Missions J-F2005

As of January 7, 2005, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) assessment teams were working to determine MCC’s immediate and longer term responses to the Asian Tsunami disaster. Listed below are some current MCC-funded projects, and further updates will be available on the MCC web site: www.mcc.org/asiaearthquake.

MCC Canned Meat — $300,000: Six containers of MCC canned meat are being sent to Asia through Church World Services (CWS). Three containers will go in a CWS airlift, and three will go by ship.

Church World Service Airlift —$10,000: These funds go toward a Church World Service airlift of medical supplies and water purification equipment.

· $700,000 — 2,000 metric tons of wheat: Through the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, this grain will be locally purchased for food for community development projects. It will be distributed through MCC partner, Church’s Auxiliary of Social Action (CASA).

· $25,000 —Emergency food: MCC partner CASA is using these funds for emergency food.

· $22,000 —Emergency food and supplies: CASA is providing rice, blankets, traditional Indian clothing and utensils for 1,400 families, some 6,000 people, in five villages in Tamil Nadu.

· trauma counseling: This covers the costs of doctors to travel to Indian islands to assess medical needs and do trauma counseling

An MCC assessment team has arrived in Sri Lanka, and MCC worker Mark Oxley has accompanied a medical team to Sri Lanka’s east coast.

· $25,000 —Immediate responses in Aceh province: These funds go toward immediate relief in the Aceh province, including distributing material resources, transporting medical volunteers, purchasing medicines, supplying clean water equipment and evacuating seriously injured people because hospitals are overwhelmed.

· $50,000 —Food and transport: Through Church World Service (CWS), these funds are for the local purchase of food and renting trucks for delivering relief to the Aceh province.

Indonesian Tsunami

December 26, 2004

With death and dying everywhere

it sometimes seems God doesn’t care,

or even that He’s unaware

of suffering that leaves us bare.

Thus many wonder if God’s real,

or it He is, does He conceal

within Himself the thought to heal

the grief and pain that we all feel?

But everyone who’s come to know

the God from whom all blessings flow

knows He’s the One who does bestow

the faith and will to onward go.

Yet pain remains, the hurt is deep,

but God is here for all who weep.

Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh.

Luke 6: 21

Written by Frank G. Vann and submitted by Marie Hertzler

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