Changed plans spared PC(USA) staffer from tsunami’s destruction

by Toya Hill

LOUISVILLE — Office of the General Assembly (OGA) Budget Manager Christopher Nicholas and his family had planned to be in the Sri Lankan beach town of Weligama on Dec. 26.

      “We wanted to spend the day after Christmas at the beach,” the Sri Lanka native said. “That was our plan.”

      But plans changed, and the family decided to remain further north in the capital of Colombo to have lunch with a relative.

      “That’s how we are alive,” said Nicholas. “The south of Sri Lanka was completely taken over by the tidal wave.”

      The death toll continues to rise in the wake of the powerful tsunami that hit  Sri Lanka and 11 other nearby Southeast Asian countries, including Thailand, India and Indonesia. And in the aftermath, scores of relief agencies and organizations — including the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Presbyterian Disaster Assistance — are scrambling to get as much aid to the broken countries as quickly as possible.

      On Monday, Nicholas spoke from Sri Lanka by phone with the Presbyterian News Service about the experience he and his family endured. He also talked about how the volunteer effort is uniting a myriad of faiths.

      Nicholas, his wife and his grown daughter and son arrived in Sri Lanka in late November to attend a memorial service for Nicholas’ mother-in-law and to visit with family members still living in the tiny country located just below the tip of India.

      Dilu Nicholas, Christopher Nicholas’ son, also works for the PC(USA) in Louisville, where he is assigned to the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program of the Congregational Ministries Division (CMD).

      Christopher Nicholas said he and his family had “no warning at all” that the catastrophic tsunami was coming. He said he learned of its impact when his brother, who is a pilot in Sri Lanka, called him about 10:30 a.m. on Dec. 26.

      With no television in the house where Nicholas and his family were staying in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, “we were glued to the radio,” he said.

      Details trickled in, and it was actually the next day before the family got more complete information, Nicholas said. None of Nicholas’ immediate family was killed in the disaster, but he said the devastation has still touched him personally.

     A former neighbor’s “whole family was wiped out,” he said.

      Almost immediately after the tsunami, Nicholas and his family began working in the relief effort, including delivery of food and supplies to some of the hardest hit areas.

      There were scenes of people looking out to the sea and weeping, Nicholas said. And “bodies were being washed ashore.”

      Yet in the midst of it all, “we feel God had a purpose in our being here,” he said.

      Nicholas also said he believes one of God’s purposes has been to unite the various faiths in Sri Lanka, something that has never been done before.

      “I think this was a wake-up call to Sri Lanka,” he said.

      Since the tidal wave hit, Nicholas said he has seen Protestant, Anglican, Buddhist, Roman Catholic, Hindu and Muslim clergy all working together, an event he called “unique”.

      “There is a lot of friction that has been going on in this country,” he said. But now, “this has brought everyone together.”