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The universal language of relief needs no words. Clean water, high-protein food, cooking utensils, cups, water bottles, blankets, tents, mosquito nets to protect from the spread of cholera and malaria, and even feminine hygiene products—all are tangible phrases in the tongue understood by the victims of the disaster that tore into South Asia.

Several hours after the world's deadliest tsunami on record hit the shores of the Indian Ocean, evangelicalism's first billion-dollar corporation, World Vision—which had between 3,000 and 4,000 staff members in the countries affected—began speaking this language, handing out food and aid packages.

At a World Vision distribution center in a Roman Catholic church on the southern outskirts of Colombo, Sri Lanka, a mother of a 6-year-old girl and a baby daughter showed her gratitude to Steve Matthews, World Vision's emergency-response communications manager. "She thanked us for the sleeping mats, pillows, and hygiene products," he recalls. "And then she grabbed hold of my wrist and said, 'I really appreciate what you have done for me and for our community, but I hope that you will reach out to other people in Asia because I haven't lost any of my children, and I know that many have lost and grieve for their children.' "

Sitting in his hotel room in Colombo, and speaking to Christianity Today by phone on January 4, Matthews said everything reeked of death. "There's a smell of death that gets inside of you, and you can't escape it." He'd just witnessed volunteers, among them World Vision workers, working the field of dead bodies in Galle in the south of the country, "a historic port city famous for its cricket field." The volunteers were helping ensure the identification of bodies by "cutting off fingers before the bodies deteriorate." They cut the tips of index fingers and took off jewelry, putting the bodies in bags and piling them in the back of wagons "like firewood." "I worry about them," he says. "What kind of dreams are you going to have if you've done this for days?"

Matthews is on a global rapid response team. "We're trained to get into the field and get programs up and running right away," he says. He and 24 others were working on "logistics, health issues, child protection, information technology, human resources." "Human resources?" I ask. "You mean, you check people's references 24 hours after disaster hits?" Turns out they do.

"HR is one of the most difficult challenges we have: to hire local people at a time when there are a number of agencies looking for good people," Matthews says. "There's a reason why we call disasters like this 'complex humanitarian emergencies.' We have a responsibility as an agency to make sure people are paid adequately, and we do actually check references. We get the word out that we're looking for translators or drivers or general laborers and people line up outside a hotel room where we see them. We quickly look at résumés and get on the phone to check references."

Even as some of its own employees and their families went missing, World Vision staff members began preparing food at a hostel in India for more than 600 people hours after the great waves ravaged South Asia. The relief group was ready: It had stocked thousands of relief supplies in warehouses it owns throughout the region, including tents that can be used by displaced families as temporary dwellings.

On the island of Sumatra, Mission Aviation Fellowship staff members faced a tricky situation: They heard that some local Christians "were being very vocal that the tsunami was God's judgment on the Muslims because they were persecuting the Christians," said MAF director of operations Dave Wunsch.

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February 2005, Vol. 49, No. 2