International Aid’s President in Indonesia to oversee tsunami relief effort.

Indonesia (MNN)–Tsunami emergency response continues in Indonesia. International Aid President Myles Fish, speaking from Jakarta, says many see the scope of the desolation in two-dimensions. Being in the middle of it powers home staggering needs. “When you see a photograph or a video of it, you’re only looking in one direction, but when you stand in the middle of what used to be a city and look in all directions, 360 degrees around, and see nothing but just devastation, it’s totally overwhelming. That entire place has just been leveled by a force that’s absolutely incomprehensible.”

There is a river that flows through the center of Banda Aceh. Unfortunately, the river was perfectly aligned with the wave which forced its way up the center of the city and destroyed everything on either side for six miles.

Fish says they met two young girls, perhaps six and eight, who were sitting on the bank staring blankly into the river. Through their interpreter, they asked them what they were doing. “Waiting for our parents” they said.

It’s heartbreaking–sobering and ultimately putting a face on the sorrow and devastation. But there is hope: Clean water supplies are slowly becoming available, refugee camps are becoming better organized, and medicines are being delivered to prevent a massive outbreak of diseases.

Fish says I-A hopes to ship five to ten million dollars worth of relief aid. But there’s more to it than that. “I can’t count the number of people from different countries that are sharing the same hope that they’ll be able to first demonstrate their love for Christ in the hope that one day we might also be able to articulate that hope. Remember, that this part of Indonesia was really a closed society until very recently. It has just been because of the tsunami that outsiders have been allowed in.”

An opportunity to build on hope that sustains believers–a way to reach people who are losing theirs. A daily battle against despair…beginning the healing of emotional and spiritual scars that can only be touched by the love of God. Says Fish, “Your support and prayers are coveted as never before.”