Sam Shaw has seen the devastation caused by tornados – and the wreckage left behind by hurricanes.
Sam Shaw has seen the devastation caused by tornados – and the wreckage left behind by hurricanes.
None of it compares to what the Southern Baptist
pastor saw when he toured areas hit in late December by the massive
earthquake and tsunami waves in the Indian Ocean region.
“This was multiplied 100 times worse (than anything
I had seen),” says Shaw, pastor of Germantown Baptist Church near
Memphis, Tenn. “I have photographs … of debris and clothing in the
trees, 10 feet off the ground – three miles from the ocean.
“The devastation is so overwhelming, the sight and
smell of so many dead bodies. It is apocalyptic in proportions.
“It is just mind-numbing.
“We were looking out at miles of countryside that
had not even been touched for the removal of bodies, and I sat there
thinking about all those people who died. They’re just gone,” Shaw
recounts.
No, the focus must fall on survivors of the disaster
– and if a crisis ever demanded that Christians take risks to help
people in desperate need, the suffering of millions of tsunami victims
around the Indian Ocean is that crisis, Shaw emphasizes.
Shaw was in Oklahoma for the Christmas holidays when
he heard about the 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami waves that
destroyed 3,000 miles of coastline in the region. The event left more
than 160,000 dead and literally millions of persons homeless. Hunger
and disease now pose very serious threats to those lives.
“I realized immediately that this was the greatest
disaster of our lifetime, and I felt an inner compulsion that we could
not just sit by,” Shaw says. “We had to be involved. And I knew that,
as pastor of the church, I had to set an example.”
When he arrived back at his church, Shaw if ever
there was a time to travel halfway around the world to a very difficult
and not-so-safe place, this was it.
Thus, he and five other church members headed toward
Aceh, Indonesia, epicenter of the earthquake and scene of the worst
tsunami damage.
“By God’s grace, we made some divine connections and
ended up being able to facilitate some relief work there,” says Mark
Morris, who serves as minister of missions at Germantown Baptist Church.
The visiting team surveyed the damage in Aceh and
talked with government officials, relief workers and military leaders
about how they could marshal the resources of concerned Christians in
the Memphis area to help Aceh’s survivors.
“We tried to see the situation through God’s eyes,”
Shaw says. “We asked ourselves what God saw before
the tsunami, what he sees now and what he wants to see six months from
now.”
The team was able to identify several locations where their assistance
would be welcome and returned to Memphis with a plan to send a series
of small teams that would stay about 10 days each. The teams would be
made up of volunteers skilled in water purification, clean-up tasks,
rebuilding, and working with women and children.
“The situation is very fluid,” Morris acknowledges.
“New needs emerge all the time. We’re trying to be responsive to the
needs. Water is the highest priority because it has been contaminated
with salt water and sewage.
“Shelter is another tremendous concern because
they’re in the monsoon season now. And people need to rebuild their
lives and homes and community activities. We’re trying to help them
with that process.”
When Shaw challenged the congregation to get involved, the people responded like never before, Morris says.
“Usually, when we have a team of volunteers going
out, we ask people to come to the front of our worship center and pray
for them,” he notes. “Usually, only a few family and friends come. But
when our pastor asked the congregation to gather around us and pray
this time, the entire front of our worship center was filled with
people kneeling and praying, asking God to guide us. …
“We (also) invited people to indicate whether they
would be open to going, and we had 50 or 60 who gave us their names,”
Morris adds. “Others have given sacrificially to help with the costs of
the project.
“It just touched their hearts.”
The disaster – and the caring response of Jesus’
followers – will help Indonesians and other tsunami victims understand
how much God loves them, Shaw says.
“These people will see God’s love through a massive
outpouring of assistance, through people actually sitting down with
them and hurting with them,” he says. “It’s a clear expression of the
love of Christ.”
Christians should not even have to discuss whether to help in a crisis like this, Morris agrees.
“All you have to do is look at the life of Jesus and
his teachings,” he says. “This is the greatest disaster of our
lifetime.
“How can we be concerned Christians and not be involved?” (BP)
(Southern Baptist missions worker David Garrison
talks about how relief gifts are meeting needs in the areas affected by
the tsunamis in a brief video available for viewing or downloading. To
view streaming video available from the Southern Baptist International
Mission Board, visit
http://media1.imbresources.org/downloads/asx/Sri_LankaReport1_56k.asx.
To download the video, visit
http://resources.-imb.org/index.cfm/fa/profile.downlist/DID/73/GID/23/ex…
fm.
(Southern Baptists and
other Christians also can send financial gifts for aid through the
Southern Baptist International Mission Board relief fund. Gifts
designated “Asia Earthquake Disaster Relief” should be sent to the
International Mission Board, P.O. Box 6767, Richmond, VA 23230. Persons
also may give online at http://imb.org/giving.
(All funds given through the mission board