Nicole Foley is waging her own tsunami relief campaign, starting with a concert at 2 pm this Sunday, Florida, USA. If you are around Florida this Sunday, please make yourself available for the concert. Your presence means a lot for those who lost everything in the recent tsunami.

Good Luck Nicole! Read More...

There was a happy kingdom besides a wide seashore. The sea was the lifeline of the people, calm, divine and deep. People were happy and rich. And then one day a tsunami hit them. There was a chaos. People running here and there with confusion. Houses were gutted, trees destroyed. As if millions of Sharks turned the musical tides to sea monsters. But there was our hero who stood strong. Stronger than the tides. He screamed, pulled kids from the fiery water. One who saved lives and forgot himself. Whose shoulders felt like rocks to those who he saved. He was tired, out of breath, pleading to the supreme power, looking for another shoulder. But alas as if the sea wanted its own share of life. When the chaos ended no one was there to look for him. He was dead and so people who knew him. Our hero had just turned to another victim.

Source: Sun blogs

Here is an update from Biju about the situation in Chennai/ Pattinappakam.

“Two days back I visited Pattinappakam (fishermen area), which is one of the most affected areas in Chennai. I could see people staying in the roadsides making their own house with cloths. While enquired the situation to the people, they say that government has promised that they will construct new houses for them in areas far away from the sea. I also noticed a group of around 100 people sitting in a small area spread all over and being silent.

At that time, there came a green Tata Sumo with 3 people inside. As the sumo rushed to the seashore, people gathered around in multitude from nearby places and formed a big queue thinking that they are going to get something from them; to their surprise, the sumo left the place immediately ruining their little hopes.

After a while came a van and a Maruti car carrying a group of Hare Rama Hare Krishna devotees (religious group) dressed up in white. The group started singing songs while playing drums and distributed food for the people around.

Anyway, they get food from somebody; but the main factor is they don't have a safe place to stay right now. Since there were many policemen surrounding us and it was late evening, we couldn't take photographs. People are not satisfied with the help they are getting. Torn fisherman nets, tattered boats, houses bearing huge cracks on the walls upto 20 meters and unshaped roads are the common scenes everywhere. Around 50 people lost their lives from that particular place itself.

All we could see around is silent people with fear and sorrow in their faces. Though we left the place studying the current situation and their immediate needs; the tales of terror will remain in our heart for ever”.

Recently there were number of e-mails from people around who want to help those suffered or want to know about their loved ones. It’s great feeling that people all over the world hold hands together leaving language barriers, religion, cast, breed, region and all other factors behind. One of such is Andreas from Germany who is the foster-parent of Child Shaiju Francis. Here is an excerpt from our e-mail communications.

Andreas wrote:
“Francis lives in Kurumpanai closer to the costal areas of Colachel to Kanyakumari. I am the foster parent of Shaiju Francis, who lives in the CSI Rehabilitation & Training Center for the orthopaedically Handicapped, Kanyakumari District. My "child" is 12 years old and we write us letters. With his parents I had no contact. I try to get in contact with his parents also with the help of the hospital. The parents of "my" child lived in Kurumpanai. As name of his father I only know "Mr. M. Francis" and have no address. He’s working as a fisherman. The brothers of Shaiju are between 9 and 16 years old. From the stepmother I know not more also. The family is Roman Catholic and belongs to the Mukkovar.”

I was able to contact the CSI Rehabilitation center authorities with the help of my brother Biju and his friends and we found that the child is safe, though we do not know the whereabouts of his stepmother and his four brothers.

Andreas also have a pledge for “A fisherman boat” for this community.

Great job Andreas, Good luck for you future plans.

With the rescue efforts almost coming to an end, the focus now is to build the society and getting them back to their normal life. Though it might take years to bring this fisherman society washed away by the sea to their normality, the local authorities, government organizations and ministries like YWAM are doing their best in getting them back.

As per the reports from Biju:
People are being given shelter in Schools and Churches around Colachel. Many Church pastors have taken up the task of looking after those staying in Churches. Many more are temporarily being put-up with their relatives and neighbors.

Around 40 to 50 people died during the recent tsunami were inside a Church that was hit by the waves.

The main focus now is to build boats, houses and provide food for those living in temporary housings.

More official reports from Colachel and the team in Andaman expected.

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Youth With A Mission (YWAM) team has identified one such relief camp in Karungal with about 1,000 people. The thousand people in this camp are from 4 villages; Thotil Padu, Simon Colony, Colachel and Kurunpanai. Karungal is about 6 km inland from colachel. The people who ran the camp exhausted their resources and as a result have handed over the camp to us.

We have to house, feed and provide medical support for this camp till they are shifted back to their villages. Right now there are about 17 YWAM’ians on site and they have networked themselves with the government, the township president and the Catholic Church. Most fishermen of Kanyakumari district are Roman Catholics.

Our team is also collecting data from all the residents of the camp right now in order to find out missing people, reuniting families, tracking the number of dead in the families and applying for death certificates with the government, as these would be essential to receive relief money from the government.

We foresee that we will have to run this camp for at least a month. However this situation can change any moment. Our leaders who are overseeing the camp have decided that they will not focus on having large numbers in the camp but quality.

Please continue to pray for them and see how you can help.

Blessings
Bose

Below is the e-mail from my brother Biju who is at present in Chennai working with missionaries in helping the people from Chennai and Colachel who are affected by the recent tsunami.

"As i requested you earlier, there is a big need to continue relief works in the affected areas. Here my friends (missionaries) are working in two different ministries YWAM (Youth With A Mission) and JIM (Joel India Ministries) . They have already started working to help people in the affected areas especially YWAM teams are working in Colachel and JIM team in Chennai."

Here is the e-mail from Joel India Ministries, India. If you are willing to help, please contact them through e-mail at the below e-mail ids. It will be of more help if you are from around Chennai or Colachel.

E-mail from Joel India Ministries...
"Would you be able to send this email to your mailing list and encourage people to donate to this relief effort that we are now undertaking in Tamil Nadu? You can send it to churches, friends, and donors and see if you can raise some funds for this effort. We have people already on location working but we need substantial funds to carry out the below project.

For donors in the US they can contact Pastor, Charles Kennedy, and Email to Nolevn@cs.com if they want a tax-deductible receipt. Please consider sending it out to your email list and encourage people to respond. This is a Joel India Ministries effort. Already teams were been to different areas, which are the worst effected area in the State. We are doing some relief work in Chennai but focusing more on the south where the resources are scarce. Let me know if you can help us with this in multiplying this email. We will track it down and get it to you.
Nobody was warned of any upcoming disaster and preceded with Sunday morning, December 26th, in the usual manner. But when the tsunami hit, lives of people all across South and Southeast Asia were changed dramatically. In Tamil Nadu, fishing villages are among the worst damaged. With boats and huts wrecked, people's loved ones and livelihoods were stolen from them. The fishing town of Colachel is among the worst hit with more than 400 dead with more expected to come. Huts situated along Colachel's coast have been flattened. The Indian Express newspaper notes that Colachel has been the worst hit by the Tsunami wave. There are more than 7000 families who are now homeless. As the debris is cleared and the ocean waters recede, more bodies are expected to be discovered. In Nagapattinam, the stench of decomposing bodies lingers heavily in the air. It has been reported that the progress of relief and rescue efforts are moving at a snail's pace.

The tsunami has rendered many people homeless, taken away their livelihoods, and left many with no hope for the future. When the tsunami becomes a memory for the rest of the world, the people of Colachel, Nagapattinam, and other coastal villages will struggle to move forward with their lives. This tragic story stretches all along the coastal towns of Tamil Nadu right into the city of Chennai The numbers continue to rise. Although much work has already been put into action, much still remains to be done.

Our church member as well as YWAM is already moving quickly into action. One of the fisherman's villages in Chennai where we have a permanent ministry was also hit by the tsunami. Another fishing town down south where one of our workers who leads our slum ministry was home for Christmas holidays. He is now deeply involved in relief work on the coast. We are sending teams and our staff into these troubled areas. Already they are moving into action as you get this email.

We need to have a two pronged approach...

one is the short term relief work...which the government machinery is working on...

a. food - kitchen

b. medicine

c. clothing

d. clean water

e. safe place to stay on a temporary basis

f. helping families clean, helping in burial...

f. trauma counseling...govt may not focus on this...

long term relief work...which we as ywam can look into apart from the short term relief...and the things that i can think of right now are

a. reconstruction of homes...if they own personal lands...we can build permanent concrete structures...

b. rehabilitation of widows...self help projects...

c. counseling for those who lost family members...

d. repair of boats...

e. children educational fund for those who have lost their fishermen fathers

f. long-term disaster relief coordinator

we are trying to gather information from different places...i tried getting to some of the worst hit areas and those places were cordoned off by the police...we will be going out again tomorrow morning to see what are the areas we can focus on...

WE NEED YOUR HELP.
The immediate need RIGHT NOW is US $40,000. The breakdown is below.

Immediate Needs:
1. Food packets for the stranded fishermen. We are planning to provide rice, dahl (lentils), and oil for at least 700 families that will last those 5 days to help them get through the initial stages of the relief work. This amount is needed right now. Cost: 5,000 US dollars.

2. Medical: Because of the mass amount of dead bodies that are being washed ashore and the devastation of homes there is a pending outbreak of dysentery, cholera, and other diseases. We are setting up dispensaries for IV fluids rehydration, and medicine to combat this potential outbreak. Cost for Medicines and distribution: US 2,000

3. Temporary housing and shelter: We will provide plastic sheets for people to sleep on or cover themselves from rains that may come. The ground is still wet and they need something to sleep on. Cost: US 2,000

4.We are mobilizing 20 team of people in the relief effort.

We need US 2,000 for transportation, housing and food to keep them working.

Long term Needs:
5. Distribution of cooking utensils, pots, plates to 500 families of the poorest of the poor in the disaster area. Cost: US 13000

6. Finally, we are planning on complete rehabilitation of three fishermen villages. This could include helping those who have been widowed, the orphans, rebuilding of houses, repair of boats, and purchase of new boats for the poorest of the poor and repair or purchase. Cost: US 16,000.

We are also working with other mission like YWAM and local church’s

Please include a note in the envelope that the money is for the Tidal Relief Project in India.

For US Dollars from the United States: If you would like a tax-deductible receipt, please make your checks out to Joel 2:15 Inc and include a note in the envelope that the check is for the Tidal Relief Project in India. Send it to JOEL 2:15 INC P.O BOX 14931, 4704 5TH STREET W, BRADENTON FL 34280-4931 USA

If you lead by the Holy spirit please email us we will direct you the next step.

1. Pastor, Charles Kennedy at Email to Nolevn@cs.com or

2. Chandra Bose Email to: boseindia@hotmail.com so we can track their donation.

Blessings
Bose & Rosy

Joel India Ministries. India"

Reach me bright_sam@yahoo.com