Today is the twelfth day since the catastrophic tsunami in South East Asia, and aid workers have been working day and night with little rest in efforts to save more survivors. Food, water, medicine and shelter have been quickly offered to the affected areas - Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India, Thailand and Malaysia - from all over the world.
The death toll is now rising at a much slower rate, though more than 4,000 new deaths were reported from the worst hit country Indonesia on Friday.
World Relief, the humanitarian arm of the National Association of Evangelicals in America, have made a major step in the church-led relief programme in Indonesia. Responding to the high interest from Indonesian Christians to contribute their effort in aid work, World Relief announced on Wednesday that a coalition of churches forming a network representing 25,000 of the 38,000 churches in Indonesia has been formed to respond to the tsunami crisis.
Despite Indonesia being a predominately Muslim country, the church-led programme of such scale is very encouraging.
According to World Relief, the church network will focus on the worst hit areas, the Aceh Province of Sumatra Island. In fact, aid agencies have been struggling to access the area to carry out relief work because all the roads were destroyed by the great tidal waves. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan even commented that the devastation in the Indonesian province of Aceh is the worst he has ever seen.
Additionally, it is worth to note that Sumatra Island is actually one of the worst regions in Indonesia where Christians are persecuted and attacked by Islamic extremists. On Thursday, US, Australian and South Korean government officials warned that a radical Islamic group once headed by an al-Qaida-linked terror chief has set up a relief camp in Sumatra Island. It is a concern that the militants which are known for attacking Christians may interfere with foreign troops that are carrying out the humanitarian operations.
Therefore, the new massive church network established will become a light of hope to the relief work in the Aceh Province. The network is based in Medan, which quickly identified its need for technical assistance and direction in mounting a relief response. The central office will train, deploy and later debrief volunteers. A training session was held on 4th January for approximately 50 volunteers in how to provide disaster relief.
In Banda Aceh, the capital of the Aceh Province, an office has been set-up and an initial team of 40 volunteers are en route. Accommodation is provided for all volunteers at five different locations. They will rotate through on a 10 to 12 day basis.
World Relief emphasised that they will ensure the highest level of integrity in relief and development especially when the church is responding in sensitive Islamic areas.