Thursday: Tsunami stories first hand

Today the Mission Awareness Team traveled 25km north of Chennai to Ernavoor. This is a fishing village of 7,000 people. After our 45 minute bus ride form the city, we all witnessed first-hand the devastation of the Tsunami that hit on December 26, 2004...just 8 months ago. Our bus driver was told to slow down so we could visualize with our own eyes the area that like so many other villages, made the daily news last December.


Quickly, here is what happened in this village on December 26, 2004:
The ocean receded back about 1 km (or around a mile). After 20 minutes, the ocean violently flowed back toward the shore. The rushing waters traveled over the huge boulders beside the road and a football field distance inland...destroying homes and literally washing men, women and children out to sea. Whole villages were wiped out!
Life in this part of the world is extremely difficult. Survival is day to day. Devastation is still evident even after 8 whole months since the Tsunami.



Wesley Child Development Center (project IN-520) / Compassion International
Pastor James and children greet our team with rose petals.
-Pastor James that runs a Christian Church at the project praised the Lord that the Tsunami happened on December 26th...a Sunday. Many Christians in the village were attending church service at the time. They heard screams from outside the building. The pastor advised everyone to stay inside while he investigated.
Out of the CDC and looking right down a 10 to 12 foot wide alley pathway he saw the water
rushing toward the church. Then it stopped! Everyone who was inside the church was unharmed. All praise and glory to our Savior, Jesus Christ.

-60 children are pictured on the wall of the church meetng area...all effected in some way by the Tsunami:
-One boy witnessed his grandfather taken out to sea. Gone forever.
-One boy lives in the village with a brother. His parents have moved 400 km away from the coast because of mental anguish due to the Tsunami.

*Here is the alley way to the main road where the Tsunami's waters came tward the Compassion project.

-Finally...
Alamelu and her son J. Prabu gave us their story from December 26th:


Alamelu sent her son JP ahead of her to the church where the Compassion Project is located. She was walking along when the waters came over her. She was immediately in fear of her life! Alamelu up to her neck in water wound up in a sewer of some type. Compassion workers eventually came to help her out to safety. Her home was destroyed! Good news...she and her son were saved but in desperate need. There is no husband because he passed away some time ago. Immediate help came from Compassion International. In times of special need a special fund has been set up by Compassion to assist whole villages in need...not just the sponsored child! Alamelu and JP now have a 'new' house. The only thing different is that they have a cement floor in their one room 10 x 10 living quarters, but no electricity. Alamelu sells fish to earn a living but has no money for power. When we visited their home today, our eyes had to adjust to the darkness...only a metal kerosene bowl with a wick filled light in the room. But how appreperate, this mother and son are a 'light' in their community by being Christians! The mother could not express enough thanks to the workers at Wesley CDC and Compassion International, for helping her and her son-before the Tsunami through a sponsorship with Compassion-then, with all of the extra assistance post December 26th. Without Compassion...she admits that she and her son would not have survived.

PS: One of our Team members (John Michael from California) had a small pocket flashlight on his belt. He gave the flashlight and some extra batteries to JP, the son. Please pray for Alamelu and JP...