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Earthquake Prompts Medical Team to Revisit Indonesian Island

April 19, 2005

Earthquake Prompts Medical Team to Revisit Indonesian Island

April 19, 2005

April 19, 2005

When a medical team from HCJB World Radio recently traveled to Nias Island off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, to assist in tsunami relief and help launch the ministry's newest partner radio station, their ministry took on much more significance than they ever imagined.

"The original team included five HCJB World Radio missionaries and four Indonesians from our partner organization," said John Brewer of Singapore, director of the ministry's Southeast Asia subregion. Team members included Sheila Leech of the U.K., healthcare director for Latin America; doctor Steve Nelson and nurse Ian McFarland from Ecuador; and Brewer's wife, Esther, who served as a nurse's aide/translator.

After a fruitful week of service at an orphanage in Gunung Sitoli and at clinics in nearby villages -- seeing some 300 patients and orphans affected by the Dec. 26 tsunami -- team members left the island early Monday, March 28. They traveled to the mainland and were preparing for their return flights home when everything changed.

A powerful 8.7-magnitude earthquake struck at about 11:10 p.m. Leech recalls the horror of the situation. "I ran outside down the swaying staircase, holding onto the walls. The water in the swimming pool was sloshing into the hotel lobby! I held onto a car for support and started to wander in the dark, looking for other members of our team," she said. "The quake lasted about three minutes . . . an eternity if you're experiencing it! I found Ian McFarland and one of our Indonesian friends. After awhile, people began to go back into the building, and so did I.

"At about 2 a.m. there was a hammering on my door. Ian was there, and then we learned the magnitude of the quake. The orphanage and Christian radio station where we had worked on Nias were destroyed, but all the orphans were safe. There were hundreds of dead on the island, and massive destruction. We watched the news as reports came in."

HCJB World Radio's Indonesian partners asked if the team would go back to Nias rather than return to their home countries. "We agreed unanimously to go back to Nias," Leech explains. "How could we refuse, being so close to the island and being so familiar with the situation?" After meeting with all the non-governmental agencies available, the team flew to Nias the following day with help from Samaritan's Purse. They were among the first medical personnel on the scene after the quake.

Leech describes the scene as "absolute devastation. Unbelievable! Three-story buildings had become one-story buildings where the whole lower floor disappeared. The roads were out. The power was out."

"It was almost indescribable to see how many structures had just collapsed completely. When we first arrived there was smoke still rising from various buildings . . . power lines down across the roads. From the airport the road was passable only by motorcycle. There had been several landslides, and even there we had to carry motorcycles across obstructed areas just to get to the capital city. When we reached the hospital, which was a staging area for the wounded, there were great numbers of people with trauma . . . the dead were being carried to a separate site."

Leech, who was given a ride to one of the hardest-hit areas by an Indonesian pastor on a motorcycle, was appalled at the damage. "Less than 48 hours before we had left this beautiful island paradise, and we returned to scenes of death and carnage!

"Our first stop was at the hospital -- or what was still left of it," she said. "I spent that day caring for the severely wounded . . . a woman with a crushing injury to her lower leg requiring amputation, already infected and covered by flies. . . . another woman with open fractures of her leg . . . yet another victim with a crushed and mangled arm . . . so much pain, so much suffering . . . no facilities and no supplies.

"Our job was to help stabilize these patients and arrange their evacuation by helicopter. By the end of the day they had been transferred to the hospital in Sumatra. I vividly recall seeing families weeping as they were reunited, each thinking the other had perished. Others wept when they learned that their loved ones had died, or worse, were buried in the rubble and presumed dead.

"In the following days the priorities shifted to outlying towns where the destruction was equal or worse. There was no electricity, no water, no food, no communication. Dr. Nelson and I were flown in by helicopter to triage and arrange evacuation of the most severely injured patients. Sometimes there was nothing we could do other than pray with them.

"Praise God, we were able to evacuate many. But I won't forget the stench of death that would waft into the helicopters as we flew above certain areas where we knew many bodies were buried. The panic and terror of the people was obvious. They feared new quakes or another tsunami. Many times the earth shook, and we ran outside."

The medical team saw 300 patients in the week after the earthquake, saving lives and planting the seeds of the gospel. Although the partner radio station was heavily damaged in the quake, Brewer arrived later with a new transmitter, and the station was back on the air by Monday, April 11 -- and will continue whenever electricity is available.

"Many of the stories are just devastating, but there are the lovely stories as well," Leech added. "A little boy was pulled from the wreckage after three days and didn't have a scratch on him. When he was interviewed and they asked him, 'What did you do under that pile of rubble for three days?' He said, 'I cried, and I prayed.'

"I see God's hand in an amazing way in that we were taken off the island on Monday and back again. I see God's hand of providence -- I'm not sure that if we had stayed in Nias Monday night if we would still be alive today! We saw God's plan and purpose at work," Leech relates. "He planned and orchestrated our whole time there, and kept us all safe and well. We thought we had gone to minister to tsunami victims. . . . God's plans for us were different, and we praise Him that we were exactly where He wanted us at exactly the right time."

How can believers help? "The main thing you can do is pray," Leech said. "We understand that this island has more than 440,000 people. It's mainly Christian, but more nominal. I'm not sure how many of those people are really disciples of Jesus Christ. Pray that this incredible tragedy might be turned around, and God will have glory."

Brewer agreed that the medical team was "placed by God in the right place at the right time to accomplish His purpose. Believers can also minister to the people of Nias by helping to finance the medical team, replace the radio station that was destroyed, and build a second station in southern Nias." (HCJB World Radio)