How’s that for timing? I’m in Bangladesh in part to visit our partner Rangpur-Dinajpur Rural Services (RDRS) to see some of their projects on disaster risk reduction and climate change programs and the video they made with DanChurchAid on the same topic won an award from COP17 climate conference in Durban this past week.

We had the privilege of viewing Ripple during our LWF communications workshop and I have to agree that it’s a great video. It gave me some well-needed background before I begin my visits today, especially around the difficulties caused by chars. Chars are fertile sand bars left after flooding that run a high risk of re-flooding since they by nature exist in flood planes. Since Bangladesh is an extremely population dense country, when chars form they are almost immediately inhabited by the poorest members of Bengali society. Since they have a high risk of flooding there tends to run a cycle of re-impoverishment for people living on them as they continually are flooded out of their homes.

I would highly recommend taking 11 minutes out of your day to view the video, especially if you’re from Australia (it’ll make sense when you view it).

It is hard for me to write about the six month anniversary of the Japan Earthquake and Tsunami without naming that it actually falls on the same day as the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks. I spent the past week feeling a strange tension as my personal life was flooded with conversations and media portrayals of the past ten years here at home and my professional life called for a reflection on the past six months halfway round the world. Two pieces that stuck out to me during this time were the Church World Service’s Japan Situation Report and Rev. Kevin Massey’s Disaster Response blog “Field Report: New Jersey and New York City“. I figured the best way to be honest to myself and get the message across was to talk about how these two documents have fit together in my head.

The CWS Situation Report gives a good update on the continuing work going on in Japan and the fact that the need will continue to be there into the foreseeable future. The major areas of work are around providing shelter, food, pest control, psycho trauma care and debris/home clean up. To date the ELCA has committed $975,000 to this appeal and continues to be present with and through our companions and partners. This report reminded me of the church’s commitment and calling to be present with people in their moments of need and how the gifts of our members can have such a powerful impact in places few of us have heard of, let alone been to.

In Rev. Massey’s (Director for Lutheran Disaster Response) post, I heard of how disaster affects us, not just in the destruction it brings physically but for the gap it can leave spiritually and emotionally. Even ten years later, the disaster and tragedy of 9/11 still casts a shadow across many hearts. Yet, through our communal rememberance of the tragedy there is the chance for solidarity and unity, for pain to be released.

And through both documents I saw how the church is present in disaster. Whether it happened at home or halfway round the world. Whether it happened yesterday, six months ago or ten years ago. The church is present to help in the naming of Christ present in tragedy through word and deed. So as we look back on the past six months of work in Japan, and the past ten years here in the United States, let us thank God for sustaining strength, continued resolve and the space for healing.

I just read a transcript of a meeting convened by Laurie Garret, Senior Fellow for Global Health, Council on Foreign Relations. It’s a bit long but is chalk-full of candid conversation about the situation in the Horn of Africa, how the global economy relates and the questions it raises for international aid. I’d recommend checking it out and thinking about what it has to say. I’d be curious what people think.

Here’s Laurie commenting on the fact that we had forewarning of this crisis:

This was forecast a year ago. Everything that has happened has in fact played out precisely as forecast. And yet, we were unable to take a forecast and turn it into some advance pre-emptive action. And that speaks very heavily to where we stand right now as a global community in our sense of humanitarian relief. Why is it we have to wait to see dead bodies? Why is it that we cannot take forecast information seriously and act on it?

Please read the transcript and share your comments/questions below.

————-
Gifts to ELCA International Disaster Response allow the church to respond globally in times of need. Donate now.

Rarely do we get to hear the story of refugees in their own words. Usually we hear about the refugee “situation” or a reporter tells us a particular refugee’s story that might involve a quote or two. So when I come across a story like the one from Moulid Hujale, a refugee at the Lutheran World Federation-monitered camp of Dadaab, my ears perk up. His writing gives a very real and candid look at how the situation looks from a refugee’s perspective.

It also gives us pause and reminds us that though our immediate response to refugee needs is important and very pressing, for some the status of refugee will extend far beyond these first life-give cups of water and porridge. Through ELCA Disaster Response and the World Hunger program this church will continue to be there.

But really this story is Moulid’s and it’s his voice that should ring through. So I invite you to meet Moulid and read what he has to say about life as a refugee…

Moulid’s Story

————-
Gifts to ELCA International Disaster Response allow the church to respond globally in times of need. Donate now.

I had this set of questions come up a few times in conversation over the past week. Usually it was from people who are out in congregations sharing the message of our work and relaying back the sense they were feeling. And it got me to thinking. Though they may strike some as inappropriate or attacking questions, I think they are totally legitimate and actually quite exciting. In these three questions we find the dual nature of the task we who work to communicate the work of our church face with every new situation.

This dual nature is to first communicate information of the situation and context in which it takes place (the Where? and What?). Secondly our role is to share our motivation for being involved (the Why?), of sharing how a particular situation relates to, is connected with and fundamentally is the continuing story of God’s work within the world. And beyond this, the person who is willing to ask these questions and entertain our answers is already engaged! I say the Spirit is present in these questions and it is our privilege to live into that presence.

The Where and the What

So now how does this translate from theory to reality? How could we go about answering these questions for this specific disaster? Well, to begin with the Horn of Africa is on the central eastern coast of Africa, and includes the countries of Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Eritrea. For this disaster we also include the country of Kenya. The area is being affected by a major drought which is affecting over 12 million people. Many people, mainly Somalis, are leaving their homes, walking up to 30 straight days and hundreds of miles to find food and water. The ELCA is working through the Lutheran World Federation, which administers the major refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia. We are also working with our companion churches in Kenya and Ethiopia. For more information you can check out the ELCA Disaster page Horn of Africa Drought.

The Why

We care first and foremost because Christ’s call has always been for obedience to God through service to the neighbor, the stranger, the least of these, even the enemy. Basically, when we encounter suffering in the world, no matter how remote the corner we are called to engage. An important piece to remember is that we are not called to run ourselves dry or to become doormats. We are also called by Christ to love the neighbor as ourselves, which can also mean we are to love ourselves as we love our neighbor. And though it is hard to swallow sometimes Christ also tells us that we will have the poor with us always, that suffering will forever be an aspect of this world until Christ comes again.

Another reason we are called to response is that as the Apostle Paul says, when one member of the body of Christ suffers, all suffer. As we learn more about the global nature of this body we can see how our response to global (and local) disasters is a fulfillment of our duty to our brothers and sisters in Christ. Their suffering is our suffering. Our joy in response is their joy. As the body of Christ we live and breathe as one out of many.

So to summarize we are called to act out of the gifts God has given us but to make sure we remember we too are children of God in need of support and the rest of God’s loving embrace. And we are called to remember that we are part of the global body of Christ and as we respond to the needs of our brothers and sisters half-way round the world or just next door, it is always to the same body.

A Note on Response

Yet, even though we are called to respond, the church has learned through trial and error that there are positive and negative ways to do so. We have have learned that response must be done through relationship, that wherever we go Christ is already working there and that the local population is almost always that best resource for determining and implementing our response.

And so is the case in this disaster. We have long-standing relationships as a member of the Lutheran World Federation and with our companions, the Kenyan Evangelical Lutheran Church (KELC) and the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY). Our response has been and will continue to be guided by our relationship with these, our brothers and sisters in Christ. As they continue to be the hands, voice and feet of Christ in their communities, we are blessed to be able to give our gifts and prayers to help them in their good work.

Conclusion

What really is at the base of all this is that we are called to share and engage the story of God’s people and creation. The reason any suffering calls us to engagement is because it happens to actual people and in actual places. Our calling is to introduce these people to those around us, sharing their story and providing the links of their story to our story and showing how both exist within God’s unfolding story of redemption.

————-
Gifts to ELCA International Disaster Response allow the church to respond globally in times of need. Donate now.