Evangelicals tell Tsunami Victims to Gain Life Perspective

A US-based evangelical organisation has distributed relief agency leaflets amongst tsunami survivors telling them to prepare for death. Detailed descriptions have been implemented of famous disasters and tragedies across the globe, and the leaflet tells readers that they can be saved if they confess their sins.

The new tract is called "When Disaster Strikes", and has been released by the American Tract Society. The effort comes as calls are made for donations to support the Victims Relief Ministries, who will soon send out more than 200 workers to the hardest hit places in Sri Lanka.

Specific description of a number of the worst natural disasters in history are then quoted and included the Galveston hurricane, the 1990 landslide in Iran that killed approximately 50,000 people, and also an earthquake in China in 1976.

"The official casualty figure released by the Chinese government was 255,000...but unofficial estimates put the number as high as 655,000" the tract says. The section ends with a description of the flooding of the Yangtze River in China in 1931, which "caused more than 3 million deaths from flooding and starvation."

It continued, "Natural disasters are part of the way the Earth operates...but there is hope. Although we can't prevent disasters from happening (many times we can't even issue warnings in time) there are some things coming that we can prepare for now. For instance, we will all die someday. That's a natural event God has given us plenty of warning about."

A couple of Bible verses are then added:

"Man is destined to die once, and after that to dace judgement." Hebrews 9:27

"All I have sinned and fall short of the glory of God"; "The wages of sin is death" Romans 3:23; 6:23

Later within the tract, it states, "God loves you, and when you die He wants you to be with Him in heaven for all eternity. Although He knows we may not heed His warning, God offers us all the way to safety."

The President of the American Tract Society, Dan Southern reported, "We feel it’s imperative to provide agencies and individuals with signs of hope and comfort.

"We've been responding to hurting people all over the world throughout our 180-year history. This 'tool' can be used worldwide and will also be made available to specific overseas print partners in multiple languages. We hope that many will respond to Christ in the next few months."

Victim’s Relief Executive Director, Gene Grounds spoke to the teams regarding the disaster sites.; he said, "We wanted our chaplains and the missionaries to have the spiritual information at hand to help people understand that there is hope, even in the aftermath of such a disaster, and that there is a loving God."

After the September 11th tragedy in the USA, the society published more than 4 million tracts to comfort and guide suffering people. Therefore, this tract is the second version to be produced, and a phrase has been omitted from the newer version now:

"The best means of survival is listening to and acting upon the warnings we are given ahead of time."