INDONESIA, June 30, 2005 — The Indonesian Bible Society (LAI) has been working with relief agencies on an island where an earthquake killed up to 1,000 people only weeks after it had been bit by the tsunami of December 26,2004.
Life has always brought many challenges for the 700,000 residents of Nias, where the economy is weak and many men have to work far away on the mainland. This is why, even before their coastal villages were destroyed by the tsunami, they had been the subject of special attention from the Indonesian Bible Society (LAI) in the form of the One in Love pro gram. Recent tragedies, though, have made the support of LAI and other Christian and relief agencies even more essential.
Following the tsunami, LAI despatched local representatives for a three-day trip to the most badly affected areas, where, in collaboration with local emergency teams, they distributed biblical materials to Christians who had lost everything. Sometimes forced to abandon their vehicles and continue on foot, they managed to distribute items including 1,500 Indonesian Bibles, 900 Children's Bibles, 2,000 Bible comics and 35 cassette players.
Residents of Alasa sub-district gathering around the truck which brought emergency supplies and Scriptures from the Indonesian Bible Society to the victims of the earthquake that struck the island of Nias on March 28, 2005.
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After this initial distribution came a number of follow-up activities, but the people of Nias had barely begun to rebuild their lives before the island was struck by a huge earthquake on March 28. In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, it once more became very difficult to gain access to the island. It was not until the end of April LAI was able to send in a team of people to bring emergency supplies and Scriptures to the latest victims. They focused their efforts in and around the main town of Gunungsitoli, where 80 per cent of the buildings were damaged.
Amid the ruins of the town, the LAI team was immediately surrounded by children eager to receive not only items to ease their physical suffering, but Scriptures to help them make some sense of what had happened to them. This same eagerness continued as the team travelled to surrounding villages and handed out items including blankets, Bible comics, cassette players and Scripture Portions.
Seeing everywhere the great hunger among the people of the devastated villages for spiritual support and guidance, the LAI team gave thanks that it had been able to carry out this distribution and to fulfil the Society's desire, expressed at the time of the earthquake, to "raise the strength and hope of the people of Nias who are undergoing disasters and encourage them to keep their faith in God who takes care of all living things with love and will never leave his creation."
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