Virginia Baptists are helping Baptists in India to restore hope to thousands of victims of the tsunami that wreaked havoc around the Indian Ocean at the end of last year. One effort involves support for a continuing Christian witness there.
By Dean Miller
I met Madhu on Tuesday morning. We had left early in the morning and stopped for breakfast around 7:30 after driving for about an hour and a half.
Madhu met us at the restaurant and quick introductions were made. It was fairly clear who we were. The four of us formed the Virginia Baptist disaster relief assessment team visiting India to make connections and begin creating a strategy that would assist the India Baptist Convention in its response to the tsunami that struck in December.
It was not immediately clear, at least to us, who Madhu was or how he fit into this assessment journey to an affected area in the state of Kerala.
When we arrived in the area and began talking with individuals about their experiences and how we might meet some needs, Madhu was quick to open dialogues. He asked questions, listened intently and began giving some direction and guidance to the rest of our team. He found some of the leaders in the community and directed us to other leaders and to a school that was being used as a temporary shelter. It was apparent that Madhu had some passion about this work and these people.
We soon learned that Madhu was a graduate of the India Theological Baptist Seminary and had been tapped by the leaders of the India Baptist Convention as a person with a passion for this area and for the gospel. Madhu was looking for an avenue to utilize his calling. He knew this district very well and had already made some connections with the local leaders. He had already gained respect, but now his task was made even larger by the great needs that were left by the waves that crashed onshore just weeks before.
This particular area has a very large Hindu population with no immediate or permanent Christian presence. Nearly the entire coastline of this state has been affected. Lives as well as livelihoods were lost in this tragedy. It is bad enough to face life after losing a beloved family member, but some families lost even more. As we toured the area we saw group after group of men, women and children just sitting. There was literally nothing for them to do.
No work to be done because their fishing boat had been washed out to sea or destroyed by the crashing wave, which meant no income for the family. No repairs to be made on homes because their homes are completely gone or there are no supplies with which to fix homes. Because of the loss of livelihood, there is no money with which to purchase supplies or food.
Schools are being used as temporary shelters, so children spend their days running and playing in the streets. Women were wondering how to survive each day because their husbands were killed or children swept out to sea.
The sense of a total hopelessness filled the air. For the Hindu, this was just bad karma. Someone had done something wrong somewhere in the past and judgment had come. Maybe the next life will be better.
By working with the India Baptist Convention, Virginia Baptists are striving to make a difference among many tsunami-affected towns and to offer support to brothers and sisters-like Madhu-who will carry on the work long after they are gone. Madhu has a heart to change the thinking of this community.
Virginia Baptists' hope is to supply the children in this entire district with necessary school supplies for the next school year, beginning June 1. Madhu is willing to assist and become a constant Christian presence. He will not only distribute school supplies, but he will host after-school events and begin to build relationships with town officials and family members. Bible studies in his home will follow and as people come to know Christ through his witness, a church will be formed.
School supplies, repaired homes, new fishing boats and nets-all of this will bring back a sense of hope. But that hope will be a false one based on the material things of this world. These material possessions (while vital and necessary) must be accompanied by the giving of a real hope and future. Our Indian Baptist friends desire to do just that. They desire, as do Virginia Baptists, to reach out and offer the necessary assistance to bring stability back to this land. But they also desire to introduce a true hope that can only be found through Christ.
One of the ministries to which you can channel your giving is the support of an indigenous Baptist minister who will live and work in the affected areas. Madhu is just one example of the strategy of the India Baptist Convention. Virginia Baptists have an opportunity to make a difference that will last well beyond the uniforms and pencils. Bringing hope through Jesus Christ is a strategy and purpose that Virginia Baptists cannot afford to miss.
Special to the Herald
Dean Miller is deployment agent for the Virginia Baptist Mission Board's emerging leaders team.