3rd January, 2005

TANYA BENNETTS

Johannesburg, South Africa

Today the bodies of two more South Africans have been found in Thailand, bringing the total number of South African tsunami deaths to seven. As South Africans we mourn with those around the globe and consider the destruction and loss.

Asia’s tsunami disaster has many of us reflecting about the world we live in and how we can make a difference to those in need. The question on the minds of many Christians, not just in South Africa but around the world, is “how should we respond to such a disaster?”

Last Sunday I was at the Valley Vineyard Christian Fellowship in Johannesburg where pastor Alexander Venter shared his reflections on the tsunami disaster by drawing on verses in the Book of Romans (8:18-27) to explain how the apostle Paul may have understood and responded to this Asian tragedy.

Pastor Venter said the image Paul paints in verse 22 of the whole creation "groaning as in the pains of childbirth" was a "typical Jewish image that goes all the way back to the Spirit of God (Ruach, a feminine noun in Hebrew) brooding over the chaos in Genesis 1:2 and creating God’s Shalom on earth" and related to creation's longing for liberation; it's ‘new-birth’ into a new heaven and a new earth.

“What has happened in Asia is a tremendous convulsion, like the earthquakes that took place when Jesus was crucified and rose again (anticipating earth’s ultimate liberation," he said. "Is the church free from this groaning tragedy in Asia? Does this only happen to the ungodly? No! (So) how should Christians respond to such disaster?"

“According to Paul the wider groaning of creation is felt and mirrored in the groaning of the church of Jesus Christ - that is the pain and pangs of the world are experienced by the church and in the church, as we feel the world’s longing in our own bodies, as we take up creation’s travail in the struggle of the church, of our bodies, in our need for resurrection and ultimate freedom from the curse of death."

Pastor Venter said that Paul was showing is that the outward devastation of events such as the earthquake and the resultant tsunamis (which is gigantic and widespread), are mirrored in the inner - that being the state of the church’s desperate struggle and need for God’s ultimate deliverance and liberation from death (which is even more widespread throughout the earth). Thus, he said, are we are intimately and redemptively involved in the Asian destruction.

For me, the upshot of all this is that as Christians we ought to feel this human suffering in our own bodies and let it affect us deeply. We need to feel God’s ultimate cry for humanity and let God work in our bodies, mind, emotions and will. We need to pray and we need to give to relief workers.

Often we are doubtful about relief agencies and the work they do. Will our money get to those in need? At this time, it’s important for me to have faith and know that God is in control despite the many lives that have been lost. What we give to aid and relief agencies, or even missionaries we know in the affected areas, will make a difference - even if helps just one person with a new sleeping mat or a pair of shoes.

My heart and mind takes me from the tsunami to my own backdoor. Living in South Africa means I am exposed to poverty, crime, disaster and so much more on a daily basis. I see mother’s with their babies and old, sick men standing at traffic lights begging for food or money. I see despair in their eyes and wonder how the few coins I give them or a loaf of bread I buy for them is going to help with their needs. I see my gardener hopelessly ill with TB, a side-effect of the HIV/Aids virus and contemplate what really matters to me.

Apart from giving for something that has happened thousands of miles away or for someone on my own doorstep, it is only my faith and trust (Proverbs 3:5-6) in Him that can help me even come close to understanding what I see in this world that makes my heart ache so terribly.