How can we help?

A tragedy on the scale of the earthquake and subsequent tidal waves which have hit a number of Asian nations demands a response from all of us.

I believe that our first priority is to pray. We need to pray for comfort for those who have lost loved ones. We need to pray for those who have lost everything. Many of those who have lost homes would have already been living on next to nothing. Now, not only have they lost their homes, most would have lost their livelihoods. We also need to pray for practical ways to get ourselves involved.

For some, getting involved will mean travelling to effected areas to work in a hands on way. For most of us, we can be of practical help by donating through one of the many aid agencies who are already active in the areas touched by the disaster. I know that World Vision, Australia is already at work. The latest details of their efforts and an opportunity to donate on-line is available here.

I think we need to talk about what’s happened with those we love. We can’t make a lot of sense of such things but we need to be able to talk about that or even blog about it. We need to help our children understand what’s happening. They will hear about the disaster one way or another so we need to be proactive in helping them deal with how they feel about it. We need to make sure that they feel secure and safe but at the same time they need to feel some of the sadness that such a tragic loss of life brings.

We also need to use this event as a reminder of the frailty of life. Life is precious yet it can be taken from us in a moment. We don’t like to think a lot about death but it is inevitable and we need to be prepared for that moment. We need to be prepared now because we don’t know if we’ll live to a ripe old age or if tragedy will strike us earlier.

It’s tough having put put aside the holiday fun for a little while and face stuff like this but it’s something we need to do. It’s part of being human.

A tragedy on the scale of this earthquake and the subsequent tidal waves demands a response from all of us.

Posted by Rodney Olsen

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