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MAF planes—a Cessna Caravan and Cessna 206—flew in from the eastern side of Indonesia to Medan on the northeast coast of the island of Sumatra. MAF is in good standing with the government of Indonesia, since it has served there since 1954. So it didn't surprise MAF that the Indonesian Air Force requested help at the time of the disaster.

But Banda Aceh is "a sensitive province," Wunsch says. Operation World designates Sumatra, the world's fifth largest island, as the largest unevangelized island on earth. There are fewer than 50 Aceh Christians, the book notes, and most of them live outside the province.

The history of persecution of Christians by radical Muslims "means we have to be very careful in our presence there," especially since maf was splitting its time between helping the Indonesian Air Force and Christian organizations like Samaritan's Purse. On January 4, maf personnel reported that they were wrestling with a dilemma frequently encountered by Christian relief workers in developing countries: "How do we work with the church people there, the Christians"—while not alienating the Muslim officials?

Also in Banda Aceh was Galen Carey, World Relief's director of advocacy and policy, who on January 4 assisted in relief training for Christians funded by World Relief. He, too, heard of some indigenous Christians aggravating the situation. A small group of Indonesian Christians was asked to leave after they put up a banner in front of their house. "I don't know what the banner said, but it was an attempt to proselytize. There was an uproar about this." He's also seen some people wearing T-shirts with a red cross in front and a message about Jesus on the back. Carey has also heard about some local Christians blaming the disaster on the Muslims, but "it's not the majority view."

In fact, he said, the consensus is clear among the coalition of 30 Indonesian church leaders he's been working with: "This is an unprecedented opportunity to serve the Muslims by giving them aid, and it is not time for proclamation." These leaders were distributing food and medicine without discrimination by creed, and identified themselves by the neutral name Medan Cares. World Relief networks represent 60 percent of all the churches in Indonesia, Carey said. "They are pooling volunteers, setting up bank accounts to receive contributions, and there's been incredible cooperation on all levels," among both the local churches and the Western Christian ngos that have come into the country.

Often "people don't even realize World Relief is there," said spokesman Chris Pettit. "It's our job to give the church the resources it needs and provide money to the volunteers from these countries."

Starting January 6, about 80 of these volunteers were going to focus on reaching several groups of people who were two to three hours' hike away and haven't been seen by any assessment teams yet. "This will be our niche here," Carey says. "We don't want to duplicate what the other agencies are doing."

Samaritan's Purse is also coming alongside local churches throughout the South Asian region. The idea is to "support their standing with the local population so that after we leave they will have been able to open new and expanded doors of evangelism and other ministry opportunities," said spokesman Ivan Giesbrecht. "We know these groups from our work the past several years in this country with our Operation Christmas Child program. These folks know the local language, culture, and general lay of the land. Their local knowledge and expertise is invaluable to us."

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February 2005, Vol. 49, No. 2