Tsunami victims give back, help Katrina victims

ALEXANDRIA, La. — Louisiana Baptist Convention officials received $854 cash as an offering from several citizens who live in a community on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia, a region decimated by the Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami that claimed an estimated 300,000 lives worldwide. Twenty men from this area of the world, where the average monthly income is around $100, sent aid to Louisiana, which they heard was hit by Hurricane Katrina. The Indonesians gave the offering to a Southern Baptist humanitarian consultant who was in Sumatra recently to assess the progress of tsunami relief.

Thanks to global news and information, the news about Katrina and the damage it caused in New Orleans reached Indonesia. The Indonesians received an offering, had it converted to American currency, placed it in an envelope and presented it to the consultant. They asked that their gift be specifically delivered to the people in Louisiana. They wanted their gift to be an expression of gratitude from Indonesian tsunami victims to those impacted by the storm that hit the Louisiana coast.

The consultant presented the envelope to Louisiana Baptist Convention disaster relief strategist Gibbie McMillan at the national roundtable of disaster relief organizations meeting at Fielder Road Baptist Church, Arlington, Texas, in April.