When a tsunami and earthquake devastated 11 Asian countries on Dec. 24, 2004, Bruce Venable says he knew Louisiana Baptist college students could not stand on the sidelines.
By Brian Blackwell
LBM Newswriter
When a tsunami and earthquake devastated 11 Asian
countries on Dec. 24, 2004, Bruce Venable says he knew Louisiana
Baptist college students could not stand on the sidelines.
They had to get involved somehow, someway.
After communicating with Southern Baptist
International Mission Board and Southern Baptist Disaster Relief
personnel about a desire to work in the region, Venable learned of the
Louisianans’ destination – Khao Lak, Thailand.
During the Louisiana Baptist Collegiate Ministry
Evangelism Conference in February, Venable then challenged the students
to participate in a two-week missions trip to the Thailand city
devastated by last year’s deadly disaster.
“It was really a no-brainer,” notes Venable,
director of special ministries in the Louisiana Baptist Convention
Collegiate Ministry Division. “I want our students to be involved in
current relevant issues and see how ministry can affect their daily
lives.”
Five Louisiana Baptist college students subsequently
were chosen to minister in Khao Lak. The team of collegians worked
alongside a group of five Arkansas Baptist Collegiate Ministry students
during their stay in the country.
“We wanted to go soon after the disaster, but the
International Mission Board didn’t want college students to go in there
while there were still a lot of dead bodies around,” Venable explains.
“But when we let the mission board and Southern Baptist Disaster Relief
personnel know we were available, we were on the hot list.”
Team leader Clark Palmer says the students’ main
assignment was delivering food to 1,428 families. Other duties included
sharing the gospel in 13 displaced persons camps and distributing 600
pairs of eye glasses to the Thai people.
During the missions effort, the Louisiana Baptists
lived in hotel-style accommodations with six Southern Baptist
missionaries and the Arkansas team.
The students not only met physical needs but spiritual needs as well, leaders report.
“The tsunami has shaken their world, and the victims are looking for answers and hope,” Palmer recalls.
“We learned that God never wastes a hurt, and this
was a huge hurt,” he continues. “God opened so many doors for the
expansion of his kingdom.”
Despite working 10 to 12 hour days in a humid and
emotionally-draining environment, Palmer says the students experienced
a sense of joy through their missions experience.
“The team as a whole responded enthusiastically to
every opportunity to be of service to the missionaries and victims of
the tsunami,” notes Palmer, pastor at Faith Baptist Church in Tioga.
“They gave themselves to people in the camps with unreserved affection.
“They waded right into the dust, mud and sorrow in
an immense depth of human need and did what they could to make a
difference.”
The Arkansas and Louisiana students divided into three ministry teams each day.
During the morning hours, the teams worked to build
relationships with the camp residents, which created inroads to sharing
the gospel.
“The students were called beyond their comfort zones
as they faced conditions of overcrowding, poverty and sorrow in the
camps,” Palmer recalls. “We worked with people who lost so much and
needed so much. …
“Those in the camps were people who escaped the
tsunami with nothing,” Palmer explains. “Savings, businesses, careers,
all belongings (were) gone. Often, even the clothes on their backs were
torn from them. Any cash savings were lost, and there was no insurance.
“So, basically half (of the city’s residents) were dead, and half were homeless.”
As bleak as the situation seemed, Palmer says the
students’ witness in the camps provided an avenue of hope for the Thai
people – the good news of Jesus Christ.
“It was amazing to see how God used a natural
disaster to soften the hearts of the people so they could hear the
gospel,” Louisiana Tech junior Brandon Williams explains. “This was
truly an eye-opening experience because we were there for the harvest.”
Louisiana College sophomore Steven Rhodes agrees, adding the trip was both heartbreaking and incredible.
“It was eye-opening to see what the people are still
going through because in America we don’t see everything that’s going
on,” Rhodes explains.
“It was heartbreaking to see the troubles the people
are going through,” he adds. “We talked to so many people who had lost
everything – their homes, businesses, family, money.
“And it was incredible to see God is doing some
awesome work over there,” Rhodes continues. “He’s opening doors for
Christ. Some of the people over there are beginning to open up to the
Word so much that they are even starting to question their own
religion.”
Palmer estimates the teams presented the gospel to
about 100 persons of Buddhist faith. Other persons received gospel
tracts written in the Thai language.
“We could see so many walls going up and then coming
down, the biggest of which was the language barrier,” Rhodes recalls.
“When we were speaking through the translators, you could see in their
eyes and on their joyful faces that some of them understood that we
were talking about Jesus.”
Williams recalls that he and two other team members
were taking a break in one of the camps when a child approached them.
“After recognizing the Bible stories in the book we
were holding, the kid grabbed our hands and just about drug us to his
home so we could share with his parents the stories in the book,”
Williams explains. “Here was a kid only 7 years old, and he was hungry
for others to hear what he had heard.”
While the students’ mornings were spent witnessing
in the villages, the afternoons were reserved for free time and food
distribution.
Palmer says the teams delivered chicken, papaya, eggs and apples on a house-to-house basis.
“We wanted to add the missing ingredients to
people’s diets,” Palmer says. “House-to-house delivery avoided the
possibility that favoritism might come into play. Other groups had
dumped the food in a pile and let people come to it, opening the door
to unfair distribution.”
Reminiscing on the Louisiana Baptists’ trip, Palmer says a recurring theme resurfaced throughout the trip.
“These people were beginning to know we cared for
them,” Palmer says. “They came to believe that there is a man named
Jesus who loves and cares for them. In the end, they knew that we
wanted to share the hope found only in him.”