It is the local church that has the biggest impact - and the greatest
burden - in Tsunami devastated areas of Asia. "We are overwhelmed with
grief by this great tragedy," said David Mohan, pastor of a large
evangelical Christian church in India. "All the local churches here are
exploring ways to serve the hurting, but our resources are limited.
Working together gives us the best opportunity to serve those now
suffering."
Many pastors and congregations are busy distributing food, water,
blankets, tents, medicine and face masks, as well as tending to the
spiritual needs of people in their own communities.
"Our strategy here is to show the love of Christ in practical ways and
allow the Holy Spirit to touch their hearts," said Tommy Smith,
national director of Indonesia for EQUIP, an international leadership
development organization founded by John Maxwell in 1996. EQUIP is
partnering with churches in Indonesia and India to provide resources to
those in greatest need.
During a phone interview from Indonesia, Smith explained that it is
illegal to proselytize in the largest Muslim populated nation in the
world. "This province is one of the most gospel-resistant areas of
Indonesia, so our idea is to touch their hearts with Christian love and
allow the Holy Spirit to speak to them."
When asked to describe what he was seeing and feeling, Smith said he
was most struck by the "smell of death" that permeated everything.
"It's a smell that you can't get over; you can't forget. Just to give
you an idea, this afternoon we were standing at the airport luggage
rack ? we were going back to Jakarta ? and there was the same smell
that I remembered when I was in Aceh yesterday. It seemed that whoever
was standing near me obviously had been there and that smell lingers."
The sights also linger. Smith saw at least 100 body bags lying in
various parts of the street. "It really touches you," he shared. "When
I went to sleep last night, it took a while to fall asleep. I just lay
there in bed for a few minutes and in my mind's eye, I saw all the
debris. It really impacts you and makes you think. I know we were
exhausted ever since this thing started; it's physically taxing on
everyone."
But when you think about the people who suffered, Smith said, "our
physical taxation can't really be compared. So you struggle on and the
Lord helps you, of course."
The night before our interview, Smith and his team bought chocolate
milk and cookies for children in the area. "It was a wonderful feeling
to put something in these people's hands, even though death was all
around. When you see the children give a big smile, it helps. That?s
the thing that allows us to be able to minister."
Equipping the Church
As national coordinator of EQUIP's Million Leaders Mandate, Smith
organizes and conducts eight seminars per year for representatives of
more than 175 denominations, in Indonesia?s four largest cities:
Jakarta, Surabaya, Medan and Bandung.
Launched in Asia in 2003, the Million Leader Mandate program has spread
continent-by-continent in successive years. The initiative features a
three-year leadership training strategy for national pastors and other
church leaders.
EQUIP staff and Associate Trainers (pastors and Christian business
leaders) are in the process of training 40,000 certified trainers in
key nations, who in turn, will train 25 other leaders each. Each region
of a selected country is assigned a training team that returns every
six months to provide instruction. This model encourages lasting
relationships, stability and accountability in each nation.
In addition to his work with EQUIP, Smith and his wife, Poppi, serve as
missionary representatives to a large church in Indonesia that is
aligned with the Church of God (Cleveland, TN). A native of Georgia,
Smith was an evangelist and associate pastor in the United States
before going to Indonesia as an evangelist in 1983. He and Poppi met
and married in Indonesia.
"The Lord is helping us to touch this nation," Smith said. "We've been
praying for transformation. Our personal vision is to lift Jesus Christ
up over Indonesia as it says in John 12:32, and allow Him to draw His
people to Him."
The Smiths use a four-pronged approach to achieve their goal:
evangelism, leadership development, ministerial enrichment and
benevolence. Because of the disaster, benevolence has taken precedence
in recent weeks.
"The fault line of this thing, where the epicenter of the earthquake
could be felt, was under a building that's the home base for our
church," Smith said. "This is where we have the Leader Mandate
Seminars, and this church is at the forefront of everything that's
being done in benevolence."
With 20,000 members, the congregation "will be here when all these
other groups and workers have come and left," Smith added.
A Long Labor of Love
In the church's medical clinic, up to 20 volunteer doctors are caring
for approximately 1,000 patients every day. The congregation has set up
an aid station and brought in three 10-ton truckloads of food and
supplies, in addition to 1,000 mattresses.
One of the district heads, a vice mayor, thanked the team for the
mattresses and medicine, and asked for more food and clothes. "He
really gave us his wish list," Smith said. "So here you have a Muslim
government official telling two ministers 'thank you for coming and
helping us.' It's very clear to me that this is a way that the Lord is
giving us some inroads."
This is not a job that can be finished in a week, Smith emphasized.
"It?s going to take a long time to rebuild. For example, the great
mosque is in the capital city, but its prayer tower has several cracks
in it from the earthquake. It's only about four stories high and will
crumble just looking at it, so there?s a lot to be done."
Smith pointed out, "You could take a map of Indonesia and superimpose
it over a map of the United States. One end of Indonesia would be in
the Pacific and one end would be in the Atlantic. People don?t realize
that from one end to the other, Indonesia is quite a vast country.
There?s a job to be done and there?s a job for Christians to do."
Those interested in helping the survivors of this disaster can contact
EQUIP by mail at P.O. Box 1808, Duluth, Ga. 30096; by phone at (678)
225-3300; or online at
www.iequip.org.
For more information about the Million Leaders Mandate, click here:
http://www.iequip.org/ce/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=2&mid=-1
