ELCA Staff Visit Tsunami-Hit India, Thailand

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Staff of the Evangelical Lutheran Church
in America (ELCA) churchwide organization are assessing needs for
short-term relief and long-term community building first-hand as
they visit tsunami-struck areas of India, Jan. 13-20, and
Thailand, Jan. 20-22. In response to a special invitation from
the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in India (UELCI), staff of
the ELCA and others are meeting and expressing their solidarity
with survivors of the tsunami which claimed lives in several
coastal countries of the Indian Ocean last month.
The Rev. Chandran Paul Martin, executive director, UELCI,
issued the invitation and referred to the visiting Lutheran
delegation as a "walking letter."
"We are a living letter. We are here to show solidarity and
to make initial personal contact," said the Rev. Rafael Malpica-
Padilla, executive director, ELCA Division for Global Mission
(DGM). "We are here to define how the ELCA will live in
partnership with brothers and sisters in India." Malpica-Padilla
is leading the 10-member Lutheran delegation.
The UELCI is a council of 11 Lutheran churches in India. The
ELCA and UELCI are members of the Lutheran World Federation
(LWF), a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran
tradition. Based in Geneva, Switzerland, the LWF has 138 member
churches in 77 countries.
Immediately after the tsunami struck Dec. 26, the UELCI
provided food and clothing to survivors in the southern coastal
areas of India. The church has dispatched teams to assess the
needs of people and conduct relief work in Chirala, Cuddalore,
Kanuakumari, Nagercoil, Tranquebar and other affected areas.
Reporting from Tamilnadu on Jan. 17, delegation member Sue
Edison-Swift, associate director for interpretation, ELCA
Department for Communication, said the second phase of recovery
efforts is the distribution of relief kits. "The third phase
[will] focus on children through the [UELCI's] orphanages and
schools. The fourth stage, a dream, is to build a clinic or
hospital" here.
"Chittrapettai is one of numerous coastal villages where the
UELCI, the ELCA's primary partner in this disaster, is active,
providing relief and working toward rehabilitation and recovery.
The UELCI is currently working with 3,500 families," reported the
Rev. David L. Miller, editor, The Lutheran magazine. Miller is a
member of the delegation.
The church, in partnership with the ELCA and others, is
about to launch a project that will train 2,000 volunteers in
health and trauma counseling, Miller said. The volunteers are
being selected from several Indian coastal villages, he said.
In collaboration with international relief agencies, the
UELCI has established a well-staffed medical clinic in Cuddalore,
Miller said. "It serves 500 patients a day, a third of them at
the clinic and the rest through community outreach," he said.
Members of the delegation are sharing their reports and
reflections daily on the Internet, linked to
http://www.elca.org/disaster/sasiatsunami.html on the ELCA Web
site.
"With unprecedented destruction also came unprecedented
manifestations of human kindness," said the Rev. Joseph Chu,
program director for Asia and the Pacific, DGM, Jan. 19.
"What our Lutheran brothers and sisters did and continue to
do [in India] is a great example. Immediately after the
disaster, members of churches in the affected areas went to work
voluntarily. Some went to the beach areas and helped recover the
bodies of victims. [Others] volunteered to cook for and feed the
survivors. People they help are from different religious
backgrounds and social classes, but that didn't matter. They act
because there is a genuine human need. The good news is that
[this] story is repeated many times in many communities. People
of different faiths and creeds come together to deal with the
calamity," Chu said.

Reflections from Velankani, India
"I have been struck by both the sadness and hopefulness
among the families I have met in the tsunami-affected fishing
villages," said Leslie D. Weed-Fonner, Asia Pacific regional
representative, DGM, who reported from Velankani, India, Jan. 19.
"Each visit has been with Indian Lutheran church-related
people who are readily greeted and welcomed by the village
people. The interactions are about what the tsunami did and what
people need," Weed-Fonner said.
"One fisherman I spoke with told how he ran to save his boat
but was swept away by the wave and was thrown against the side of
his cement house. He held on but has cuts on his face and leg.
His boat was swept away, and the motor was caught up in a palm
tree. The waves were above the palm trees, about 40 feet tall,"
she said.
"The relief workers working with [tsunami survivors] are so
committed," said Weed-Fonner. "Church leaders [in India]
organized quickly. They were in the villages within hours of the
tsunami. They come daily to bring supplies and are now working
with villagers to construct temporary homes. It is amazing to
watch as they all talk and work together to reconstruct lives.
The church is helping everyone in the villages regardless of
religion or background. It is also reassuring to hear them say
they will be part of helping people for a long time, maybe three
years, and will be helping with counseling, as well as with
material needs. They will also help the fishermen get back to
fishing, so they can support themselves once again and be a
source of income for others," she said. "One of the goals is to
help the fishermen and their families stay here where they and
their families have lived for many, many years. Fishing is their
way of life."
"Although I feel sad and in awe of the destruction wrought
on to these people, I feel hopeful that we members of the ELCA
are a part of reconstructing people's lives. The children in the
villages are beginning to go back to school [and] are smiling
more frequently. These are grace-filled, hopeful signs," Weed-
Fonner said.

"I See the Water Coming" -- Reflection from the Nagaparttinam
region of India
"Three weeks after towering waves pummeled the waterfront
markets, homes and fishing port here, dozens of boats -- 40- and
50-foot wooden trawlers -- are randomly strewn along dirt
streets. More are smashed and piled willy-nilly atop each other,
clogging the harbor. Others are thrown over crushed bridges and
retaining walls into a lagoon," wrote Miller, Jan. 19.
"People walk from food and medical distribution sites past
boats that were lifted and tossed over two and three story
concrete buildings that still stand, though most are shattered or
badly beaten. One man distractedly rakes pieces of trash from the
dirt in front of a shop. The apocalyptic destruction that
surrounds him makes his efforts appear absurd," Miller said.
"More than 6,000 were killed in the Nagaparttinam region,
more are missing. Here in the harbor area more than 500 died;
more than 280 of these were children. It could have been worse.
The tsunami hit on a Sunday morning. Large elementary and
secondary schools right off the water were empty," he said.
"People here echo fears heard up and down the south Indian
coast, showing obvious signs of post traumatic stress: They fear
the water. They fear the night. They have trouble sleeping. They
don't want to close their eyes. When they do they 'see the water
coming,'" Miller said.
"The Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church is the Lutheran body
that serves this area of India. It continues to provide food,
rice, clothes, stoves, utensils, school supplies and uniforms --
and spiritual care -- for thousands, through its partnership with
the United Evangelical Lutheran Church India. It is also
building temporary shelters.
"The UELCI is a partner with the ELCA and other Luther