see the joy in their faces.”

NEW AWARENESS

Pastor Bandaogo M Bourkari of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso writes:

“In each town and village we have visited we have been blessed to see your videos corresponding to the actual life being lived out in our present day.  Viewers are ignorant of the wrongs and dangers they are creating for themselves and new awareness is now changing many individuals in virtually every village or town we visit.”

38 showings with 1,135 people accepting Christ. 

IMPACT OF PRAYER

Rev. Andy Kings from Dakar, Senegal writes upon learning our InterComm Prayer Team had remembered him:

“Thanks very much for your prayer support.  I must confess your letter came to me at a time I needed prayers the most due to many challenges and trials of this ministry.  It is so good to know that there are those out there interceding for us.  Thanks once again and may God continue to uphold your work for Him and your burden for Africa.”

                        HEARTBEAT

                                                    by Ken Anderson

One of the great blessings of my life was being involved in the production of the true life story of Hudson Taylor, one of China’s very first missionaries.  I had the privilege of spending a good bit of time with Hudson Taylor’s great grandson, James Hudson Taylor III.  Together we discussed what the main thrust of the motion picture would be.  Of the several, one stands out most prominently in my mind.  It was Hudson Taylor’s deep encompassing love for his Lord that motivated him. 

What does that mean to you and me?  Simply this.  The greater more genuine our love for Christ becomes, the greater and more genuine will become our desire to reach out to others.  Isn’t that what Christians need today?  Such a love for Christ that material things and temporal concerns become subordinate to the laying up of treasures in heaven by becoming truly involved in the harvest of souls here on earth.