Baptists Respond to Indonesian Earthquake

A new BMS World Mission relief grant is enabling Baptists in Indonesia to respond to the major earthquake that rocked the island of Sumatra last month.

The grant of US$15,000 (approx £7,500) is funding part of the action from Holistic Indonesia Ministry (HIM), the relief arm of BMS partner, the Convention of Baptist Churches in Indonesia, known as KGBI.

Since the earthquake, which struck close to Padang, the capital city of West Sumatra, on Tuesday 6 March, HIM has been working in four villages, providing homeless people with vital food supplies, temporary shelter and medical support.

The massive earthquake, which measured 6.3 on the Richter scale and was followed by a powerful aftershock, happened late in the morning while many people were at work or school.

Over 50 people were killed and hundreds of others injured. An estimated 80,000 people had their homes partially or totally destroyed.

Indonesia's geographical position means it experiences numerous earthquakes. There were two significant disasters in the space of just three months a few years ago - the March 2005 earthquake near to the island of Nias, off the Sumatran coast, and, before then, the Boxing Day 2004 earthquake of 9.1 magnitude, which triggered the south Asian tsunami.