Catch up with highlights from mbc news
June 2008

Christian Aid

Cyclone Nargis raged through Burma

Myo Lin clung onto a tree in the dark for eight hours as Cyclone Nargis raged through Burma. When dawn broke only his son was still alive – his wife and nine-year-old daughter had been swept away.

‘When the huge wave of water came our house collapsed and we were flung into the water,’ he said. ‘We all grabbed the tree and for hours I held onto it, but it was so dark and the wind was so loud that I could not see or hear anyone else.

‘I don’t know what happened to my wife and daughter. They must have been swept away by the force of the water at some point, but I will never know. We have lost them, we are on our own now.’

Myo Lin’s seven-year-old son cannot talk about what happened or his loss, but his grief is obvious.
He and his family, along with a group of others from his village left their village in Laputta – one of the worst hit areas of the Irrawaddy Delta - and are now being cared for by a Christian Aid partner organisation.

They have clothes, shelter, clean water and enough food – unlike many of the 2.5 million people affected by the cyclone.
‘There is no one left in the village now, no one can live there.

There is no food, no water, the smell of the bodies and the water is terrible. We had to leave,’ Myo Lin said 'Half of the 700 people who lived in his village have died or disappeared. Of the 10 children in his group, two are orphans and seven have lost one parent.

‘There is only one child with us who has not lost one or both parents. These children are traumatised. In some cases they saw their parents swept away in front of their eyes. Some cannot talk about what happened yet. But it is not just the children who are suffering. The eight families here have lost 12 children between them.’

A man from another group of survivors described how they had to bury 30 people in a mass grave.

‘We could only find one place to bury them on higher ground as the rest of the ground was covered in water,’ he said.
Another woman said she had lost 18 members of her extended family, including her aunt, cousins, nieces and nephews.

‘The waves were huge and they came again and again,' she said 'you can't imagine what it was like in total blackness in the water and some people could not swim.

Those who could were holding their children up out of the water to try to save them

But the water was so strong and we were exhausted. We could hardly save ourselves.

‘After the water levels dropped 10 hours later, we tried to find our relatives. We only found seven bodies out of the 18, the rest were washed away.’

She said they survived by collecting small amounts of rice that had not been ruined and drank juice from coconuts floating on the water.

‘We all slept sitting up on Saturday night – we could not even lie down as the ground was covered with water. We had no idea what was going to happen to us or if we would survive.’
After a few days we had run out of food and no one was coming to help us so we managed to get away by boat. 'She said they could not imagine ever going back to their village.

‘How can we go back? Our homes are gone, all our cattle and rice stocks are gone. And we have to live with the memories of what happened and who we have lost.’

Thanks for Christain Aid week 2008

Many thanks for all the prayer and practical support for the 2008 Christian Aid Week.

Over £10,660 was raised for vital Aid work in the troubled third world through the Annual Book and Collectibles Sale in Morningside United Church together with the House to House collection in the local parish.

This joint venture of the Holy Corner Churches provides an unique opprortunity every year for joint Christian fellowship and action.

Well over £250 000 has now been sent from Holy Corner to Christian Aid since this activity started in the early 1980’s.

This year we had a visit from a supported veterinary worker in Haiti who enthused about our support and suggested he would try to initiate something similar back home as part of encouraging education.

Keep praying for practical preparation for 2009.
Over 1000 customers will be blessed as we seek to cooperate more effectively.

Some of the children from MUC contributed greatly to the atmosphere of the sale on the opening day by selling their own baking.

If you missed the sale Tammas Crawford or Andrew Barclay would be happy to tell you more....... or to receive donations

top of page