Olive medical team reflects on tsunami ministry

Feb 9, 2005

SOUTH ASIA (FBW)-After the tsunami laid waste coastal areas of nations surrounding the Indian Ocean, Pensacola medical personnel traveled to the area to treat survivors of the waves’ devastating onslaught. Sponsored by Olive Baptist Church, the group of four physicians and four nurses treated hundreds.

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After three weeks of preparation made easier by wide-spread community generosity in Florida’s panhandle, the group arrived in Indonesia Jan. 15 and spent 12 days in the disaster area. Another Olive Baptist-sponsored medical team left to serve in the same area immediately upon the first group’s return [read the complete story in the Feb. 3 issue of Florida Baptist Witness, online at Florida doctors, nurses aid tsunami survivors in Indonesia].

Drew Daigle, Emergency Medical Physician: “[I was] never truly afraid. Our intentions for medical care were honorable and received as such. Our Christian witness was sensitive and more in deed than word. Our facilitators and translators were both competent and cautious.”
“God’s hand was seen in what we did, but, to me, most notably in our team—the prayer support, protection from God, relationships found and nurtured, unity of purpose and constant acknowledgement of “joining God in what He is already doing.”

Phil Dean, Pediatrician: “My most memorable experience is … one of the workers boldly praying in the midst of the people during the Moslem call to prayer, during which we were directed to stop seeing patients.”
Jeffrey Beard, Third Year Medical Student: “This trip reconfirms that when God calls people, [we should] take Him by the hand and take a step of faith. He will bless them.
“When God calls you to do a work (mission trip), you are to be obedient regardless of what people think!”

Anne M. Craine, R.N.: “The people looked much older than their ages, This struck me because of how hard their lives must be. I know for many [Christian] holy and prayerful people, the light shining through them makes them appear so peaceful—almost ageless. I didn’t see that with these people.”

Donna Dunn, R.N.: “I met a young lady who had been married only eight months. When she felt the first earthquake, she ran in the house to awaken her husband … She told him she was afraid … but he told her not to worry. She heard her mother calling her from outside, and she ran out where her mother grabbed her and they ran up the mountain side away from the tsunami … The next day they returned to their village to find that everyone and everything left behind was gone.
“She wept telling the translator and me that she was two months pregnant, and she asked why God allowed this to happen. Why would He have her marry and become pregnant then take her husband away?
“We talked with her about 30 minutes and then we asked if we could pray for her. Surprisingly, she said yes. The female translator prayed a beautiful prayer acknowledging God and His power and His love for her and the new life inside her … [T]he tears flowed from all three of us, but the young girls seemed more at peace and calm. I told her I would continue to pray for her, even when I returned home. I will never forget “Di.”

Tame Ritchie, R.N.: “I saw how God uses communities to take care of their own—how God allows families who lost their children to take in children who lost their parents. God showed me how a touch, smile and listening can build bridges between nations.”

Morley Mason, Translator: [When asked, “What did you tell others who said you shouldn’t go?] “I quoted Martin Luther King, “Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise.”
“One week on the field in [South Asia] = 100 years of sitting in church for spiritual growth.

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