December 28, 2004

CHICAGO - Tamara Mendis, 55, a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), died when a tsunami struck southern Asia Dec. 26. Mendis and her daughter, Eranthie Mendis, 25, had been traveling by train along the Indian Ocean coast between the cities of Maratuwa and Hikkaduaw, Sri Lanka, when the tsunami struck.

Mendis is survived by her husband, the Rev. Eardley Mendis, pastor of the Purna Jiwan Mission, a South Asian congregation of the ELCA in Chicago's Norwood Park.

According to a Dec. 28 e-mail to staff of the ELCA churchwide office here, family members in Sri Lanka told Eardley Mendis that a half-hour before his wife and daughter were to reach their destination "a 30-foot wave came from nowhere and crashed into the train, toppling it. Passengers were submerged for several minutes before the water subsided." Eranthie Mendis "tried pulling her mother to safety, but people screamed at her to go because another wave was coming. She walked about 10 miles to a family home in shock, her father said."

The tsunami was triggered by the "strongest earth earthquake in the world" in the past 40 years, said the Rev. Y. Franklin Ishida, director for leadership development and mission personnel recruitment, ELCA Division for Global Mission.

The earthquake "struck under the sea in north Sumatra, Indonesia, generating sea surges that sped across the ocean and striking land as far as Somalia and Kenya on the east coast of Africa," he said.

The tsunami has killed more than 23,000 people, said Ishida. "Casualty figures [continue to] rise by the hour as thousands of people are still missing in the coastal regions of Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka," Ishida said. "Millions of people have been rendered homeless by the devastating tsunami."

At least 4,500 people have died in Indonesia, most of them in Aceh, a province of Indonesia. Lutheran churches in Indonesia - Huria Kristen Batak Protestan and Simalungun Protestant Christian Church - are major churches in areas south of Aceh, in and around the city of Medan, said Ishida.

"In Sri Lanka alone more than five percent of the population has been affected," and "more than 10,800 people were killed," he said.

In India, "officials estimate that more than 6,200 people were killed, many of them from fishing villages in and around Chennai, along the southeast coast," Ishida said. Casualty figures continue to rise in Thailand, "whose tourist resorts, including Phuket, were packed with holidaymakers. Severe flooding hit the low-lying Maldives Islands in the Indian Ocean, more than 1,500 miles from the quake's epicenter."

"Thousands more may have been killed on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, where reports say entire communities were swept into the sea," Ishida said.

"Tsunamis are rare in the region, and there was little warning of the impending disaster. Both the earthquake and tsunami hit in the early morning hours. Electricity and communication networks have been severely affected, making it difficult to confirm the extent of damage and casualties," he said.

Disaster Response Now Underway

"Most of the affected countries and areas have church connections to the ELCA," said Ishida. They include the Huria Kristen Batak Protestan, and Simalungun Protestant Christian Church, in Indonesia; the Lutheran Church in Malaysia and Singapore; the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Myanmar, and the Myanmar Council of Churches; the Church of Christ in Thailand, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Thailand; the Bangladesh Lutheran Church, and Lutheran Health Care Bangladesh; the Andhra Evangelical Lutheran Church, and the South Andhra Lutheran Church in India; and the Lanka Lutheran Church, Sri Lanka.

"There are no known damage or casualty reports from these churches yet," said Ishida. "But church-related organizations and agencies are often called upon to respond to disasters."

"In addition to government and relief organizations around the world, church- related relief operations have begun," said Ishida. The National Christian Council of Sri Lanka (NCCSL), a member of Action by Churches Together (ACT), has already started responding to the emergency brought on by the massive sea surge, he said.

ACT is a worldwide network of churches and related agencies that meets human need through organized emergency response. It is based with the World Council of Churches (WCC) and Lutheran World Federation (LWF), both in Geneva, Switzerland. The ELCA is a member of WCC and LWF.

The immediate needs for survivors include clean water, medicine, shelter and food. There are great fears for water- borne diseases, such as malaria and diarrhea, Ishida said.

NCCSL has dispatched two truckloads of essential food items and water for Muttur in Trincomalee and Thirukovil in Batticaloa, two of the worst hit areas in Sri Lanka, said Ishida.

Members of ACT International in India - Church's Auxiliary for Social Action and Lutheran World Service India - have been in touch with the ACT coordinating office in Geneva. They will be working together with ACT member United Evangelical Lutheran Church in India to assess people's needs in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, said Ishida.

"In Indonesia, the province of Aceh on Sumatra's northern- most tip near the epicenter of the under-sea quake is reported to have been hit the worst. Members of ACT in Indonesia - Yayasan Tanggul Benkana, Yakkum Emergency Unit/CD Bethesda and Church World Service - will be coordinating their response to the emergency," he said.

"Reports are that the island of Nias, one of the areas where Yayasan Tanggul Benkana works, has been hit very hard. The island, which is generally underdeveloped, has a population of nearly 70,000 people," Ishida said. "No reports have been received so far from Aceh. Complicating factors could be that Aceh has become increasingly isolated from the world due to a clampdown by the Indonesian government in an effort to control fighting between government soldiers and separatist rebels."

"Powerful aftershocks continue" and fear of further damage and tsunamis remain, Ishida said.

Lutheran World Relief (LWR) is providing clean water, food, shelter, sanitation and shelter. LWR works overseas in relief and development on behalf of the ELCA and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.

According to an LWR news release, "teams trained in disaster response are in the southern coastal areas of India, providing up to 50,000 people with clean water and food. Immediate aid will include blankets, clothing, cooking equipment, candles, matches and emergency shelter tarps." LWR is also coordinating its relief efforts with locally-based partners in India, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka, and with funds to ACT.

According to the Rev. Joseph K. Chu, program director for Asia and the Pacific, ELCA Division for Global Mission, areas affected most by the tsunami "are areas that do not have a lot of modern amenities or facilities, so information travels much more slowly." In the days to come "we'll receive more personal stories about the devastation," Chu said.

Contributions to ELCA International Disaster Response will be directed 100 percent to relief efforts in South Asia, coordinated through ACT. Coordinated by the ELCA Division for Global Mission, International Disaster Response often channels its funds through international church organizations and relief agencies.

ELCA News Service