"I received a call this morning from Carl Groot, Covenant missionary in Bangkok, who updated me on the participation of Covenant missionaries in the tsunami relief efforts," reports Curt Peterson, executive minister of Covenant World Mission. Relief efforts include:

• Dr. Tim Friesen, missionary in Chiang Mai who is developing a counseling center for mission personnel in Central Asia, was in Pha Ngu in southern Thailand providing crisis and trauma counseling for those impacted by the tsunami disaster in that hard-hit area. "He has just returned from a few days of helping foreigners who are searching for missing loved ones," reports David Husby. "He spent a great deal of time in the make-shift morgues - Tim is a psychologist by training and has been trying to help people going through a very difficult time." He was accompanied by his daughter, Abby, a pre-med student at Houghton College.
• Ginny Bellamy, a missionary serving with the Covenant mission team in Thailand (on loan from Food for the Hungry, has gone to the Phuket province for a month to serve as coordinator of volunteers for Food for the Hungry, who are actively responding to people in need in that area.
• Randy Bevis, Covenant missionary in Chiang Mai, is in Medan, Indonesia, where he will work with two individuals from Partners International to set up a water purification system to serve remote areas of Indonesia devastated by the tsunami. Plans call for him to remain there for one week.

Husby also reported that Jim Gustafson, working through Global Development Network, has begun working with the government to provide relief to the victims in southern Thailand. "In addition, the Thailand Covenant Church, headed by Inchai Srisuwan, is also getting involved with the relief efforts. The suffering and the needs are overwhelming. However, we have been encouraged by the response of so many governments, organizations and individuals who are stepping forward to help."

Covenant World Relief is partnering with a number of other religious groups and relief organizations, including India Rural Evangelical Fellowship (IREF), which is working with victims in the Nizampatnam area of India. The Covenant wired $5,000 to IREF late this afternoon.

"To the badly affected tsunami victims, we have provided food grains, blankets and clothes in the first phase," reports IREF director Emmanuel Rebba. "Those who had suffered the most are the fishermen and the other poorer people living by the sea coast. When I reached there, the fishermen who lost everything, - their fishing nets and fishing boats - surrounded me and pleaded to provide them . . . with badly needed fishing nets, which got washed away. Unless we give them succor, their condition would go from bad to worse. The rice provided by government would only last for 15 days. Thereafter, they do not have anything to eat, unless fishing nets are provided to them. At least 1,000 fishermen in this area are affected by the tsunami. Each fishing net will cost around $500."

World Relief International – a major partner with the Covenant in the relief effort – provides the following update report in an emailed report to its board members:

• India: Mark Smith has been in India since December 27 working with six relief partners.
• Sri Lanka: We are working with the Evangelical Alliance, LEEDS, the Dutch Reformed churches and the Norwegian Stromme Foundation. The Evangelical Alliance has mobilized 400 volunteers working around the clock to pack "Emergency Family Survival Packs" consisting of rice, sugar, tea, oil, blankets, soap and plastic sheeting. "Since goods are cheaper in India, we are sending cash to India where items will be purchased and transported free of charge by Convoy of Hope (AG) to Sri Lanka," notes Tim Ziemer, World Relief executive director. "The turnaround time is short . . . goods purchased today will be in Sri Lanka by week's end."
• Indonesia: Dr. Galen Carey is in country and working with other agencies to meet the near-term needs and begin looking at a longer term rehab plan. Gary Fairchild, a missionary who has contacts with the church and is fluent in the language, will join him today. Brandon Pustejovsk will join the team later this week.

"Please pray for our local partners on the ground, our disaster staff and especially for all those who have lost loved ones, their homes and much of their hope for the future," Ziemer asks. "Pray that the church will be an effective instrument in bringing His compassion to the victims of this disaster and that the Lord's Grace will be sufficient to hold on until they can rebuild their lives."

One local Covenant congregation dedicated one of its offerings to the disaster relief. Cuyler Covenant Church in Chicago usually receives a "communion" offering to aid benevolent projects. "During the week I talked to my chairwoman about devoting the benevolence offering to Covenant World Relief's tsunami fund," notes the pastor, Jonathan Wilson. "There was no other official preparation for the congregation - no telephoning blitz. I didn't even get a chance to tell the other leaders.

"During the service, I read parts from the Dwight testimony," he continued. (To read that first-person account, please see First-Person Account.) Anyway, with forty adults in church, normally our benevolence offering runs about $80. We raised $508.13 for Covenant World Relief, in addition to having an above-average offering for our general fund! I have been basking in a warm glow all day long!"