News at ABWE
Boat Federations Strengthen Tsunami survivors
South Asia
All of us were shocked as we saw the news on our TVs and computers about the tsunami on December 26, 2004. Each of us, mostly silent but some audible, wondered why such a thing would happen to such a large area of the world. The damage from Phuket to India, the Andaman and Nikabar Islands, and Sri Lanka was overwhelming. But from out of that terrible destruction, some great things are happening.
After the tsunami, our workers in South Asia worked to build boat federations. Each of these federations has nine boats, and each boat has nine families and one widow working in a group. The people and boats are insured with a government insurance agency, which has never been done before.
The people living in these federations are doing everything in order and they are slowly making enough money to live on. Each day the logs are updated recording how much gas was used, who was on the boast that day, how many fish were caught, and how much money was received from the sale of the fish.
The first community that one boat federation was in was totally against Christians, yet the head man's sister has become a believer, and they have opened their arms to anything we can help them with. Amazingly, the people come are coming together to build up a church.
We have a small church beginning in a center that we have built since the tsunami. The center houses courses in computer training, sewing training, engine repair training, and a fish drying project. The head man from this village welcomes our workers to the area each time they visit.
We are thankful for these inroads that we have in people's lives. We still need you to pray that more lives will be changed and that the federations would continue to grow.