wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Tragedies giving birth to miracles

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ECUNET.ORG>]

Note #8597 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

05006
January 4, 2005

Tragedies giving birth to miracles

A missionary letter from the Risakotta-Adeneys in Indonesia

by Bernard and Farsijana Risakotta-Adeney
Duta Wacana University, Indonesia

YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia - Today is New Year's Eve and also our wedding
anniversary. Normally it is a day of celebration. But we don't feel much like
celebrating. There is a knot in the stomach and tears just behind our eyes as
we are engulfed with the news of the earthquake and tidal wave.

Thank you to the many who sent emails asking about our safety. We are about
1,500 miles south of the devastation in north Sumatra. The only indication we
felt, as we camped on the South coast of Java at the time of the earthquake,
was gale force winds, whipping the rain from all directions.

	In Yogyakarta there is no physical disaster, but the emotional impact
is incalculable. On every street corner there are students collecting money
for Aceh. Almost everyone in this university town has friends from Aceh (the
northernmost province in Sumatra). Very few know if their families are alive
or dead.

	"But there will be no resurrection on this earth for the 100,000 dead
in Aceh. Instead the numbers will swell like the bodies that are putrefying
in the rain."

	The media is full of news and pictures of bodies. Today, the death
count is closing on the nice round number of 100,000 dead in Indonesia alone.
Some reports say the quake measured 9.0 on the Richter scale, but I doubt it.
The largest quake in recorded history is only 8.6.

	Have we been graced with a new record in the Guinness book? Graced?
How do we make sense of it? We struggle to understand. Why? How shall we
respond?

	Many New Year's Eve parties have been cancelled or changed into
charity drives. Mountains of food, clothing, money, and supplies pile up in
Yogyakarta as the people pour out their grief in donations.

	Indonesia has no experience of a natural disaster on this scale and
the logistics for delivering the relief are a nightmare. No roads, airports,
or communication systems are working in Aceh. What can we do? What does it
mean?

	We were in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, when America went
into shock and mourning. Everything shut down for two weeks and the total
energies of a great nation were focused on dealing with meaning of this
attack. The world was changed, not by the 3,000 dead, but by the meanings
that we construed from it. America had an enemy: terrorists, Osama Bin Laden,
Taliban, Afghanistan, Iraq. We were not safe anymore. We are not safe. So we
launched a war on terror, our own terror and those we deemed our enemies.

	Are we getting safer yet? Who is the enemy who caused this humongous
earthquake and tsunami? Who do we fight? How do we make the world safe again?
How can we construe the meaning of this event?

	On television a woman in Aceh sobs before the camera. She cannot
fathom the loss of her whole family and focuses on her need for clothing. She
hasn't bathed for days. She appeals to her relatives in Jakarta to send
anything, since she has nothing.

	Then abruptly, through her tears, she screams out: "Allahhu Akbar!
Allahhu Akbar!" God is Great! God is Great!

	In these days, as I process my own puny grief, I try out various
stratagems. For example, death is not so bad. We all have to die. Does it
really matter if we die now or in a few more, short years? The 100,000 all
would have died sooner or later.

	Even Jesus only lived until he was 33 and was killed in a cruel and
senseless manner. Would the meaning of his life be greater if he had lived to
be 90? The Christian faith has affirmed his death as a sacrifice for all
humankind, allowed by God, and crowned with resurrection. The grief of his
friends was turned to joy by the conviction that he was alive again and still
with them.

	Muslims and Christians live with the hope of the resurrection. But
there will be no resurrection on this earth for the 100,000 dead in Aceh.

	Instead the numbers will swell like the bodies that are putrefying in
the rain. The grief of those left alive will not turn to joy as they struggle
to find food, water, clothing, and shelter in the rainy season. The children
will remain orphans, and the parents will not receive their children back.

	Tragedies sometimes give birth to miracles, like the story of the
brave, 5-year-old boy, swept out to sea clinging to a door, who crawled on a
floating mattress and survived for two days on the open sea before being
reunited with his parents. Amazingly, they too were still alive.

	Unfortunately, for every miracle of survival there are a thousand
tales of death. Not many can ride out a tidal wave.

	I play with the idea of going to Aceh: I can drive a truck, bury dead
bodies. I am strong in mind and body. I can give comfort. I can lead. But
there are no flights. The roads are broken. There is no gasoline. There is no
food or lodging. Would I ease the burden or add to it? Am I tempted by
heroics to ease the pain?

	We may be tempted to ask: Is this God's judgment on Indonesia? Or on
Aceh?

	Aceh is called "the Porch of Mecca," the most religiously devout area
in Indonesia. It is the only province to enforce Islamic Syari'ah law. Aceh
is ruled by the Indonesian military accused of horrendous human rights
abuses, sometimes matched by their separatist guerrilla opponents. Its
governor was recently arrested for corruption.

	Do we dare ask if God would punish a province bathed for years in
blood and corruption? But this is a question that does not bear asking.

	The tens of thousands of children, women and men who died, the
millions who lost their homes, were not more evil than you or I. They have
already suffered through years of warfare and oppression. What kind of a God
would punish with such indiscriminate slaughter?

	"Allahhu Akbar," a man who had lost his whole family sobbed. "My life
is over. I can only be pasrah (submitted to the will of God)."

	Those without faith may see this tragedy as further evidence of the
incomprehensible meaninglessness of human existence. But those with faith can
only submit to the will of God.

	The earthquake and tidal waves are acts of God that demonstrate the
immeasurable power of God and nature. Terrorists seem puny in comparison.
"Why?" is beyond the powers of human comprehension.

	Nevertheless, we can and will construct a meaning for this tragedy.
We cannot live without meaning. The meaning of this tragedy is not fixed or
eternal. We will create it by how we respond.

	As the grief and donations flow in, we feel the unity of Indonesia,
indeed the unity of the world. Eleven countries were hit, and the entire
world is responding. Poor farmers in Java are sending their best change of
clothes to Aceh. The Indonesian soldiers who survived the tidal wave have put
down their weapons and taken up shovels. The military is the strongest
institution in Aceh and at least for now, it is focused on relief of
suffering. Foreign agencies, long denied access to Aceh are pouring in.

	How long will this compassion and unity last? Soon the ideological
battles will begin as different interest groups compete to exploit the
tragedy for their own agenda.

	For now, we are content to feel the grief this tragedy demands. We
are pasrah. Later there will be time for celebration. Tonight, Farsijana, my
loving wife, cooked a delicious meal and we cancelled our plans to celebrate
our anniversary and the New Year at a fancy restaurant.

	Instead we put on a recording of Mozart's achingly beautiful Requiem
and felt the grief of death. Farsijana said we should not fight nature. This
is the time for grief.

	We remember the 5-year-old boy who survived the tidal wave by
floating on a mattress. He said, "I was not afraid. I am used to the sea. I
was only cold." He became one with the wild ocean and his courage saved his
life.

	Perhaps, only perhaps, the courage and compassion of Indonesia and
the world may transform this tragedy into a new opportunity for peace,
justice and life. Insya Allah (God willing)! "Thy loving kindness is better
than life."

	Editor's note: Information about and correspondence from PC(USA)
missionaries throughout the world is available on the web site
www.pcusa.org/missionconnections. - Jerry L. Van Marter

To subscribe or unsubscribe, please send an email to
pcusanews-subscribe-request@halak.pcusa.org or
pcusanews-unsubscribe-request@halak.pcusa.org

To contact the owner of the list, please send an email to
pcusanews-request@halak.pcusa.org