Greetings and Happy Friday!

January 14, 2005

• KCET TV Life and Times (channel 28) will re-broadcast the show they did on us tonight at 6:30.  This is a Los Angeles station, but many other stations around the USA run the Life and Times series.
• A container arrived in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and two in India.
• Last week we announced our goal to ship 5 containers of wheelchairs as soon as possible to the victims of the December 26 disaster.  Many organizations are requesting our wheelchairs for Sri Lanka and India.  Please help us!

This story is from our partner C. V. Vadavana of Sathyam Ministries in South India:

"In Tamilnadu, 5 villages have completely disappeared.  The people are still frightened. They say that they depend on the seas for their livelihood, but now the sea became their destroyer. They have lost their houses, livelihood, families and friends, documents etc., everything.  All were weeping.  Many were struggling for their lives as the house walls fell down upon them.  Others saw the waves and started to run, but they could not escape.  Due to all these problems, many became handicapped.  One young man was saying “We thought that God blessed our village, but now we don't know where God is.”  Even now they are finding the dead bodies from the seashore, and inside the broken houses. 

The sea has become calm, but suffering continues; the water from the sea has dried, but unhealed bodies and souls remain.

I'm sorry I have no photo of Mohan.  Mohan is 22 years old.  He became handicapped due to the tsunami disaster. He lost his father and mother, his wife, his children, aunts, uncles, cousins - his whole family is gone.  He is the only one left.  When we met him it was really sad.  He cannot walk.  Giving him a wheelchair was a wonderful thing.  At least now he has some mobility.   Please pray for Mohan."