Nias News

Off the coast of Sumatra is a small island called Nias, a mostly undiscovered surfer's paradise. One of the least developed areas of Indonesia, the predominantly Christian population is made up mostly of self-supporting farmers in the interior and fishermen on the coast.

Although only moderately affected by the earthquake and tsunamis of December 26, 2004, a series of strong earthquakes on March 28, 2005 crippled the island. destroying the majority of buildings taller than one story, closing the ports which provided access to mainland markets and family, and destroying roads, blocking access to many parts of the island. Samaritan's Purse responded immediately, with an initial assessment team on the ground the next day.

I was able to get to Nias shortly after, and was involved with medical evacuations. Through the course of the next few days, Samaritans’s Purse and Mission Aviation Fellowship were able to evacuate more than 200 people via helicopter from inaccessible areas of Nias to hospitals in Medan. While dropping medical teams into these areas, we were also able to provide rural assessments for the coordinating teams, and landing zones for the US military medical teams when they arrived the next week. Some of you will reeber how heart-breakin this time was for me.

<- Pilot Roy Harris checks his load before lift-off

One of many medical evacuations ->

Chris on a medical evacuation flight

We continued in Nias throught the next three months, involved in managing a food distribution with the World Food Programme,

and distribution of tarpaulins and blankets to the tens of thousands left homeless, as well as supporting a water purification programme.

On Friday I return to Nias, for a meeting on developing shelter projects to help rebuild this island. I look forward to returning there after some months, and supporting the opportunity to rebuild this lovely island.