When a natural disaster hits a community, changing lives forever in seconds of abject terror, the volume of information coming from the disaster zone can be overwhelming for those of us who follow the news.
The moving from rescue operations into the long recovery and restoration earthquake victims face; often loses our attention. We can have short attention spans – a human response – and one we can chose to change, for we are our brothers keeper and we can stand with victims in the short term and the long term. It helps to get to know individuals, to hear and see their experience, to pray for them and offer support in your unique and God-gifted way. As short term physical needs are met by teams on the ground, psychological and spiritual rescue is needed. Earthquake victims experience depression, sadness, fear, insecurity and other negative emotions, mood swings, confusion, withdrawal, anger, confusion and helplessness. Medical experts tell us that survivors immune systems are affected. The psychological upheaval can be more frightening than the quake and the aftershocks and 15% of survivors develop PTSD.
I’d like to post this message for readers of BDBO from my friend in Auckland, Rachel of cre8d-design, of a few victims we can reach out too with open listening and comfort.
Dear friends -
I’m sure that you will have heard of the terrible earthquake in New Zealand.
Can you please pray for our little country?
It is said it will be our nation’s worst disaster when the final toll
is released and it’s so hard on everyone.This is the church building my friend was in at the time of the quake (he is a pastor there):
He’s alive but has lost everything – his house too.
One of my closest friends down there is comforting her friend whose husband is still under the rubble. She has two little children.
Please pray for miracle survivors.
With love,
Rachel
Rachel and Regan have a Facebook page with updates, what is needed in the quake zone and ways others can help.
If you’d like to write a comment below for this pastor or Rachel’s friend who is comforting her friend, I’ll forward it from the BDBO community.
Dear pastor:
My friend and yours Rachel Cunliffe passed on the picture of your church – destroyed in the earthquake a few days ago. She has let me and my readers know you have also lost your home. Rachel and Regan are the technical team for my blog, Benediction Blogs On. I’m in Canada, and as a reporter I’ve covered many disasters. Often, although it was my job, it was hard to find words. My heart aches for the loss of your church and your home, and as you care for others, I am reminded of a question.
Who cares for the caretakers?
I don’t know your name, but God does, and He has laid you on my heart. I cannot pretend to know what you are experiencing. I commit to praying for you, and to offering you a safe friendship.
God of all compassion,
Our hearts and bodies shake
With the earth
And all who dwell upon it.
We cry to you for help
For lives, roads, homes, and livelihoods lost.
We lift up caretakers who, in seeking to meet the myriad of needs of those they serve, find little time for their own needs. God, meet them in the moments and meet every need, still the twinges of anxiety, ease the bone weariness. Be their hope, their home, their safety, stronghold and healer. Bend near as grief washes over your people.
Have mercy on them, on us
And all who wait for better words
And help.
We pray in the name of Jesus, who can still the rolling earth, winds and rain. Amen.
And pastor, I also pray Psalm 46 for you, may you know that you know that He is near.
1. God is our refuge and strength,*
a very present help in trouble.
2. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth be moved,
and though the mountains be toppled into the depths of the sea;
3. Though its waters rage and foam,
and though the mountains tremble at its tumult.
4. The LORD of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our stronghold.
Bene Diction, with all due respect, and this is your blog and therefore direct it as you will, I need to say something.
It is a wonderful thing to care for each other in times of crisis. Since altruism is proven to be innately human, buried deep within our evolutionary history, it is only natural that we humans feel the need to reach out to those who are experiencing pain in the midst of crisis and do what we can to relieve their suffering in some way. For myself, altruism will likely come in the form of a monetary donation as I am able, to the Red Cross to help the victims get back on their feet. For those, such as yourself who believe in a creator/god, “prayers to god” are usually the first response. Often it is the only response.
Your words sound comforting and hopeful and no doubt bring some kind of consolation to the hurting. But I have to say, it just doesn’t make sense to offer prayers to god on behalf of people he either a.) failed to protect because he had no power to do so, b.) failed to protect because he willed the quake to happen or c.) failed to protect because he just didn’t care enough to notice. You say he is Almighty God. But what kind of an almighty god? Benevolent and good? Evil and maleficent? Or almighty in weakness and apathy?
From the The Millenium Project (because it totally encapsulates what I am trying to say),
“A natural disaster which causes this much suffering can only happen because God wanted to do it, because God could not stop it, or because God didn’t care if it happened or not. If God wanted to do it and there appears to be no rational reason to punish good people with sinners, then God can hardly be described as benevolent, and a God who lacks benevolence lacks a possible virtue. As something more perfect than this God can be imagined, this God is not God. Similarly, if God could not stop the earthquake then God is not omnipotent, and again lacks a virtue which an existing God must have. If God doesn’t care about us, then why should we care about Him, and if we don’t need to care about Him then why does He need to exist in the first place?”
As something more perfect than this God can be imagined, this God is not God.
I mean, your prayer to the pastor just sounds so bizarre when you think of it. Honestly, praying to compassionate god (who has laid this pastor on your heart) for help after the fact, when compassionate god could have easily prevented this whole thing from happening in the first place? Asking mercy of this god “who can still the rolling earth, winds and rain”, but who instead sat by and just let this tragedy unfold? Mercy now? Why? Obviously our human definition of mercy and god’s definition of mercy are not on the same page. Telling the victims that god is near and a refuge and strength in times of trouble, only puts the logical brain into a spin cycle of questions and dissonance. Or at least it should.
Prayer, as cliche as it is, however does seem to lift spirits even if momentarily. But I think the comfort and strength that prayer yields, has more to do with just knowing that someone out there cares and is thinking about you and what you’re going through, rather than the expectation that god will now be moved to intervene in tragic circumstances. Honestly, do people actually believe that god is now going to do some kind of good after either instigating or allowing such unimaginable evil? That now that he has some of our attention, as bodies lie bare and broken, lives ripped apart, now he is going to be the comforter that he promised to be? That’s like a mother beating her child into submission so that the child will cling to her and her alone – inflicting pain to procure devotion. Of course it all depends on where your mindset is at.
Forgive me for pressing, and I am certainly not a scholarly expert on anything, but why is it okay to subject everything in this world to the flame of public criticism to be scrutinized for its plausibility or credibility, through scientific investigation or other means – everything except religion, deities and the deep-set beliefs that stem therefrom. I’m just not sure that one can be a true critical thinker and be taken seriously at the same time, without giving one’s religious belief system a thorough going over – emotions, feelings and traditions aside. But I digress. If nothing else, it should spark some good discussion. I think there’ s a benefit to bringing up these kinds of challenges.
Accepted with all due respect.
However long it takes is how ever long it takes
These kind of things do happen from time to time
It is a matter of the importance of an aptitude for resilience and outlook
It is best to make the best use of what is available
People can make amazing recoveries from these kind of things
This can be in one’s roots
And if not, one can look into the dynamics of others
This is about the power of mentorship
Look at the situation for what it is through and through
Accept the situation of what it is through and through
The work of the recovery process requires a patient and methodical attitude
This is an ongoing labour of love
I’ve learned this from my past
Our family lost everything in 1945 on Hainain Island is Southern China below Macau, Hong Kong and across from Vietnam when the Japanese interned them.
The father died in the Japanese Internment Camp
Half the family lived with relatives in Kitsilano, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and the other half in New Westminister, British Columbia, Canada
They stayed inside the house for a full year
They had what would now be called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD
If they heard a plane would hide under the table
They would hide fruit under their clothes
They talked very little about what had happened
They would make the occasional joke about it
After a year they were fine
Why is this?
Probably due to their outlook and aptitude for resilience