Pakistan earthquake
The smell of Death, blue T-Shirts and a glimpse of hope.
The following report was filed by Jean-Pierre Rummens, our FTH Director from the German office.
The tragedy of this earthquake followed me around all over Pakistan. I have just got off my return PIA flight between Islamabad and Karachi. On the plane back, one row in front of me was sitting a lady. I noticed her, because an old man went towards her and handed her a baby, maybe three months old.
A member of the cabin crew, who just happened to pass by in that moment, said something nice to her about the baby. The lady stared to weep. The stewardess felt bad and she tried to apologize.
The lady explain that the baby belongs to her sister. The babies parents both died during the earthquake. The old man turned out to be the grandfather of the little one. He not only lost his one and only daughter; son in law but he also lost his wife. Now they moving together here in Karachi.
I have just got back from the disaster area with team members of the Christian Evangelical Fellowship of Pakistan. We drove up to the mountains to the border of Kashmir. We decided not to go to Balakot or Muzaffrabad, because that is one of the major focuses of other relief aid - and there is enough help there.
At a gas station I met a doctor from Saudi Arabia. He came towards me and started a conversation. My blue t-shirt had apparently caught his attention, it said “Christian Church of Pakistan Relief Team”.
The doctor had just came back from 2 villages that had been forgotten so far. We made arrangements to meet one of his relatives.
Meeting his relative, a young man, on a bridge we made some room in the van for him. There was no room anymore - this was a nine passenger Toyota Van already crammed full with thirteen people in it - but we squeezed one more.
The man guided us to the two villages. We drove our van and were followed by our truck through a dried up river as the streets to the mountain villages were totally destroyed. So we climbed up a small trail that was filled with rubble.
We had to balance over stones and broken down trees. When we finally reached the village we saw all the broken down houses - the place was chaos.
In the village 36 families were trying to survive. There were no houses anymore. Their belongings still stuck under the walls and stones of their houses.
This lady I met now sleeps on a piece of cardboard outside. She takes care of her two grandchildren now. I don’t know how old she is, but you can see the picture of her above.
Arif, (far left) one of the team members and a member of Salik´s church in Lahore was praying for an old man who was lying on a bed also outside.
He had pain in his chest. But we are guessing it was just cracked ribs, we think that nothing was broken. Arif shared the gospel with him. We prayed for him.
We went through the whole village. We went from house to house.
I took pictures from the children and than I showed them there picture on the little display on the back of my Nikon.
That gave them some fun for a few minutes.
The need up there was not mainly the food but blankets and tents. So we passed out what we blankets we had - We had to carry everything up that little trail. But the team Salik brought over from Lahore was really dedicated to that outreach. They worked hard all that day.On the way down to the empty river bed a men invited us for a cup of tea. They were so thankful that we came and cared that they had the desire to do something for us.
From there we went to the other side of the mountain. The same picture. Broken down houses and people and also children traumatized about what happened.
People are living now in tents made out of plastic. We had to wear masks because of the smell. We saw minivans with dead bodies strapped to the roof. Horrible picture. They were taking them somewhere. Again we took a walk trough the whole village. People were still missing.
With the heads of the families we went back to the truck. I spoke with Salik and the young man who took us up there and we made a quick plan on how to do the distribution. We got everybody lined up and then we started to call them out by their family name so we could be fair and keep a record.
Before too long scuffles and shouting started. Men stared to fight with one another. What I found out later - there was a misunderstanding. Because their names were being called out alphabetically not according to tradition - people were frightened that they were going to miss out.
Instead of alphabetically, we should have called them out by houses in the village. It really got dangerous and for a few minutes it looked if the situation would get out of hand and we would have a riot. But praise God, they calmed down again after it was explained to them.
That day we distributed about 1600 liters of bottled water, 600 liters of milk, rice and fresh bread.
And everybody got a blanket.
That second village we visited is known as a place of extremely thinking Muslims.And we saw them you can spot them out by the way there are dressed. Some are dressed like Bin Laden. So we knew that we were on the devils turf. This area is known for Training camps.
But before we took of in the morning from Islamabad we had a prayer meeting. And we got the assurance in our hearts that we will be ok.
The Muslims saw our T-Shirts and they immediate knew that we were Christians. The driver of our van spoke with some of them. He found out that there were highly impressed that the Christians showed love to them in the way of bringing food and blankets. What a great testimony.
The biggest needs are tents and blankets. Winter is coming soon, and the winter in the north of Pakistan is cold. Believe me. I was there during winter during the Afghanistan war. I want to help Salik, and and his team members continue to bring relief aid to these forgotten people.
Talking with Salik, and seeing with my own eyes - a survival package consisting of a tent, blankets, food and some gospel material. It will cost around AUD$150 and will help protect a family of 6.
If we could keep going with some more help, it would be great testimony for those people who are being left alone by their own government but also by there fellow believers. To make a donation to the Pakistan Earthquake Appeal click here.
Jean-Pierre
FTH Germany
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