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One pastor says it will take time to recuperate from the shock. "The unbelievable may have happened, but we can't live in hopelessness. Christian faith should help."

"The tsunami can't shake our faith," he adds. "It has to be deepened. Nothing can take God from us. … One day the dead will rise in their glorious bodies. God is merciful."

A special prayer for the victims is being held throughout the day in the shrine. But, says the Rev. Benjamin of Saint Peter's Church in Nagapattinam, "We have no time for prayers; we have to rush to help. How can I pray when the poor fishermen in my church area are starving? Service is the best form of prayer in such times. I think we escaped to serve the people. It's God's plan."

More than 1,500 trawlers and 800 other boats of the fishing community were destroyed, taking with them the only means of income for thousands of area residents. Economic losses are just the beginning of pain for survivors.

Amul Dass, 40, is a poor Christian fisherman. Sitting stunned opposite a local church, in donated clothes, he has lost his daughter and his home. Dass is now living with 300 other families in the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes.

"I am ruined," he chokes, talking more to himself than to a reporter. "My 5-year-old daughter, Mary, is dead. My house is gone. I am lost. I don't know when I will be able to have a job and a home to take care of my wife and three children."

Arockiaraj Raphel, another fisherman, is angry with the authorities.

"The clothes I am wearing were given by the church," Raphel tells CT. "My sister's child died in the sea. I have no boat, money, or work. But I am not angry with God. God has helped me all the time in my life. God is great. It was a natural disaster, and God is not to be blamed."

Elsewhere in India, early fears that the waves wiped out several unreached tribes in the Nicobar and Andaman Islands appear to be unfounded. Indian authorities discovered that one people group is alive and well when a government helicopter seeking to learn about its welfare came under arrow fire. Officials believe the Sentinelese, Onge, Shompen, Great Adamanese, and Jarawa peoples are all safe. "They have survived nature's fury," a coast-guard leader said.

In an e-mail update, Jacob Samuel of the Evangelical Social Action Forum in hard-hit Kerala state said that government and Christian agencies are trying to provide services to thousands of people living in relief camps. "We sense a great need for counseling people who have lost their loved ones or their belongings," Samuel said. "Many of them are in shock and are unable to accept what has happened."

In Sri Lanka, nearly 5 percent of the island nation's 20 million people have been displaced. The National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (nceasl) says the needs are overwhelming.

Based in the southern inland center of Kandy, Lanka Bible College is helping coordinate a local relief effort while directing teams to affected families and churches across the nation.

"Some church buildings and mission training centers have been damaged," staffer Mihirukshi Perera says. "Several believers have lost their children. Many believers have lost their homes and all belongings. Many of our students have gone with their local church relief teams to the affected areas." Lanka Bible College—with 450 students—is Sri Lanka's largest evangelical seminary.

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February 2005, Vol. 49, No. 2