Click to vie full size

THE WORLD

APRIL 2005
Tsunami relief shows transformation of 'mission churches' to 'sending churches

BY ERIKTRYGGESTAD
THE CHRISTIAN CHRONICLE

Dr. Sam Cariaga was a little nervous wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the words "because Jesus cares" while serving tsunami victims in Sri Lanka. The Filipino surgeon and his mission team were warned not to evangelize while they worked among the survivors in the town of Ambalangoda. But as the doctors, nurses, dentists and mental health workers treated their patients "we (saw) the smiles on their faces - a flicker of hope - as we extended our hands of compassion (to show) them that there is one up there who cares for them.
" Cariaga is part of a ministry called Medical Action for Relief, Counseling and Healing (MARCH) for Christ Based in the Philippines, the ministry has sponsored 27 medical campaigns in its home country and abroad. Bread for a Hungry World, a relief ministry of the Richland Hills church, Fort Worth, Texas, began financially supporting MARCH in 1995. In 2003, a church in Singapore began to assist with funding, said Richland Hills member Larry Buck, who takes groups from the United States on medical missions to work alongside Filipino Christians. "I have watched people in the Philippines and those I have taken with me to the missions," Buck said. "(They) have a completely different outlook on their walk as a result of serving in adverse conditions.
" On the other side of the globe, mission churches in Brazil increasingly are becoming sending churches, said missionary Alan Nalley. "The only obstacle has been the economy here and the belief that Brazilian churches do not have enough money to fund these church plants," he said. Years of reliance on the United States fuels that belief, Nalley said, but today "more and more Brazilians are giving more and doing more than ever before, and God is blessing them." Churches in African countries have sent missionaries to areas of Africa where churches of Christ are few. Churches also have initiated relief efforts for famine-stricken regions of their own countries. "Participation in mission projects by nationals is a key to faith development," said Dave Jenkins, formermissionary in Kampala, Uganda. Melirrytos European churches that were started or assisted by missionaries from the United States have, for many years, sponsored mission work abroad.
A congregation in Berlin, Germany, sponsors and helps to support Klaus Mueller. The missionary and his family operate a farm and Christian school in the African nation of Zambia. Churches in Europe also are among the first to respond during international emergencies, including the Dec. 26 tsunami, said Bill McDonough, former missionary to Romania, now director of Little Rock, Ark.-based Partners in Progress. Alexander Melirrytos, minister for Omo-nia church, Athens, Greece, traveled to Sri Lanka Jan. 21 - Feb. 5 and assisted tsunami victims in the Kahawe camp in Ambalangoda. Melirrytos said he was impressed by the "massive response of our Church Family to alleviate human pain," and that he encountered local church members who hope to be part of a long-term outreach effort for the victims. The church in Dublin, Ireland, has sponsored worked in Kerala, India, for 16 years, said minister Tony Coffey. In early 2005 Coffey traveled to India to assist fishermen along the coast who lost their equipment and means of livelihood in the tsunami.
"We have been blessed as a church by being involved in India," Coffey said. "As a 'sending church,' our vision is bigger than what God is doing in Dublin."