Asian Earthquake Tsunami disaster
Indonesia, Sumatra, Aceh, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand 
Earthquake
Tsunami disaster events
Where is God when evil strikes?
Where is God when we are well
?
God is in our neighbor
How we can help
Just after Christmas 2004, the 26th December, the world was shaken by the news
of one of the greatest disasters in human history. An undersea earthquake of 9.0
magnitude, with its epicenter off the island of Sumatra struck
with destructive force. The effect of the movement of the earth's crust caused a
series of tsunami waves of up to 15 meters high which reached speeds of up to 600
kilometers per hour and devastated the coasts of more than eight different
countries and islands in its path. The number of victims on January 3rd was
estimated at 150.000 dead and many thousands injured, the figure continues to
rise as more details are revealed. The number will never be known precisely
because of the difficulty in counting the bodies.
Indonesia Sumatra Aceh Sri Lanka Thailand
The most devastated area was the the
province of Aceh in Sumatra Indonesia, where human losses surpassed 80.000,
other countries affected were India, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
The disaster has left millions of people
homeless. Many have lost loved ones in their families, all personal possessions,
work, and any means of survival. The infrastructure of most of those areas has
been affected in such way that it requires enormous outside help in order to
rebuild over the ruins.
A week after the Asian disaster, many
survivors started suffering infectious diseases because of untreated lesions and
contaminated water. Very few are lucky to receive treatment, and unless
immediate help is received, many more will be added to the number of
casualties.
Those people are in desperate need of
help from you, me and the rest of the world. Unless we do something, their
sufferings will increase and we will have a charge on our conscience.
The whole world has reacted generously
sending aid in different forms, to cope with the emergency. Appeals have been
set up to send medicines, food, water and clothes. Volunteers and other specialized
people are also assisting with the relief operations.
Immediate help is required as well as
coordinated long term assistance. Many humanitarian world organizations are
working as never before to combine efforts, to avoid a further human
disaster.
Remember the story of Job
Job was a just man who loved God and his family. One day
God permitted Job to be put to the test by allowing the devil to come into his
life. Therefore his property was destroyed and his children were killed, he
became a leper and lost his friends.
Any ordinary person would have been angry with God, but Job said: God has given,
God has taken away, blessed be the Lord. At the end of the story God restored
Job and gave him peace.
God is always with us, even when disaster strikes. He
allows evil to happen in order to put us to the test. Accepting the will of God
draws the heavenly graces we need to overcome our misery, rejecting the will of
God will embitter our hearts and may lead us to sin.
After all, in the eyes of God, we are here for just a
little time, then we can be with Him for eternity. But it depends on us
accepting his offer. The Kingdom of Heaven is very near, we must repent and live
according to God's Will to enjoy a good relationship with Him now and Eternal
Life after we depart from here. If we are in God's hands, there is nothing to
fear, we will enjoy his protection, and whatever happens to us will be accepted
because we trust in Him.
Story of the Siloam Tower - Luke 13:4-5
13:4 Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of
Siloam fell on them - do you think that they were worse offenders than all the
others living in Jerusalem?
13:5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you
will all perish just as they did." (NRSV)
Jesus explains that disaster may come to anyone regardless
of their state before God, He warns that we must be ready by repentance,
otherwise we may in fact perish, and worse still perish spiritually.
God owns everything, He has complete control over nature,
he allows disaster to strike when it does. Many of the events of recent times are
clearly predicted in the Holy Scriptures, in fact we may be living in the last
times and the end may be very near. Only God knows. In the meantime we must
continue living our daily lives with these reminders of His power and humbly try
to live lives that are pleasing to Him and a guarantee to our future spiritual
life with Him.
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It is very easy to get carried away enjoying our lives
when everything is going well. We seem to take for granted our health, our jobs
and everything we own. We fail to understand that God owns everything. That what
we are, and everything we have is a gift. So we treasure our lives and our
property so much that we forget that it may be taken away anytime.
God should be the center of our lives and we should never
stop praising Him for all the gifts that we are enjoying each moment of
everyday. This way we will learn to appreciate God's will in our lives and when
something wrong happens we will be ready to accept.
At this moment we are well, therefore we must love God and
love our neighbor while we can, the time may come when we will be in trouble and
we will regret not having had a good relationship with God and our
neighbor..
No one can love God unless he loves his neighbor. God gives us daily opportunities in all the people around us to express his love. I can not find God unless I treat others as I would like them to treat me, unless I feel pain in the pain of others and move myself to do something about it.
God is truly to be found in the need of others. If I help another human being, I have a beautiful encounter with God, because God dwells in that human being and needs my love if I am to respect the commandment of Jesus "love your neighbor" (Matthew 19:19). Therefore, I must forgive everyone if I expect to be forgiven, I must love my enemies as Christ says if I am to find God also in them. If I hate my enemy, I am rejecting God, simple as that.
It is not easy indeed, but that's how we will be judged on the last day:
I was hungry and you didn't feed me, naked and you didn't clothe me, sick and you didn't visit me, in prison and you didn't care. And the Lord will say be accursed you evil doers because whatever you did to the least of these your brothers, you did it to me (Matthew 10:42).
God will repay our love for others. Saint John teaches that we can not love God whom we don't see unless we love our brothers and sisters.
If we run away from the needs of others, we run away from God and no matter how we pray we simply won't find him again. He will provide daily opportunities for us to come to him as we accept and love everybody around us.
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God provides daily opportunities for our sanctification.
There will always be someone in need who will benefit from our charity, someone
who suffers who will be consoled by our compassion.
The first thing we must remember is to pray for the souls
of those who died tragically, many who were not in a state of grace and are now
at the Mercy of God's judgment. We must implore God's Mercy for them, since they
can not pray anymore for themselves. As for those who remain after any type of
disaster, they need our physical and spiritual help. We must contribute with a
donation if we can, we must also pray that God will manifest his mercy and
compassion on them, that He will touch the hearts of many persons who will
become his instruments of love.
Whenever we eat we must give thanks to God and pray for
those who are starving, as we enjoy the daily comforts of our homes, the peace
we enjoy, the gift of our families, our health, our intelligence and our jobs we
must thank and praise God for those benefits and pray for those who are
disadvantaged.
When the opportunity comes we must dig deep into our
pockets and share our good fortune with others in need.
It is time to give. Please! Don't turn away from the
misfortune of others, one day we may have to pay for our lack of compassion. On
the other hand what we do for others will be repaid by God a hundredfold.
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Work of God
www.theworkofgod.org
Asian
earthquake Tsunami disaster Indonesia, Sumatra,
Aceh, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand
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