Trinity International Baptist Mission

A Boxing Day Nightmare

Well, happy Boxing Day. Yeah, I don’t know what it’s about either. I suppose I could look it up. Does it have something to do with the Boxer Rebellion? Most of us probably associate it with the empty boxes and trash that make up the day-after-Christmas carnage. There certainly isn’t any good boxing matches on T.V. Maybe Boxing Day for you means going to the mall, returning home from your Christmas travels, or doing what I did this morning – helping the kids assemble their new toys (I don’t know if anyone else has noticed, but it seems to me that toy makers have stopped even trying to make instructions easy to follow).

Actually, for me , my first association with Boxing Day is that today is the anniversary of one of the worst disasters in history. I’ve actually been cringing a little bit inside each time I’ve heard the phrase (and, yes, I have heard it), “Happy Boxing Day!” And it is a bit sad that most of you when reading this won’t immediately know what I’m talking about. It was four years ago today that about a quarter-of-a-million people in 11 countries lost their lives due to a devastating earthquake and tsunami. That’s more than 200 Hurricane Katrinas, and the only reason that we don’t so much as observe a moment of silence is that none of those 11 countries affected was the United States. I don’t even want to begin to speculate how many of the 220,000+ people killed by the earthquake/tsunami didn’t know Jesus Christ. When one considers the nations impacted (including Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Maldives, Somalia, Myanmar, Malaysia, and Seychelles), it just doesn’t look good.

So, yeah, it just seems kind of sad.

You know, this is the time of the year when a lot of people are making New Year’s resolutions, and I suspect that many of you reading this blog are in positions of leadership and influence in your church. Perhaps many of your churches consider themselves to be “missional” or “Great Commission Churches.” Well, just imagine if you were to survey your congregation next Sunday asking how many of them could name the great disaster that took place four years ago on Boxing Day. People in your pews have strong positions about how good or bad a job FEMA did following Katrina, but haven’t a clue where Myanmar even is. They don’t know that Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world. They are unaware that Sri Lanka was virtually swallowed by a tsunami four years ago. They haven’t even heard of the huge numbers of children that were kidnapped and sold into slavery following the chaotic aftermath of the 2004 tragedy. Is your church really serious about the nations? Are you? Why not resolve to lead your church, small group, or family in the coming year to become truly aware of and actively engaged in what is happening around the world – even in forgotten places like Maldives.

One thing I’m curious about, how many of you can remember where you were when you first heard about the 2004 Boxing Day disaster? Please leave your response in the comment section.

Peace.

Posted on Friday, December 26, 2008 by Cody C. Lorance filed under

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5 comments (Add your own)

1. Katherine wrote:: Thanks for the reminder. I think I found out about the tsunami on an internet news headline. I'm glad modern technology enables us to know in a timely way about things that happen around the world, but it can't make us actually care about or love other people.
December 26, 2008 @ 2:46 PM
2. Cody wrote:: True. And for the record, I really don't remember when and where I heard about this. I remember being in Spanish class when I first heard about the OKC bombing and being in my apartment hearing about 911 -- so my own experience has been very tunnel visioned.
December 26, 2008 @ 2:50 PM
3. Ed wrote:: I was at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Malaysia that morning waiting for a flight to Medan, Indonesia. I received text messages on my cellphone informing me of a strong earthquake rocking Medan. I thought nothing of it since the messages I received were preliminary and they did not know what had actually happened. When I landed in Medan, I was told that the center of the quake was in Meulaboh, Aceh. (Medan is in North Sumatra, the province next to Aceh). Those early reports only told us about the strong earthquake, but no news of a Tsunami. Not until a few hours later did we start to receive news that parts of Aceh had been wiped out by a Tsunami and thousands of people had died. In the early afternoon we started to get the pictures from the media. TV stations started to show the images of the devastation: collapsed buildings, debris of everything everywhere, dead bodies floating around everywhere, boats and vessels in the middle of the road in the middle of the city. The devastation was just unimaginable. And this was just the early reports. We know now that more than 100,000 people died in Indonesia alone.
December 30, 2008 @ 1:41 AM
4. Cody wrote:: Ed, you had a real front row seat. Have you been to Aceh since? (Of course, I know not everyone can just walk into Aceh) And did your flight go out that day?
December 30, 2008 @ 9:42 AM
5. Ed wrote:: Cody, my flight was delayed for one hour, but got into Medan safely. I was involved in the rescuing and restructuring works a few days afterwards.

I did not actually get into Aceh. I was helping the rescue workers from all around the world and they needed someone to take care of the administration in Medan. (Medan was becoming the gateway to Aceh because of proximity. Medan is in North Sumatra, right next to Aceh.) So, I was their translator and also logistics guy.

I rented helicopters for the workers and also acted as a driver by driving them around town, mostly from hotel to the command center to the airport, back and forth.

I kinda regret missing the chance to go to the airport the day former Presidents Bush and Clinton were in town. (I can't remember exactly why I could not go to the airport that day. Must've been very busy with what I was doing, whatever it was.)
January 2, 2009 @ 3:09 AM

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A Boxing Day Nightmare

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