ADRAnews-0813
20/8/13
5:14 PM
Page 1
Spring 2013
Following the Boxing Day Tsumani, Nurzman searched for a week through mud and rubble for the bodies of his family. with hundreds of others, searched. Countless bodies were pulled from the mud and rubble, but none were faces he called his own. Then, news came that his five-year old son, the only surviving member of his family, was living with his grandmother.
“I kissed them one by one while saying good-bye. They waved as I left… I did not know it was the last time I would see them.”
T
hat day Nurzman, a father of four, left his rural village of Lamno for Aceh, Indonesia in search of work. Twenty days later a deadly tsunami struck the coast. “I thought it was impossible that the sea could come up so far,” he said. “The big wave came chasing people like a hungry lion, eating buildings, cars and houses.” “I thought it was the end of the world. All I wanted was to go home and see my family.” The tsunami, one of the world’s most deadly natural disasters, swept hundreds of kilometres of coastline out to sea.
While he longed for home and cried for his family but Nurzman was left stranded. “I prayed and asked God that what had happened here did not happen at home. I asked God to save them.” Two days later Nurzman negotiated his way onto the first boat to bring aid to Lamno. Before the men had finished mooring, Nurzman was running to the hastily established evacuation centre. Sadly, there was no sign, or news, of them. “So I searched for their bodies.” For one agonizing week Nurzman, along
“He cried when he saw me, and kept asking for his mother and siblings. He asked why they hadn’t come to see him – I didn’t know what to say. All I could do was cry.” “I didn’t have a home, I didn’t have any money. It was just my son and I. But then we met an ADRA.” ADRA’s response following the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami stretched from hardest hit Indonesia around the rim of the Indian Ocean into Africa. Emergency food, water and shelter formed the initial phases of the response, saving thousands of lives. This response and others like it around the world are only possible because of people like you. When disasters strike, ADRA Australia is able to respond within 48 as a result of your generosity. Without it there would be deadly delays in providing aid.
ADVENTIST DEVELOPMENT AND RELIEF AGENCY AUSTRALIA
Continued page 4
The final good-bye
“The big wave came chasing people like a hungry lion, eating buildings, cars and houses.”