wfn.org | Typhoon Mindulle Floods and Damages Central Taiwan Churches

["pctpress" <pctpress@ms1.hinet.net>]

Taiwan Church News 2732, 5-11 July 2004
Reported by Staff. Translated and Rewritten by David Alexander

Rain falls on the just and the unjust, and storm damage affects many churches
in Central Taiwan.  Typhoon Mindulle struck and stayed for several days
beginning on July 1st. Though it had been downgraded to a tropical storm by
the time its eye left the Taiwan area, its trailing edge dumped floodwaters
on
the entire island. Damage was especially serious in areas that had been hit
during a 1999 earthquake.

Reports coming in to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in
Taiwan
told of churches flooded, villages cut off and crop losses.

The Tayal Presbytery reported a landslide that filled the ground floor of the
home of Rev. Syat Yupas, pastor of Tubulan Church. His family has found
temporary partial housing with other clergy until the house is cleared but
they sleep at the local police station.

Tayal Presbytery General Secretary Batu Temu said that many villages have
lost
communication links in the storm. All that can be done is to keep in touch
with rescue centers to help as situations develop. He said that the situation
in Shih-lin Village of Miao-li County was especially precarious. In Taichung
County's Ren-ai Township, the villages where Lepa, Stbon, Knazi and Mei-chun
Churches are located, road transport has been severed. The only voice contact
seems to be by village payphones. In the village around Bubul church ten
homes
were damaged in a rockslide.

Watan.Diro, the General Secretary of the Sediq District, says that by the
afternoon of 4th July the district's churches already had 3 victims. One of
those, the mother of Pastor Walis.Nawi of Toda Presbyterian Church had been
stranded and died because not even a helicopter could get into her village on
the afternoon of July 3rd. Other victims included a member of Sadu Church in
Nantou County who was operating an excavator to reopen clogged water channels
to the village when he was caught in a landslide.

Hsin-chu Presbytery's Tong-shir Church was the home of a community rebuilding
and care centre following the 1999 earthquake. This time around two of its
member families were flooded out and suffered great material loss.

Taichung Presbytery reports damage to the homes of some believers and loss of
crops.

On the afternoon of July 4th the moderator of Chia-yi Presbytery, Wu Chiou-an
and Rev. Huang Jyh-hong from the Church and Society committee contacted all
churches in the presbytery and found that Ma-kuang, Tong-shir, I-wo, Putai
and
Sin-en churches had all been flooded and that a member of I-wo church had
sufferend loss of his crops.

In the Aboriginal Drukai District, Vuday Church suffered loss of water and
electrical service and that a landslide blocking highway 24 in Pingtung
County
left 300 or more families "trapped" in the mountains.

Shanmei Church in the Tsou District was cut off from water and electrical
service so all worshipped and lived by candlelight and drank rainwater.

In Kaohsiung County 25 families who are members of the ethnic Bunun Kalavung
Presbyterian Church lost their entire Mango crop. Reports from the East Coast
have not come in except for Shou-Fung Township of Hualien County where there
was serious crop damage.

To respond to the damage reports the General Assembly of the PCT called its
disaster team together early on July 5. They activated a prayer network and
established a response centre to be directed by Associate General Secretary
Lim Tsung-cheng. Five "frontline direction centres" were established in
affected regions to offer three levels of aid.

Mr. Lim said, "The General Assembly disaster team maintains close contact
with
central area churches to bring help to them and their members." Aid is
designed to meet the needs of those who have lost power and public services
and aims to meet those needs quickly in a high value manner.

He called for resources to meet needs in 81 townships where landslides and
floods had already made it dangerous to remain. He urged everyone in those
areas to evacuate.

A survey trip to damaged areas was scheduled for July 7th. It will focus on
Aboriginal villages that suffered damage in the September 1999 earthquake. In
several of those areas, exploitation of the land for financial gain has set
up
conditions for landslides and floods.  PCT Vice Moderator Chen Hsin-liang
said
"From a faith stance, we must care for this land.We hold entrepreneurs who
have damaged the land responsible for the disasters that have followed."

The PCT's typhoon response will be based on the biblical principles "when one
member suffers, all suffer," and "weep with those who weep." For over one
hundred years the PCT has stood with the people of this land proclaiming the
gospel and calling for peace and justice.

Contributions for relief projects can be sent to the Presbyterian Church in
Taiwan by postal giro to account #00021573 (Account Name: The Presbyterian
Church in Taiwan General Assembly). Mark donations for Typhoon Mindulle
Relief.

For More Information: Walis.Nawi m1213128@ms47.hinet.net
		      Syat Yupas +886 4 25951473
Batu Temu tayal.batu@msa.hinet.net
Tayal Presbytery www.tayal.disciple.com.tw
Sediq District ayuc@ms47.hinet.net
Tong-shir Church (Hsin-chu) g3017@ms67.hinet.net
Chia Yi Presbytery www.kagi.pct.org.tw
		   ngseui@ms1.hinet.net
I- wo Church iwo0807@ms19.hinet.net
					  Ma-kuang Church
hongeng@ms90.url.com.tw
					  Shanmei Church basuya@seed.net.tw
Lim Tsung-cheng leonard@mail.pct.org.tw
The Presbyterian Church in Taiwan www.pct.org.tw
Taiwan Church News is published weekly in Taiwan's local languages.
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