October 8, 2009

We are all one family

Friends,

Right to left: Kathy Angi, Hepi from Indonesia, Rita from Kenya, and Else from Sweden who was a co-trainer at the September event.

In September, I was in Kenya to train 16 new trainers in community-based psychosocial support. The students came from nine countries, all members of the ACT network. ACT (Action by Churches Together) is the emergency office of the World Council of Churches. There are 134 member churches and organizations in ACT, which represent 117 countries.
 
Community-based psychosocial support is an approach to disaster response that helps communities and families care for their own people and make decisions about what steps to take next. When disasters happen, psychosocial workers immediately go to the fragments of the community and help the people take stock, reunite, and move ahead.  They encourage neighbors to help neighbors, families to reunite, schools to reopen, support groups for new widows to be formed, communities to bury their dead according to their customs, job creation, and so on. The community takes the lead in this process, and the psychosocial workers provide support. This is truly a ministry of servant leadership.

Since we gave this training two weeks ago, several disasters have hit Southeast Asia: earthquakes in Sumatra, Indonesia, and Samoa, two huge typhoons in the Philippines, Vietnam and Cambodia got as much as three feet of rain in two days, the quake in Samoa caused a tsunami. Millions of people in these areas now cannot be in their homes because they have been destroyed or are submerged. Caring for all of these people in these different locations is a monumental task. But the church is a large family.

Within 12 hours of the earthquake in Sumatra, church-based relief organizations had visited the locations affected, made a quick assessment of the needs and locally available resources, written a brief report, and sent it to the central office of ACT  in Geneva. The office received the report from Sumatra, Indonesia, and distributed it to all the member organizations and churches. This all happened in the first 12 hours!

Similar reports have arrived from Cambodia, Vietnam, and the Samoan Islands. The church is at work. My students are currently very busy. Impromptu aid offices have been set up in churches. Neighbors are working together to help each other. Psychosocial teams are working to support the efforts of local people and communities to care for the people they know and love. Pastors and neighbors, each with their own gifts, labor, listen, cook, organize, and nurture. Our worldwide family is busy at work. It is amazing to witness the Spirit of God moving in so many places, sometimes in very desperate situations.

I am proud to be a small part of this family. I am proud of my students’ work of compassion for their neighbors, regardless of who they are. I am proud to be a part of Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, which is one of the members of the ACT network, working to serve our brothers and sisters in need. For more information, see the PDA Web page and the ACT Web page.

Your sister in Christ,

Kathy Angi

The 2009 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 180