June 5, 2006
UPDATE (6/15/06):
Latest reports from CAMA workers indicate that relief efforts are proceeding with good success. Though the area is struggling with the loss of more than 6,000 persons, the people are determined to rebuild and start over.
The team is working long days. One day, they loaded more than 220 heavy tents and a truck full of cooking stoves and kitchen supplies for distribution. Ninety percent of the tents were set up and in use by the next day. Thank you for supporting the team with your prayers and financial support that enables them to reach out to the people of Jogyakarta.
Relief efforts to assist survivors of the recent earthquake that struck Yogyakarta, Indonesia, are under way. Local church members, Bible school students, and CAMA personnel are in the region, reaching out with God’s love in partnership with Food for the Hungry and Torch of Blessing, an Indonesian organization. CAMA has wired an initial $100,000 to help with relief, and a two-week outreach to about 5,000 families currently is in the works.
The death toll has risen to more than 6,200 in the two provinces of Yogya and Central Java; 1,668 of those fatalities occurred in the Klaten Regency Hotel, where two Alliance teams have set up base. A local newspaper account listed 46,000 people injured with about 140,000 homes demolished. In one community, not a single house was left standing.
The earlier optimistic report of no damage to Alliance churches was due to incomplete information. Two churches in Yogyakarta are badly cracked and leaning dangerously. One pastor’s home was completely destroyed, and the houses of church members in these communities also were damaged.
“Churches are thrilled to have to have aid and to share it with their neighbors,” Alliance workers said. “This appears to be a wave of God’s Spirit in our day.” In contrast to the “drive-by” relief efforts in many communities—where trucks drive through devastated areas giving out food and other supplies to survivors who are healthy enough to stand on the roadside—many Alliance teams, including “Tents of Love,” are distributing aid through believers who have been living side by side victims in their own neighborhoods. In this way, everyone in the community receives assistance, and C&MA workers have an opening to share God’s love. Several of the Alliance churches in the area have their own aid program. CAMA has sent some supplies to them for distribution in their communities.
Here are several prayer and praise items:
• A children’s center is being established in an area hit by the quake. Pray that this outreach will meet the needs of the many youngsters who have been traumatized and whose schools have closed due to damage from the earthquake.
• Praise God for the funds CAMA has made available for outreach to survivors.
• Pray for increased opportunities for Bible school students and other workers to convey God’s love to people who are suffering.