Ministry Joins Tsunami Response, Bringing Physical, Spiritual Aid

by Chad Groening
January 10, 2005

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(AgapePress) - A Virginia-based missions ministry has dispatched teams to several of the Asian countries devastated by the December 26th tsunami and is helping to fulfill disaster victims' needs even as it works to fulfill the Great Commission.

Advancing Native Missions (ANM), based in Charlottesville, was already doing work in many of the countries hardest hit by the tsunami. Therefore, according to ministry representative Oliver Asher, it was easy to dispatch teams to the affected areas. "Right now, we have teams that are in India, helping out there, teams in Sri Lanka and teams in Indonesia," Asher says. "So we do have folks on the ground." ANM also has teams in the somewhat less devastated areas, he adds, such as in Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Thailand.

ANM's Christian workers are among those on the front lines of the disaster response, Asher says, and they have been instrumental in helping to get material aid to people in desperate need of it. However, he points out that his people are doing far more than that.

"When they're passing out a bottle of water, a blanket, a lantern, a candle, they're passing out gospel tracts with them," the ministry spokesman says. "So they are definitely taking this opportunity to be a witness of the love of Jesus Christ to the Hindus, to the Muslims, to whoever was affected, certainly fulfilling the commandment to take the gospel to everybody."

Although it is too early to tell just how many people may be led to Jesus through the work of missionaries in devastated South Asia, Asher expects Christians involved in the relief effort will encounter vast numbers of people that are seeking God in the midst of tragedy. He says ANM is striving to meet both the physical and spiritual desperation in the tsunami's wake with a comprehensively Christ-centered response -- not only offering material relief and comfort, but sharing Christ's love with those in need as well.

But even as Church missions and ministry workers seek to stem the tide of suffering, there is a disturbing element coming out of Southeast Asia -- word that sex traffickers may be exploiting the tragedy by abducting children orphaned by the enormous wave. Now news of this evil enterprise has captured the attention of at least one concerned lawmaker in the United States.

To address the problem, Cornyn has helped to launch a new task force that will spearhead an effort to make more people aware of the sex-trafficking problem -- and make it more difficult for the industry to remain concealed from the public eye. "What it takes," the Texas legislator says, "is more and more people becoming aware of this problem, and ultimately, to make it impossible for these traffickers to run and hide."

Cornyn believes the international sex trade can be brought to an end, once and for all. Towards that end, his task force is initiating a full-scale investigation of the industry, beginning with traffickers within the United States.