January 19, 2005

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 Lutheran agencies, including Lutheran World Federation World Service and Lutheran World Relief," Miller said.

"While such physical needs continue, issues of the restoration of livelihood and psychological care will increasingly come into focus. The UELCI has developed a multi- year plan for dealing with these issues," he said.

"The ELCA has sent an initial $40,000 directly to the UELCI, and has pledged its continuing support as specific rehabilitation work is planned for the months and years recovery will take. This is in addition to the $320,000 that the ELCA has dispersed through other partners in the Action by Churches Together disaster response network, as of this date," Miller wrote Jan. 19.

Members of the delegation are Chu; Belletech Deressa, director for international development and disaster response, DGM; Edison-Swift; Malpica-Padilla; Miller; and the Rev. Frederick E.N. Rajan, executive director, ELCA Commission for Multicultural Ministries. Other members of the delegation are Daniel Chelliah, program director for Asia and the Middle East, Lutheran World Relief, Baltimore; Weed-Fonner, who is serving with the Japan Evangelical Lutheran Church (JELC); and the Rev. Hirotaka Tokuhiro, a member of the JELC Executive Council.

ELCA News Service