Flood victims fed by the Church
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JAKARTA, Indonesia — When torrential rains flooded Jakarta, killing dozens and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless in early February, Area Seventy Elder Subandriyo quickly initiated Church relief assistance for the suffering victims.
Of the scope of the service, Indonesia Jakarta Mission President Dean C. Jensen wrote in an e-mail report to the Church News:
"As news of the flooding reached Elder Subandriyo (who is also Jakarta Service Center Manager) he immediately requested emergency funding from the Hong Kong area presidency to respond to the needs of the homeless.
"Nearly 40 percent of Jakarta (the capital city of more than 12 million people) was flooded and crippled as a result of the heavy rains. Many entire villages within Jakarta were completely underwater. Major streets were flooded and most public transportation was suspended. Overnight, Jakarta became a quagmire of desperation and panic from what many have come to believe is an unending series of natural disasters in Indonesia.
"Elder Subandriyo's request was quickly granted and members and missionaries of the Indonesia Jakarta Mission were immediately mobilized to start purchasing food and prepare a temporary relief kitchen in the parking lot of one of the Jakarta meetinghouses."
A tent purchased previously by the Jakarta District provided shelter for the kitchen before the rain stopped, President Jensen said.
"Members and missionaries in the Jakarta District provided the labor to purchase, prepare, cook and distribute the meals to nearly 5,000 men plus women and children," he added. "This effort required five days of operating the kitchen 12 hours a day with nearly 200 volunteers assisting."
He said the meals were made from 7,000 pounds of rice, 900 pounds of cooked vegetables, tempe (fried soybeans), tofu, 100 cases of instant noodles, 275 cases of eggs and bottled water.
"The meals were wrapped in wax lined paper, secured with rubber bands and a plastic spoon attached," President Jensen said. "They were packaged in bags of 10 and loaded in utility vehicles and pick-up trucks for distribution. Since some of the villages were flooded, Church members built a raft out of bamboo poles for use in distributing the meals to the stranded refugees who where assembled in makeshift camps throughout the city. Meals were distributed to 21 refugee camps in the Jakarta area."
He explained, "This humanitarian effort may seem insignificant when compared to the fact that more than 300,000 people in Jakarta were homeless from the flooding. But the comparison of taking five days with more than 200 service volunteers and nearly eight tons of food and water to feed nearly 5,000 men plus women and children pales in view of what the Savior did in feeding a similar size multitude on the grassy slopes of Galilee with just five barley loaves of bread and two fishes. The Lord accomplished this task in just a few hours with the assistance of His few disciples.
"When the disciples saw that the 'day was far spent' and the multitude had 'nothing to eat,' they suggested to Jesus that the people be sent into the 'country round about, and into the villages' to buy food. When Jesus then announced, 'Give ye them to eat,' the disciples replied, 'Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread and give them to eat?' (see Mark 6:36-37).
"A 'pennyworth' or 'denarii' was equal to the daily wage of a workman. Consequently, the cost of feeding the multitude in the days of Christ would be similar to the cost of feeding a like amount of people today. Of course we know that Christ did not buy food, but provided it miraculously from the five loaves and two fishes.
"This Jakarta relief effort to feed the 5,000 was truly 'pure religion' in action. It is certainly a reflection of the love that the Indonesian saints have for those in need and for the Savior. In the past two years, Indonesia has been confronted with a variety of tsunamis, earthquakes, volcano eruptions, mud slides, flooding, and the world's highest incidents of the avian flu.
"Through the efforts of the humanitarian aid of the Church, miracles are occurring to restore the health, living conditions and the dignity to the unfortunate victims of these disasters in Indonesia."
