Saving Lives in Pakistan

February 24, 2006

2006-02-24T17:19:00.000-08:00

Recently, Denise and I were honored to be guests on King 5 TV and a talk show on PTTV hosted by Glen Gately who represented the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Port Townsend. I wish to welcome all bloggers who saw the shows and have logged in.

As you read the news and feature stories documenting the Kashmir Relief Effort by ADRA Pakistan, I trust you will come to the conclusion that God did a great work through the team effort of many. And about all we did was simply to show up.

Our team effort is certainly not over. Phase one, of three phases has been completed successfully. The second phase has already begun, with regards to funding. In a few weeks it will be time to plant. By then, ADRA Pakistan will be doing need assessments, distributing seeds and other agricultural products to enable Kashmiris to start making their own living again.

If you wish to donate, you can send a check to:

World Medics
PO Box 1606
Loma Linda, CA 92354

or logon to their website
www.worldmedicsinc.org

Thanks so much for your interest, prayers, and gifts.

Dr. John and Denise McGhee

Update #38 - Little known facts from behind the scenes

2006-01-27T07:59:00.000-08:00

Last Friday morning I had the privilege of visiting at length with John McGhee by phone, as he and his wife, Denise, had recently returned to the U.S. following two months of hard work as the emergency director of ADRA Pakistan. I'd like to share a few items of interest that John told me on the phone that he did not include in his letter yesterday.

While you so generously gave of your means to help the Kashmiri people in such desperate need of help, John worked very hard on that end to stretch those dollars. He felt a HUGE responsibility to spend very carefully all that you gave in faith and sacrifice. John told me that he had really tried to make the vendors feel that they were an important part of the life-saving team. When they quoted him a price, as for a razai-quilt, he would tell them, "Okay, that is your business price. Now tell me your worship price. You are doing this for Allah [God]." Most of the merchants appreciated the spiritual emphasis John put on the relief effort, and at times he was able to purchase relief supplies for 1/3 or less of the price that other NGOs were paying! Surely the Lord was multiplying the assets while He was holding off the winter snows.

God also blessed with safety. In the whole two months and thousands of miles traveled in the relief operation, ADRA staff had not one accident or injury. The day John left Pakistan, our ADRA driver in Bagh, Mohammad Iqbal Shaw, was beat up while protecting his truckload of hygiene kits. The culprits were caught. Iqbal has recovered. And all of the kits are accounted for.

Another of God's blessings is that ADRA had nothing stolen from their operations site, either in Rawalpindi or in Bagh. In many less-affluent countries, it is common to have a considerable amount of pilferage and loss. And other NGOs did have some in their relief efforts. In their final accounting for what had been purchased and what had been delivered, John and the two others most closely with trucking and distribution, one in Rawalpindi and one in Bagh, compared their figures. All three men came up with the same figures: only 2 sheets of metal roofing were unaccounted for, and the 113,000 quilts purchased, they could account for all but five. A fantastic record!

John has said that some 90% of the Kashmiri people have lost a significant portion of their livelihood in the earthquake. That is one of the big things that the new director of ADRA Pakistan, David Syme, will be looking at and working on. This week my husband, George, has been in Pakistan and has had opportunities to visit with Dave. A number of you have expressed an interest in helping with "phase 2" of the relief effort. Hopefully we will be able to share more information with you about that in the near future.

Meanwhile, I just want to thank you again for being such an encouragement, such a blessing, and such an important part of the ADRA Pakistan team.

Mernie Johnson
georgeandmerniej@cs.com

Update #37 - The Final Answer: No one left freezing!

2006-01-26T08:23:00.000-08:00

John McGhee has just sent his final report of the Pakistan earthquake relief effort. I will share that with you today, then I'll send another newsletter tomorrow with some additional information that I found very interesting after my first phone conversation with John in many weeks.

Mernie Johnson

Rawalpindi Director's Tent to Bagh Commander's Tent

Friday, November 18, 2005, Rawalpindi, Pakistan. My first day on duty as ADRA Pakistan's country director. Grabbing the ADRA keys and mobile phone nestled in my running shoes perched on bare ground beside my bed in the Rawalpindi director's tent, I swung out of my sleeping bag, yanking on day-old socks in the dark. It was time to take Conrad Vine, out-going ADRA Pakistan director who brilliantly laid the groundwork for the first phase of Kashmir relief, to the Islamabad International airport.

Friday, January 13, 2006, Rawalpindi, Pakistan. My last day on duty as ADRA Pakistan's country director. After two months of emergency disaster management, it was time to pass on the ADRA keys and mobile phone to David Syme, in-coming ADRA Pakistan director for the second phase of Kashmir relief. Before this day ended, we had traveled six hours on mountain roads to Bagh, observed the distribution of quilts given by ADRA Switzerland. As "official" guests, we had eaten three meals comprised of special Eid meat butchered the previous Wednesday, and had been feted as the Pakistan army's guests of honor at a military briefing followed by an official dinner hosted in the Bagh Commander's tent at 10:30 p.m.

I had started both Fridays by jogging from the Rawalpindi Seventh-day Adventist church and ADRA office compound through two military check points on my way to the army athlete's sports facility where, a generation ago, I had coached the army brats' swim team and helped nicotine addicts from the army basketball team quit smoking. I had ended both Fridays by staring into the darkness, shrouded by a tent, my body craving sleep, my brain unable to shut down

If you read all 37 accounts produced by Mernie Johnson, you know why my brain couldn't shut down. Because you know more details about the ADRA Pakistan Kashmir earthquake disaster story than has been told about any other ADRA project ever.

You know why our ADRA team kept the office lights on 20 hours a day.

You know why volunteers worked their tails off while receiving "heart transplants".

You know why, amidst many bright colors from 18 donor flags, green and white still rules.

You know why the rain and snow waited for one month before collapsing Ellen's tent.

You know why Radek, the truck shepherd, was on call 24/7 for 7 weeks without a break.

You know why ADRA Pakistan needed a team of 70 contract workers to deliver 113,500 quilts as well as 8,500 shelters for 75,000 people.

Just one reason: we had to cover exposed Kashmiris before the winter froze them to death.

It was that simple, heart-rending truth that forced me to appeal to you for two vital arms of support to hold me up when I most certainly should have fallen and failed both ADRA and -- most importantly -- the survivors on the mountains of Kashmir.
I asked you to powerfully intercede, asking Allah God to delay the brutal the winter storms.
I asked you to donate 8 million dollars to provide a shelter and ten quilts for each exposed family.

On almost a daily basis, Mernie provided you with information. And your compassionate hearts responded through thousands of prayers combined with generous, often sacrificial donations. I will never forget the girl who raised $1,000 by asking all who attended her birthday party to put money in a box for Pakistan instead of buying presents for her. Nor will I forget the fact that countless numbers of families liquidated their entire Christmas present budgets into ADRA donations. All of your gifts grew into a sum total of $1,300,000!

ADRA Pakistan tried to manage every dollar received from you with care. And we were able to hold the administrative / distribution costs down to under 5%. [Bob Hancock: While the 5% overhead cost is simply phenomenal and outstandingly praiseworthy, readers of this blog should know that no donations made through this site were spent on overhead. Special arrangements were made to facilitate 100% of donations being able to go straight for relief supplies!]

Are you ready to hear the "final answer" about whether or not we left Kashmiris exposed in the mountains when the snow finally began to fall?

1. Did Allah hear your prayers of intercession? Yes, He did!
Ten feet of snow should have blanketed the mountains by December 1, 2005. By January 13, 2006, there was less than ten inches of snow on those same mountains.

2. Was enough money raised to provide enough shelters? Yes, it was!
A total of $2.3 million was donated in less than three months. Because God multiplied these donations through helping us find and negotiate quality products for minimal prices, ADRA became the lead provider of shelters in Bagh while coordinating closely with several other Non-governmental organizations and the military. One NGO (which will remain nameless) spent $63 million providing about the same number of products in another part of Kashmir as ADRA spent in Bagh.

According to the commanding military general of Kashmir who reported to me on January 13, 2006:
100% of all families living above 5000 feet (snowline) now have shelters covered by steel roofing sheets which have been secured to wood frames built from remnants of their fallen houses.
95% of all families living below 5000 feet now have similar shelters.
No one will freeze to death.
Unfortunately, however, several hundred people, mostly children, will still probably die of respiratory-related illnesses.

You are the ones who deserved to hear the Pakistan military single out ADRA as the most active shelter and warm quilt provider in the Bagh district. Let's praise Allah, not ADRA.

You deserved to be interviewed with me over national Pakistani TV and hear a caller rave about the low distribution costs as he commented, "I see other NGO teams driving around Islamabad in fancy sports utility vehicles while your team takes taxis." Let's praise Allah, not ADRA.

You deserved to be featured with Denise and me over Seattle King 5 last Sabbath at 5:35 p.m. and hear the commentator say that the Seventh-day Adventist Church sent a couple to Pakistan who were life-savers during a time of crisis in Kashmir.

Let's praise Allah, not ADRA.

Update #36 - A Volunteer's Journey

2006-01-16T19:43:00.000-08:00

Although yesterday's newsletter could have been the last, I have received a long letter from Carol Mattison Myers, one of the volunteers we sent to help in the relief effort. Tonight I would like to share excerpts from Carol's letter. Though it may be a few days before I have more to share, I do hope to share more news on the future plans for earthquake relief. Now for Carol's experience….

"It was a warm day in Los Angeles, and I was about to head off on another trip - this time on a trip like Abraham's journey into the unknown. I from Oregon, and Ellen Park from central California, were about to board China Airlines bound for Pakistan to work as volunteers with ADRA in the earthquake relief effort. Once on board the 747, we found it very crowded. But I can say one thing: Though the flights were long, the flight was not boring, not one minute of it. Ellen was a constant amusement.

"On arrival in Islamabad Ellen and I got our bags, went through Immigration, then went out to where we met Dr. John McGhee, who seemed so happy to see us. We went outside to get a taxi - it was so small that I wonder to this day how we got everything in! We weaved in and out of traffic, nearly scraping fenders and running over people. There were traffic lanes, but no one seemed to stay in them -- even the side of the road was ok to drive on. Once at the Mission compound, our eyes fell on the neatly made beds on the unfolded couches. But before we slept, Dr. John McGhee gave us a lesson in Muslim religion and customs, which proved very helpful over the next few days and weeks.

"The next day we were briefed on routine. We went shopping with John to get our official 'uniforms' - the local shalwar and kamise and the duputa [scarf]. We repacked our suitcases, downsizing because of space constraints, then we went over to the hotel in town to send out e-mails and talk to our kinfolk.

"The following day seemed to go like a tornado. At 1:30 we left for the airport in Islamabad to climb aboard the UN helicopter which would take us to Bagh. What an experience! We flew for about 45 minutes over the mountains, dotted with what were once dwellings, now just piles of rubble. Once we landed, we got our baggage and stopped by the Kashmiri guards who kept the register in which we had to sign our name, citizenship, proposed length of stay, and what NGO we were with. Then we climbed into the SUV that transported us through the streets lined with ruined schools and shattered stores, rough roads, and houses that looked like they would topple over if you blew on them. In a matter of minutes and we were at the camp where a big sign heralded the local ADRA headquarters. We were led to our green army-looking tent with blue tarps for the floor. Inside were three cots with thick blankets and sleeping bags.

"Our days usually began about 5 A.M. as we were awakened by the loud speaker calls to prayer. After we had our own devotions, we would be up to meet the ladies and men going out on the mountain. After the morning meetings and giving the workers water and food as they needed, Ellen would start taking in truck receipts and preparing reports for the NGO meetings at the UN. I would make sure camp was cleaned, the dish-washing process was sanitary, the office supplies were in place, and the office was up and running. I paid truck drivers, taxi drivers and employees. I usually didn't go off camp site, but when I did it was with a guard or another woman.

"I almost left after being there for a few days because of the devastation, the long hours of work, the physical pain (I fell and hurt my ankle, but thank God I didn't break it). And the inconveniences -- the first few days we couldn't get a shower, there was no place to brush our teeth, and we had to flush the toilet by bucket. I am glad that I didn't leave because God had a blessing for me and taught me to see blessings in everything. God's word does say we are to praise and give thanks in ALL things.

"Though there were many small earthquakes while I was there, there was just one that we felt. I felt no real fear at that time, but I could imagine how the people in earthquakes must feel.

"Through this experience I have made life long friends -- Pakistani, Kashmiri, American, and even Czech. Three of the girls called me mother. So I have now 3 more daughters. I wonder how to keep up with them. But I can pray for them and I will. I also have new brothers and sisters, and they are on my prayers list too. Now I have to send some chocolate to my daughters in Kashmir. They want coconut chocolate. Kids sure can get picky, huh!?

"At Christmas some of us from Bagh went down to ADRA headquarters in Rawalpindi for a few days. During the Christmas program there was a special tribute to the ADRA team. They got us all up to thank us. But what's to thank? To God be the glory. But it did feel good to know that many people were praying for us. After Christmas we went back up to Bagh, and soon I found myself closing up my books and handing over the safe keys to Ellen and saying goodbye. Not an easy task because I had gotten quite fond of my "family" there. I went down to Islamabad and helped with office work for a few days there. Then I found myself saying goodbye to folks there, and to Pakistan.

"On my trip back home, I met and visited with several very interesting Pakistanis, several of whom were going to Mecca for Hajj. I was thankful to have some good discussions with some of them. Hopefully God will bless those conversations with better understanding.

"I got home to a wonderful husband who has fed me and pampered me. And I have come back with a new set of concepts and dreams and a new openness and acceptance. Through life to this point I have been struggling with seeing everything in life as being black and white. No longer. Now I see the world and life in a whole color pallet of bright colors. I am beginning to see in all the faces around me God's created beings. I see people who are starved for love and care and for a listening ear.

"God wants all of our hands collectively, our feet collectively, our mouths and our ears unitedly, to show and to give His love to each other. I think the religion of heaven is going to be the golden rule -- the greatest command -- Love God with all your heart, and your neighbor as yourself.

"I challenge you go on a mission trip, take your children or grandchildren, and see what God does for you. I never thought that I would care what people do out there. But now I do. And I have become very aware that Christ is coming back soon, and I think the biggest change in me has been that I no longer want to just say the words. I want to live and love the great commission. How about us doing it together?"

- Mernie

Update #35 - It is finished. The saved are saved and the lost are lost. [update: No One Lost!]

2006-01-15T21:24:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends,

For the past week, I'm sorry that there haven't been many newsletters sent out. As I write today, I'm again on my way out of town and possibly out of internet range for several days. Yet I do want to write just a bit even though I don't have a lot to report. The news from our ADRA team in Pakistan has been scarce recently, partly because most of the emergency relief workers in ADRA have begun returning to their homelands.

California volunteer Ellen Park has had trouble getting e-mail out of Bagh. But I think she may have left Pakistan and might well be landing in the US just about now. In the one short message she did get through to me in the past few days, she included a comment from one of the locally-hired ADRA staff in Bagh. "The Kashmiris and we-all of us around here - thank you and all who have come from all over the world to teach us how to serve humanity. Before the earthquake, before ADRA, we did not know how to serve humanity. Now we know - because of you. We will be thankful to you forever."

John's brother, Dr. William McGhee, left last Thursday. Before leaving, however, he was part of an hour-long live television interview. It was aired on ATV, one of the most listened-to stations in Pakistan. Hopefully we will hear more about that from Bill in the next few days.

Radek Spinka -- the "shepherd of trucks" -- has also left recently. John did write a brief note a couple of days ago as he was saying farewell to Radek and some of the other ADRA team members. He said, "The word on the street here in Rawalpindi among the truckers is that no other NGO sent as many shipments, for as sustained a time, with as good organization, as did ADRA Pakistan."

John McGhee himself has been trying to tie up loose ends and prepare for his and Denise's departure from Pakistan in little more than 24 hours from now. As John prepares to leave Pakistan, he has also been briefing and turning over affairs to the new interim ADRA Pakistan director, David Syme. David has served for many years as an ADRA director in various parts of the world. He will be in Pakistan for the next month or slightly more. During that time, he will be writing proposals for upcoming aspects of the earthquake relief effort in Kashmir.

News reports yesterday indicated that heavy snows and rains have been falling in the quake-stricken areas of Kashmir in the past few days, halting much of the relief effort. Yet God has miraculously blessed and delayed the harsh winter weather, allowing us to send in several extra shipments. It reminds me of a Bible study group in our home in Singapore several years ago. The singing was a very special part of the Wednesday evenings. When the song leader would announce the "last song", we would sing it, but then someone else had a choice. So we would sing "one more last song." And still another at times. Two or three weeks ago, John wrote that he was placing his final order for quilts. At that time, some of us closely connected with the relief effort cried, thinking of the finality of it all. But then more donations came in and the weather held stable -- so he was able to place "one more final order." And then another. And we have been so thankful for your continued generosity, which allowed more people to receive help.

Now the last final order has likely gone in. The next project is scheduled to begin in March, when the snows are over and reconstruction and spring planting can begin. Hopefully I will be able to tell you more about that in a future newsletter.

I am not sure how many more newsletters will go out from here, or how often. As news comes in, I will certainly share it with you. Meanwhile, I again want to thank you for your generosity, your prayers, your support, and your interest in what has been happening in Kashmir.

May God guide you and bless you with His special care and blessings in this new year.

Mernie Johnson

P. S. Some of you have wondered if I was in Pakistan writing the newsletters. No. Actually I almost went, but John and my husband and I decided that I could be more useful to the relief effort right here at home, answering phones and e-mails and writing the newsletters. At times, when it has been difficult to get the news from there, I could have wished that I were there on site. I am thankful, however, that I was able to be at least a part of ADRA Pakistan's extended team - as have each one of you. Thank you again.

Update #34 - Eid Mubarak

2006-01-10T21:18:00.000-08:00

Winter in Pakistan - Newsletter # 34 - Eid Mubarak

Today Muslims around the world are wishing each other "Eid Mubarak" - A blessed Eid. Last Friday, John McGhee told me that any new orders would have to be placed on Sunday in order for them to be ready in one week's time. Due to the Eid holiday this week, most businesses are closed in Pakistan from Monday through Thursday.

Some of you may wonder, "What is Eid?" Because it is one of the most sacred events of the year for a Muslim, and because of its parallel to Christian beliefs, I thought it would be fitting for today's newsletter to tell you a bit about it.

In the Muslim faith, there are actually two Eid holidays - Eid al Fitr and Eid ul Adha. The first, Eid al Fitr, is known as the small or sweet Eid. It would be somewhat comparable to Christmas celebrations, with everyone getting new clothes and children receiving gifts. Preparations for this Eid start at the beginning of Ramadan, the month of fasting, and end with the Eid holiday. In Pakistan, breakfast on that day is based around a special sweet preparation of vermicelli noodles. It is first a day of worship, then of visiting family, friends and neighbors, offering Eid congratulations. Those who are financially able must give Zakat on that day. Muslims believe that wealth belongs to Allah (God) and is held by human beings in trust. Zakah is a portion of one's wealth -- generally 2 ∏ percent of one's savings -- that must be given primarily to help the poor and needy.

The second Eid is today - Eid ul Adha. It marks the end of the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, known as hajj. It is also the day of sacrifice, or Qurbani. To understand the Muslim thinking, let me take you back to the Bible story starting in Genesis 15. There we see that Abraham and Sarah had no children, yet God promised Abraham that his "seed" -- his descendants -- would be more than he could count. Then we read that Sarah, doubting that in her advanced age she could ever bear children, suggested that Abraham take her maid, Hagar to bear his offspring. When Hagar did become pregnant, the despising between Sarah and Hagar began, and Hagar ran away. Then an angel told Hagar that her son was to become the father of a great multitude, and his name was to be Ishmael.

Muslims believe that Ismael (Ishmael) was the son promised to Abraham. They also believe that Abraham received a great test from God, in which he was told to go out and sacrifice the life of his long-awaited son. As in the Bible story of Abraham taking his son Isaac to the mountain to offer him as a sacrifice, when Abraham went to carry out God's command, God spared the son's life and provided sheep to sacrifice instead. Thus Muslims today still believe in Qurbani as the ritual sacrifice of an animal, and every Muslim who can afford to buy an animal is required to perform this sacrifice.

Many Muslims will purchase a young lamb and then raise it as a household pet, teaching their children to love the animal. Thus when it is time for the Qurbani, the sacrifice is truly a sacrifice. A headline in today's Daily Times newspaper in Pakistan reads, "Children don't want their 'playmates' sacrificed on Eid." The article quoted one woman, "My son got very emotional when I was talking to the butcher. He said that we should buy a new animal for the sacrifice and keep the sheep." A young businessman told reporters, "I can't watch when animals are slaughtered on Eid, nor can I eat the meat of the slaughtered animal. When I was about nine years old, I became so attached to a goat so much that I even fought with my parents over its sacrifice." In reality, the whole intent of the Qurbani sacrifice is to remind every person that Abraham's actions showed that each individual should be willing to sacrifice his or her most precious assets for God.

Eid ul Adha is a day of brotherhood, when each good Muslim feels it is important to help those less fortunate, both in their own communities and in other areas. Some groups in Pakistan planned for a mass sacrifice, following special preparation procedures for the meat to be shipped into the quake zone. Various Muslim organizations have recently had online donation sites, on which their fellow believers could contribute the price of a goat or portion of a cow to try to make this Eid a joyous occasion for people affected by the October 8 earthquake.
Today I again want to thank each of you for the sacrifices you have made during the past several weeks to help your fellow human beings. Thank you for trying to make this day -- this winter -- more endurable and more joyous for those in the Bagh region who might otherwise not have survived to enjoy another Eid.

Mernie

Update #33 - Details on helicopter efforts, discrepencies in reports of remaining shelter needs

2006-01-08T22:01:00.000-08:00

Likely you have seen Pakistan earthquake relief operations on television. Although ADRA Pakistan has trucked much of its relief effort into the Bagh area, ADRA has received considerable assistance with helicopter deliveries and personnel transport as well. Since helicopter operations began, there have been only a few days when weather prevented helicopters from delivering relief supplies to the quake-stricken areas.

According to News International, Pakistan, by the end of December our United States helicopters had delivered more than 14 million pounds of humanitarian assistance to the earthquake struck areas since helicopter operations began October 10. The US is currently operating twelve CH47 Chinook helicopters along with four S70 Australian helicopters. During the past 80 days, US helicopters have flown more than 2,900 sorties, carried 14,156 passengers, evacuated 3,715 injured, and delivered more than 14 million pounds of humanitarian aid. The commencement of sling loading operations in November has allowed the US military to increase the rate at which it delivers aid.

In addition, the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS), under the auspices of the United Nations World Food Programme, has also had sixteen MI-8 helicopters flying relief operations and plans to add more. (Although WFP organizes and manages the service, it is a common service for the benefit of all eligible users.) The MI-8 is specifically designed as a transport helicopter. Its interior seats are removable, it has tie-downs on the floor for securing cargo, and it has an internal winch for pulling loads in through its rear clamshell doors. In the earthquake relief operations, a more important feature now is its cargo sling system capable of carrying up to three tons.

Helicopter sling loading provides a significant advantage for the relief efforts. Traditionally, loading cargo inside a helicopter takes approximately 10-15 minutes, requires a landing maneuver and another 10-15 minutes to unload at the delivery site. When loading internally, the amount of humanitarian aid delivered was typically limited to about 5,000 pounds. By using sling loads, the CH47 Chinook is able to deliver more than 10,000 pounds of relief supplies to an affected area, hover, drop the supplies, and quickly fly out.

UNHAS has also provided a large number of cargo nets for the relief operations. After the supplies are dropped on the ground, the various NGOs and the Pakistani military work together to collect the nets for reuse.

------------------------------------

Several people have asked how many families are yet homeless. John McGhee has responded that there is still a great need. The number of NGOs still delivering shelter and quilts is diminishing, and those still assisting in that regard are spread over the entire quake-affected region. John writes, "I have frequently asked the UN agencies for an accurate picture of how many people are still without shelters. They say it is impossible to know for sure.

"But most of us on the ground are aware that plenty of reports have been verified of villages where the data indicates families have received shelters, but in fact, they have not. According to our project director in Bagh, "so many people are begging for shelters. We simply cannot provide enough..."

"So the fight for life goes on."

----------

Please continue praying. God continues hearing and answering prayers. An example: John has to make a downpayment on every order, then he must pay in full upon delivery. No exceptions! All of which caused him a couple of sleepless nights last week when the delivery date was upon him and funds had not arrived. But God is never, ever late (though sometimes we humans may think He is, according to our own time schedules!).

Just in time the wire transfer arrived. Isn't God good? Praise God, from Whom ALL blessings flow.

Mernie
georgeandmerniej@cs.com

Update #32 - Plight of Pakistanis aired on Czech TV

2006-01-06T19:18:00.000-08:00

This morning I received an all-too-short e-mail from John McGhee in Pakistan. Though I know he and the other team members have been tremendously busy, I’ve nonetheless been pestering him for stories and information for the newsletters. His reply today was, “I've got lots of stories. But no time to write them...so sorry. The pressure has never been greater than it is right now. All of us are feeling it.” His greatest need right now, he writes, is “the prayers of the Saints. Those prayers are what we need most in order to cross this finish line with a race well-run.”

Later in the day John wrote again with some news. “This is going to be short but very sweet,” he said. Then he proceeded with a note about Jan Barta, Country Director for ADRA in the Czech Republic, who is spending his own vacation time documenting and evaluating ADRA Pakistan’s relief effort in Kashmir.

“Just five minutes ago -- at 2:55 A.M. – Jan gave an interview over national Czech TV via mobile phone. I heard him speak, then saw the end of his interview on television because there was a 30-second time delay [in the transmission].

“Within seven minutes, he started receiving text messages on his mobile phone from listeners. They were responding to his description of ADRA's work in Bagh and the shelter kits which our team distributed this past week in spite of snow, mud, and raw cold wind.

“Jan just phoned his wife to find out what her opinion was of his interview. When I asked him what she thought, Jan said, ‘she was satisfied.’”

In response to the reporter’s mention that 25 children had died on Wednesday from pneumonia, Jan began by describing the brutal weather. Jan told the reporter, "During the past three days, the weather has gotten better so that humanitarian relief could is now restored."

During the televised interview, the news editors showed pictures of tents collapsing and asked Jan how people can survive under such conditions. He replied that ADRA had distributed more than 60,000 metal roofing sheets for survival shelters. "The big advantage of a shelter is that a fire can be built to keep families warm," he told them.

According to the Dawn newspaper in Pakistan, helicopters have resumed relief work in the quake-hit areas of Pakistan after a three day suspension due to bad weather. However, the Pakistani meteorological department said that cold snap might grip the region again in next three to five days.

Denise McGhee writes that two Korean young men, Jeff and John, have just arrived in Pakistan after traveling by boat and flying across China. They had collected money from four churches and lots of their friends -- many of them poor theology students. They have now been able to get up to Bagh by road to help with the work there.

Dr. Bill McGhee, the volunteer psychiatrist from California, has done some travelling back and forth between Rawalpindi and Bagh. His latest trip back to Rawalpindi took only four hours, compared to 13 hours earlier this week, when the vehicle he was in had to return to Bagh because of road closures due to the weather. While in Bagh, Bill had a chance to see a number of patients and get a feel for the situation there to help him in his presentations in Islamabad. Today he conducted seminars all day for psychologists and mental health professionals.

Please continue to pray that God will give strength, wisdom, peace, and all else that is needed by our ADRA Pakistan team. There is so much that needs to be done in such a short period of time. Once again I invite you to write out prayers and e-mail them to me so that I can forward them to John and his team members there in Rawalpindi and in Bagh.

Mernie

Update #31 - Shelters followed up with health education

2006-01-04T18:35:00.000-08:00

In an earlier newsletter, I think I mentioned the six-lady health team, but I haven't yet given details on what they were doing. Tonight's newsletter will give some information on that plus an in-depth weather report.

The team tries to visit each "home" where ADRA has supplied a new shelter. They visit with the lady of the house, and listen to her talk about the trauma she and her family have suffered. Then they share information on how to care for her family's health needs during the winter without hard-to-get medicines. They suggest such home remedies as charcoal for dysentery, food poisoning or oozing wounds; snow and ice for burns or sprains; steam for coughing. They explain how to make rehydration solution and when to use it.

Then they tell the lady that this knowledge is from Allah-God, and that it always works best when accompanied by prayer. After their one-hour visit in the shelter, a health team member presents the woman with a hygiene kit consisting of four bars of clothes-washing soap, two bars of bath soap, a hand towel, two toothbrushes, two tubes of toothpaste, and a package of feminine hygiene supplies.

Washing clothes in Bagh

The kit - donated by ADRA/Europe -- is given as a commemoration of their visit, a one-time gift. To simply distribute the hygiene kits would be to set up a dependent relationship between donor and beneficiary, with more expected when the first kit was used up. Instead of being a blessing, the kits would bring curses upon ADRA. Thus far nearly 1,000 homes have received the kits in this manner, and so far ADRA workers have yet to hear one curse.

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Since October 8, there have been a total of 1547 aftershocks - including three somewhat insignificant ones in the past 24 hours. The Pakistan Met Office predicts that more aftershocks are likely during the next two months, ranging as high as 5.0 on the Richter scale.

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Yesterday morning I was happy to receive at least a short e-mail from Ellen Park, volunteering in Bagh. She writes, "Power is out. Email is totally limited. People are freezing." She continues, saying, "We just donated 30 stoves and 1000 quilts to the hospital for people from the mountains who are sick and will come down for hypothermia, pneumonia, etc."

In her brief message, Ellen said, "Snow is falling like wild." According to the Pakistan Meteorological Office, a severe cold wave is likely to grip the quake-hit areas in the next 24 hours. Most of the affected areas have received widespread rain or heavy snow in the past three days, and more is predicted in the mountains. The nighttime temperatures are already below freezing point -- as low as 5-15° in villages above 5,000 feet -- and are expected to fall still further as the cold wave hits. Daytime temperatures are predicted to be 45-50°, with a strong wind all day and a high wind-chill factor at night.

John McGhee wrote yesterday that the resort town of Murree, located between Rawalpindi and Bagh, already had two feet of snow, and more was coming down. "We knew this would happen," he said. "We prayed for it to be delayed. It was. And now we must pray for both the survivors who will barely make it through this winter, and also for those who will die - that they will be safe in the hands of Allah [God]."

Please continue to blanket the ADRA Pakistan team and especially the people of the Kashmir region with prayer.

Mernie

Update #30 - Shelters provided for 70,000 people, quilts for 115,000, the snow has finally arrived.

2006-01-01T21:04:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends

Sunday morning it started to rain in Bagh. Our team on site there kept calling us in Rawalpindi with updates -- telling us that the snow line was creeping down to their camp. By afternoon, big flakes were starting to accumulate. By bedtime, Ellen's tent almost collapsed due to the weight of the snow.

The three trucks bearing our last shipment of shelter kits took more than 33 hours to make what should have been a 10-hour trip. They arrived in Bagh yesterday just prior to the snow storm.

Last Friday, we placed our final order for 8,500 more quilts. The quilts are ready to go. But for now, we are storing them, waiting for another window of opportunity to send them to Kashmir as soon as the roads open up.

It is now time for me to admit that WINTER HAS COME to Bagh. Our first phase of the Kashmir Relief effort is virtually over. Please pray that we can smoothly phase out our staff and "close up shop" until our second phase begins in March. [John is due to leave Pakistan on January 17. Between now and then, he and his team will try to deliver the last relief supplies, but they will be working primarily on preparing closing reports, finalizing financial records, and turning over operations to the new interim director when he arrives in the next week or two.]

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH for your prayers. Just because it's snowing, don't stop praying for the survivors. Now is the time that cold reality hits me in the face. Now is the time that I must ask myself, "Have I done whatever was in my power to do, through ADRA Pakistan -- and especially through God's blessings and His power -- to effectively provide shelters and warm quilts to our Kashmiri mountain brothers and sisters?" The answer to that question may never be fully known.

But I do know this. Without your love, prayers, and Spirit-driven initiative, our ADRA team in Pakistan could never have provided quilts and shelters for about 70,000 people, plus quilts to another 45,000 people.

You and your compassionate friends and family members virtually came along with me to Kashmir before winter. With ADRA donors from at least 20 countries, we all worked as a team. I am sure we here in Pakistan could have done better. However, I am convinced that your donations have been carefully multiplied by God to save thousands of fathers, mothers, and children who would otherwise have begun to freeze tonight.

On behalf of ADRA Pakistan, thank you for trusting us. Thank you for loving us. Thank you for interceding with us. Thank you for sharing your birthday gifts and Christmas presents with us. Thank you for allowing yourselves to be touched, compassionately pouring out your lives with us as an offering to God.

Indeed, what we have been doing was not fundraising. It was not emergency management. It was not even a relief effort. It was, it is, and it will continue to be worship of our Creator - treating the Kashmiri mountain people as if each desperate survivor were Jesus himself!

With Love and Prayers,
John McGhee

Update #29 - Gratitude for ADRA's relief efforts

2005-12-30T19:50:00.000-08:00

Tonight I would like to share with you another sort of potpourri of news notes and a photograph or two from northern Pakistan.

Two Kashmiri girls in their locally hand-made shawls.

Kashmiri men eagerly awaiting ADRA's shelter kits and quilts.

School is in session in Kashmir.

First of all, from John McGhee:

Several local Kashmiri newspapers have featured ADRA recently. We are starting to get the articles translated. Meanwhile, I share with you one headline and a sentence or two from the same article: "ADRA INTERNATIONAL WONDERFULLY ASSISTED THE DISASTER SURVIVORS OF NELA-BUT."

The article goes on to quote several Kashmiri men - Shahid Iqbal, Abbasi, Jamil, Niaz, and others - as saying that "ADRA International distributed in a pure way and all things were distributed to the [truly] needy people." We will share more newspaper stories with you once the translation comes through.

Dr. William McGhee, a psychiatrist from Loma Linda University, arrived in Pakistan yesterday as a special volunteer. He has been officially invited by a deputy health director in the Pakistan government to be a guest lecturer from December 30 until January 10. Dr. McGhee, who also grew up in Pakistan with his brother, John, and understands the local culture, will be presenting lectures to various groups dealing with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in the wake of the October 8 earthquake in Pakistani Kashmir.

He has prepared a detailed curriculum for local psychiatrists, another series for psychiatrists in conjunction with other mental health workers, still another curriculum for leaders and supervisors of the volunteer relief workers, and one for the actual disaster workers who often suffer PTSD as a result of all the tragedy they deal with close-up. He also has a shorter series of talks for teachers and parents.

The ADRA/Pakistan team at present includes 67 contract workers and 11 volunteers from various countries. Most of those are actually based in the Bagh District.

This e-mail just came in from Carol Mattison Myers, arriving back in the US after her volunteer time in Bagh,

I am here safe. Pretty tired, and have been eating and sleeping a lot. Thanks for the special time and training ground there.

Sharon and Thearon Staddon (she working on an ADRA contract, and he a volunteer) returned to the US on December 23. They had given several weeks of extremely valuable service setting up and maintaining the financial systems for this disaster response. After arriving home, Thearon wrote some final comments about his experience as a volunteer.

We're home!! What a rich, pleasant, restful word - HOME!!....It almost seemed as if the last thirty days of incredibly long hours, arduous work, mind-boggling sights, heart-wrenching scenes, were just some sort of dream, a kind of nightmare, a figment of twisted, absurd imagination…

In view of all this - two exhausting journeys separated by twenty-eight hectic, pressure-cooker days - please answer for me a simple, straight-forward question: Why, in the name of just about any brand of common sense, would anyone, anywhere, decide to leave the comfort and reassurance of home and go half way around the planet to work sixty and seventy hour weeks - for free, of all things?

But even though I went for free and even though I'm still totally exhausted, I'm glad I went, I'm glad I saw, and I'm really, really glad I could help.

On a personal note, even though I've not (yet) had the opportunity to go to Bagh, I would have to echo Thearon's feelings, "I'm really, really glad I could help."

Mernie

Update #28 - Final orders placed. 51,230 lives saved in 27 days. Many still without blankets and shelter.

2005-12-28T21:50:00.000-08:00

A day or two ago I received an e-mail from a woman asking, "Wonder how many have been reached and how many more there are to be reached? How much of a "dent" has been put in the whole situation?"

I forwarded that question to John McGhee in Pakistan, telling him, "I know the answer will be sad, but I also know you've done what you could."

John answered that ADRA Pakistan had just placed the final orders for quilts. Your response to that may well be something like mine, "I sure don't like the sound of that 'final orders'!!! It sounds too....well, Final! In too many ways."

Today I received the answer to the question of how much of a "dent" ADRA Pakistan had made in the relief effort. John's response follows….

"One month ago there were 80,000 families in Bagh without shelters or quilts. We estimate that right now there are about 20,000 families in Bagh without shelters or quilts. But nobody really knows for sure.

"So our whole network of NGOs (35,000 families cared for) plus the military (25,000 families cared for) in Bagh district have provided about 60,000 shelters in the past month and another 50,000 prior to that time.

"By Friday, ADRA Pakistan will have delivered 101,190 blankets and "razai" quilts plus 6690 tents and shelter kits. That puts us in second position of the six NGOs providing shelters. The bottom line -- ADRA has saved about 70,000 lives in the past month. But there are still almost 200,000 people at risk. Fortunately, most of those live between 4,000 and 6,000 feet. The vast majority of people living above 6,000 feet now have shelters.

"Today is our last day for orders. We are praying for a miracle. Based on projections of funding, I told Iqbal last week that we could probably order an extra thousand shelters -costing $100,000 -- for the Cheeriala area. His team did the needs assessment and made a list. And the people are now anticipating that ADRA will come. But we are out of money, so poor Iqbal is going to have to face some very difficult days unless a major miracle occurs today."

As I send this newsletter tonight, my own tears are falling as I think of the finality John expresses, and I'm pleading with God to continue holding back the winter and to provide more funding. He has held the weather so long already. As John wrote this morning, "I believe that the huge contribution you have made through an intercessory 'prayer blanket' has been answered by God in delaying the harsh weather conditions that we expected by November 30…. All the NGO people I talked with yesterday on my way to and from Bagh are amazed that the weather is holding." I just checked the five-day forecast -- it shows a chance of a bit of rain for a day or two then clearing, temperatures dropping a little more, but still no snow predicted.

I also thank God for the generosity and the sacrifice of so many of you, from the very young to the very old, and from so many parts of the world. Without your intervention, ADRA Pakistan could only have delivered approximately half as many quilts, and only about one-fourth as many shelter kits and tents. "The funds that have been given compassionately are being very carefully spent to assure the highest quality for the lowest price," John writes. "God has multiplied these funds…. You - the recipients of these newsletters -- have helped save 51,230 lives within the space of 27 days!"

Tonight I join John in saying, "Thank you so much for your prayers." And for all you have done for the people of Kashmir.

Mernie

Donations may still be sent through the Central California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.
Checks should be made out to the CCC and mailed to:

Central California Conference
Attention Donna Krazan for Pak Quake Fund
P. O. Box 770
Clovis, CA 93613

For Visa, Master Card or PayPal donations, click the donation button at the top of this page.

Update #26 - "It is a miracle that the snow is not here today..."

2005-12-27T22:10:00.000-08:00

In this newsletter, we hear from Jan Barta, the country director of ADRA in the Czech Republic, on his first trip into Bagh. Jan arrived on Christmas morning to spend his vacation time volunteering in the Pakistan earthquake relief effort. He writes….

It is just one year since we heard the terrible news from the media about the tsunami in Southeast Asia….Today I am in Kashmir, on the one-year anniversary of the Tsunami. I didn't plan on being here, but here I am in Kashmir.

Today I was in the village of Kanamohri, not too far from the town of Bagh, when the quilts were given to people. With 431 homes, the village -- or maybe it's better to say destroyed buildings with tents -- is spread out over the hills. After the October 8 earthquake, less than 40 houses from all the village remain standing. The other houses fell down like spinning tops.

The sun was near the top of the mountains when we left the ADRA Pakistan camp in Bagh and drove with five trucks, accompanied by Pakistan military, toward Kanamohri village. Maybe if the situation was different, I would have taken a lot of time and paid more attention to the beauty of the typical trucks (such as were carrying the blankets), but now was the time to do something of more importance.

"It is just a miracle on the hills that the snow is not here today," says Iqbal, the project manager for ADRA here in Bagh, "because last year the snow was on the hills in the beginning of November. And when the snow comes, this is the end of all action." It's not possible to transport blankets to any village surrounding Bagh if the roads are filled with snow. Because the snow has not fallen yet, we are able to breathe in the dust coming up from the wheels of the trucks. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter that the roads are so narrow. Blankets must be given out to the people before the snow comes. Without blankets the people could not survive the winter.

Right now the main person who is looking after distributing the blankets [the local "razai" quilts] when they are given out is Adam Gaines, who came here from South Korea on a holiday. [In his early 30s, Adam is volunteering in Bagh during his winter break from teaching counseling/psychology at Sahmyook University in Korea, where he has been for the past five years. He arrived in Pakistan last Thursday, and by Friday afternoon he was already in Bagh, leading a six-person team to distribute quilts in the mountains.] He has promised to stay here though mid-January. We need him here. Under his leadership, the blankets are distributed with great care, and people follow his leadership.

I was interested to know if the schedule of the names of people in need is really fresh and actual, and if all people in need receive the blankets. One of the drivers, Mischel Younas, who is a student of economics at a local university, told me that after the earthquake, the soldiers were monitoring the situation very properly. Every week they produced a new list, and the head of the village would arrive just in time to monitor the distribution of the blankets.

Today, up until dark, 2,155 blankets were given to the people. And the people were waiting very peacefully to hear their name. (When I say "people," I mean men, because the women with their children keep their distance from this place. This is something that marks the culture. In this culture the women speak in quiet tones among themselves from a distance. The men fulfilled the main role.)

Kanamohri was not the only village that was supported by ADRA Pakistan today. Adam Gaines showed me the day's schedule with four other village names. In the morning 2,255 quilts were given to another four villages. And when I say to Adam, "You are a good man," he points to his distribution team around him and says, "This is not only me; it is the work of the people of Kashmir."

Update #27 - Report from the ground on blanket distribution

2005-12-27T11:04:00.000-08:00

Update #25 - Christmas among the earthquake survivors

2005-12-25T21:19:00.000-08:00

Christmas Day
Dec. 25, 2005

Today's newsletter report is from Jan Barta, the Czeck Republic ADRA Country Director, who arrived at 6:00 a.m. today. (His message has been translated by Radek Spinka.)

The time when Jesus was born is also remembered in Muslim countries. It's less noisy, less commercial, but you definitely cannot miss it. Full Christian churches in Islamabad were living proof of this fact.

The Adventist church decided to prepare a traditional service in the garden next to the church which shares the same roof as the ADRA office. Not only church members were present. Three hundred invitations had been delivered to Christians and Muslims in the surrounding neighborhood.

Everyone was festively dressed for the occasion. There wasn't enough space on the chairs, so many sat on blue ground tarpaulins similar to the tent floors used for Kashmiri survivors. Sitting on the floor or on the ground covered by canvass or rugs comes naturally to most Pakistanis.

Some young boys sat in the branches of an orange tree next to the wall. I think that any boy in the whole world wouldn't mind sitting in a tree. Maybe they wanted to be like small Zachaeus , to see Jesus from high above. Or maybe they were tempted by the fruit growing on the branches.

The service started with singing. The melodies were surprisingly original. They did not remind me at all of European Catholic or Protestant Christmas songs.

Ladies in multicolored dress and scarves were clapping in rhythm. The men timidly joined them. After the last song of praise, child actors appeared depicting a live Bethlehem scene, including Mary, Joseph, three wise men, and two shepherds. But baby Jesus snuggling peacefully in "Mary's" arms was a teddy bear which was wrapped with a scarf.

The man who gave the Christmas message was not a specially-invited guest preacher. Instead it was John McGhee, who was born in Pakistan and lived a number of years in this country. He came back to serve as the director of ADRA Pakistan to take care of the Kashmir earthquake relief effort after the October 8 disaster. In his sermon, he spoke about the hope, through Jesus Christ, which fills the hole in human hearts. The service concluded with a blessing for the babies, followed by a garden of prayer for the sick. After the last prayer, everyone was invited to eat a meal.

Our very interesting project [from ADRA Europe] involved the purchase of 60 tents, each 21 by 30 feet, which are now serving as temporary schools. These large tents were specially designed for harsh weather conditions. Large wood heaters/cooking stoves were custom-designed by Radek Spinka from the Czeck Republic, who has been looking after this aspect of the project since mid-November, coordinating the complicated journey of these tents from Bulgaria. Each of these oversized tents weighs half a ton and costs $960.

ADRA Pakistan director John McGhee added, "One year ago there were already ten feet of snow that had fallen by November 28. It's a miracle that there is still no snow in Bagh tonight. With a clear conscience I can declare that, together with the local people, we used this time to the maximum. I believe ADRA Pakistan will literally save thousands of human lives."

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John McGhee adds this note, "Merry Christmas from Pakistan. Our ADRA team -- comprised of Ellen, Carol, Denise, Radek, Jan, and John -- are still having fun working today, though some may feel that it is a sad and hopeless task. But today - Christmas day -- ten trucks loaded with 4,000 quilts are arriving in Bagh so that 1000 families will sleep warm tonight for the first time since the earthquake."

Update #24 - "It's really getting colder!"

2005-12-23T08:53:00.000-08:00

Today's newsletter is from Ellen Park, a young ADRA volunteer from California. She says, "It's really getting colder!" She also mentions that Adam Gaines from Colorado arrived today to volunteer. He will be "out in the field" more. We look forward to news from him in future newsletters.

What follows is the personal experience of a young woman named Asia, a local hygiene promoter on the ADRA team in Bagh, as told to Ellen Park....

___________________

"My friend, Sarah, died in the earthquake. She was very beautiful. She was studying for her masters in Commerce. She died in her home. She was sleeping when the earthquake hit. She read the Koran before she went to sleep, then, died. After three days, her body was found. Her body was very decayed. Only her body and her face remained. Only her brothers, her father, and I went to identify her body. She was my very close friend. I shared all my feelings with her. My Mother, my whole family misses Sarah very much. I pray to God that Sarah will have life in the new earth.

"I was watching TV and cleaning my two-story house when the earthquake hit. I woke up my family. Our whole home is demolished. Everything is damaged. All our furniture, the sofas, TV, tables are destroyed. The whole house had fallen, except for a small space where my sister-in-law was tightly holding her baby, who was injured in the earthquake. My sister-in-law had scrapes, scratches, six stitches on her head, and broken wrists. One wrist needed surgery. But she's still alive!

"Next door, there is a girl's hostel (dormitory). Ten girls died. Thirteen were severely injured. They were taken to Islamabad for medical treatment.

"When the earthquake hit, there was screaming, yelling, crying, and calling for moms and dads. And people were yelling "Run!" People were disoriented. Before the earthquake hit, there was 30 minutes of darkness. Following the earthquake, a downpour of rain started to fall.

"There were no hospitals, doctors, nurses -- there was nothing available. My sister-in-law was bleeding heavily. Three days later, she got medical treatment."

When asked how she felt, Asia said, "Right now I feel the pain for all the children. My mom is not dead. Even if the dads are alive the children cannot be cared for like [they would be by] their mothers. Many moms died. Many dads did not die--they were at work. Little school children died in the school buildings.

"My Father is a retired army supervisor. My Mom is the Lady Manager for all the schools (like a superintendent for the schools). My Parents have worked their whole lives to offer their children a nice house, with nice things, and an education. Now everything is gone. Now we live in a shelter tent. And it's "so very cold" at night. All living moms and children are sleeping in tents."

Update #23 - ALLAH not ADRA

2005-12-22T08:09:00.000-08:00

Early in the earthquake relief effort, ADRA Pakistan was distributing tents. Then winterized tents became available. As you have likely noted, in the past two weeks ADRA has turned almost exclusively to the more permanent "shelter kits". Each family receives enough roofing to cover a room approximately 12 x 15 feet. Small though that may seem, it is enough for sleeping and cooking - adequate to carry them through the cold winter months.

In today's newsletter, John McGhee writes about his recent trip into the mountains far from Bagh town, where he accompanied the team delivering shelter kits to several more families.

Mernie

_____________________________

High above a roaring, milky river, in the midst of Pakistani-green terraces, laced by hand-placed rock walls, I stood yesterday with a family who was about to receive eight corrugated steel sheets, some tools, and ten quilts. Sounds of blatting goats, chirping birds, squawking chickens, and one lone bellowing buffalo, formed the accompaniment to the solo voice of the grandfather who simply said, "Please tell ADRA thank you."

John looks down at the family buffalo (above)
and stands with a family who has just received
a shelter kit (below).

I was inspecting our Sehri Bandi advance camp where 40 ADRA workers are providing 2,200 shelter kits to beneficiaries from four villages. This one-hour photo-op required eight hours of driving over ragged, one-lane mountain roads in our four-wheel-drive Toyota. I was probably at about 6,500 feet. The land there was all cultivated and still green. But there were mountains looming higher.

On the trip, I didn't do any "grunt work". I never do. [He doesn't do the unloading, heavy lifting, and all - quite likely the Pakistani men would stop him if he tried to. Yet John is putting in 17-hour days - "I've never worked this hard in my life, day after day, with no day off in sight! His efforts are more along the lines of organization, fostering a team spirit and morale, and building confidence in God's ability to do the impossible.]

If you could understand Urdu, you would have heard these words from the 15 "panchiat" leaders [village elders] who had walked a total of 28 hours to say, "Other NGOs came, wrote our names down, and never came back. But your ADRA team conducted a survey, and they were delivering shelters and quilts to our families within two days."

Late afternoon shadows lengthened as I walked up the mountain path bisecting the "highway" where our ADRA Toyota was parked. One vehicle passed by every 20 minutes or so. Our rapidly swelling entourage gathered there to say "Allah Hafez" (Good-bye, may God go with you).

Forty mountain Kashmiris faced me, as if expecting some final words of wisdom. I silently prayed. Then I lifted my hand, pointing to the sky, and said, "If you really want to say 'thank you,' then you should thank Allah, not ADRA."

"If now you are praying once a day to Allah, make it two. If you are praying two times a day to Allah, make it three. If you are praying three times a day to Allah, make it four (at this point applause broke out). If you are praying four times to Allah, make it five. THANK ALLAH, NOT ADRA."

When I finished, most of the men were nodding, with their hands over their hearts -- a Muslim way of expressing heartfelt gratitude. It truly was the right time to say those three words that are used as the Muslim's highest praise to God and their call to prayer: "Allah O Akbar!" -- God is great!

Update #22 - Word from a new volunteer at ground zero: "It isn't like home..."

2005-12-20T20:42:00.000-08:00

This morning I received an e-mail which touched my heart - maybe because I can almost hear my own granddaughter or grandson saying something similar.

"Thank you for the newsletter updates. My 31⁄2-year-old daughter said this prayer on her own one night recently. "Dear Jesus, please keep the poor people warm." Amazing how even a young child can understand the need and trust Jesus to help. She was also very interested to help us send money for blankets."

Today I share with you a day in the life of a volunteer from Oregon who has been hard at work in Bagh for the past week. Earlier in the week, Carol wrote, "I was doing great until I went to town and then saw a baby shoe in the rubble. I wanted to run…wanted [my] tickets [back home] changed, but then I prayed and concentrated on the wonderful weather still here. I took a sponge bath, brushed my teeth, and washed my hair after not doing so for three days." After that, and "after a whole lot of prayer," she continues, "something changed. I became a new Kashmiri…. God is good and I have nothing to complain about. I have good Pakistani food, an English toilet, and great people to work with. It isn't like home, but we are safe."

Last night Carol wrote to me again….

Hi Mernie,

Well yesterday was a wonderful day. I woke to a cool chill, with the Mullas chanting their prayers. The mynahs are chirping and the brown crows are sounding like they are laughing at us, seeing it is 5:30 AM and they are awake and flying around and we are trying to keep warm for just a few more minutes under our sleeping bags and thick blankets.

An earthquake, though short, jars me out of my comfort and so I am awake and start my devotions. I am very happy for the rest and protection we have had. I wash my face in very, very cold water. I might even brave washing myself and my hair today with that same cold H2O. My face burns and my head aches from the cold but it doesn't last long. [I spend] a few minutes in our cold tent office, to turn on the heater, which is not running very well, and pay some bills. Then at 8 AM we have breakfast -- a soft fried egg and sweet white bread and chai [local tea]. Now we work in the office and will be running to and fro until 1 o'clock. We eat as if the Kashmiri food placed before us will be our last meal The mountain air has given us a very good appetite….Then we are back to work organizing camp and getting supplies.

We ran out of water last night, so I went into town with Pallus the SDA driver. He had to take some of the young ladies home who have been giving out hygiene kits all day. I went along and ended up going into two homes. At the first, we walked along a wall, then along a rocky path, then around a very damaged home, being careful not to dislodge anything. Around to the back we go. There is a tent and a covered entrance. The covered area is where the cooking is done and the tent is the area where the family live. There is a TV, cabinet, four mats on the floor a goat rug, and a father and mother and brother. All are very loving and offer tea. I feel so much love in this room. They are wondering all about me; I wonder about their love and happy kindness. They are so brave. Their mouths smile but their eyes don't cover the loss and the stress.

Then I went to the next home. The house shows signs of damage, might not be so safe to be in, but the family still lives there. The mother and brothers are wonderful. The young lady who works for ADRA every day helps her mother get oranges and apples for me. They want me to stay longer, but I know that I must get back. But about that time I think that I hear Javaria talking to our ADRA director. Oops, he is wondering where I am. I have been gone an hour. We did get the water, really.

The Christian man, Pallus, was singing along with the radio all the way back. What an example to me. What would I react like if I were here? I hope that, because of Jesus, my faith would be strong and I would be like them.

I do a little more work in the office. It is now 8 pm and I call [my husband] Phillip and do some emails. At 9 I climb into bed for a well deserved sleep. God is good.

Love,
Carol

Update #21 - Recap of the last 3 weeks...

2005-12-19T18:14:00.000-08:00

(Today's newsletter is a re-cap and update of the past three weeks of ADRA Pakistan's efforts to save lives in the quake-stricken mountains of northern Pakistan.)

As a child, John McGhee enjoyed singing the song "Into a tent where a gypsy boy lay, dying alone at the close of the day…." That dying child was waiting, longing, for someone to tell him the message of salvation. In the Karakoram mountains of Kashmir tonight, thousands of Pakistani boys-and girls-lay on the ground without tents or blankets, freezing to death soon if no one helps.

When the deadly earthquake hit northern Pakistan on October 8, it left an official death toll of 81,185 and another 64,290 people still missing. From the time he first heard about the quake, John carried a heavy load in his heart for the survivors. Moved by the text in 2 Timothy 4:21, "Come before winter," he volunteered to help.

On November 13, John left home to spend two months as director of ADRA Pakistan. Born in Pakistan, he learned the language and culture as a child. Later he spent several years there as a health educator. Now based in Rawalpindi, John works in a temporary office and walks to the Intercontinental Hotel to send e-mail. He says that nothing in his 27 years of working in Asia prepared him for this emergency assignment. "It's a job unlike any other I have ever done."

Of the 211 Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) and faith-based agencies providing earthquake relief in Pakistan, five have been assigned to provide shelter and blankets. The others are providing health services, food, sanitation, and educational kits. As a shelter provider, ADRA's territory is a whole region of small villages in the mountainous Bagh district. There the people live in cave-like dwellings made of wood, stones and concrete. They cook over wood fires and kerosene stoves.

This year, these wirey, tough shepherds grazed their sheep, planted small terraced gardens, handmade their rough clothes and quilts, and dried food. Each summer they must prepare for the brutal winter, when they stay inside, snuggling up to their sheep, goats, donkeys, and cattle to keep warm. Then the quake struck. In Bagh alone, 12,486 people died. There are another 10,000 walking wounded. At least 60,000 families - about 420,000 people -- lost their homes.

Within days of John's arrival in Pakistan, the United Nations logisticians, statisticians, scientists, and computer experts all agreed that by December 10 "we won't have to worry about transporting tents and blankets any more. There just won't be a need for them." Further, as with other NGOs, ADRA International had set its budget limit. That limit was sufficient to provide tents and blankets to about one-tenth of those in need. This meant that thousands were doomed to freeze to death. To John, this was simply an unacceptable option.

John began to pray that God would hold the weather. By e-mail, he invited others to pray. By mid-November last year, 10 feet of snow blanketed the rugged mountains of the Bagh district and temperatures ranged from 20 degrees down to -30 degrees F. As of now, there is miraculously no snow on the ground. The brutal winds have not yet started to blow. Though some nights are frosty, the days are still a balmy 70 degrees. This phenomenal change in weather patterns is due, we truly believe, to the pleading of men, women and children around the world, added to the fervent prayers of those at-risk mountain people who can still warm themselves around a fire.

Then John and his wife, Denise, prayerfully proposed to raise 8 million dollars of private tax-exempt donations within two weeks in order to provide enough tents to for everyone to be warm. (It costs $250 to provide a tent and quilts for a family of seven.) Anxious to get started, they began the fund-raising drive with 10% of their own net worth. On Thanksgiving day, John turned for help to childhood friend and fellow missionary to Pakistan, George Johnson. Almost immediately, daily e-mail newsletters began going out and were forwarded to hundreds if not thousands of friends and family members around the globe.

In the past three weeks, the generosity of God's people has made it possible for ADRA Pakistan to help save the lives of 36,379 people in 5,197 families by providing:
2,170 winterized tents
2,452 shelter kits -- metal sheets for roofing, nails, a hammer and a shovel
63,120 warm locally-made quilts
340 wood-burning heating/cooking stoves

All this would not have been possible without the donations of nearly $800,000 in the past three weeks through the Central California Conference, ADRA International, savebagh.blogspot.com, and World Medics Inc.

Initially, John himself slept in a tent while the mission house was being repaired. Then, on a trip to Bagh, John visited the home of Ismat, the 23-year-old college graduate who is the on-site administrative manager for ADRA. Most of one wall was gone and the ceiling hung down. Though Ismat had lost her baby sister there, she was still sleeping inside because there was no room for her outside in the tiny "tent" made of patched cloth scraps. Back in Rawalpindi that night, John moved out of his tent and sent it to Ismat so her family would have a bigger, safer place to sleep.

ADRA Europe has provided 60 large tents which serve as schools by day and sleeping quarters for 50 people at night. Recently John visited a 700-student high school in Bagh where two of the huge tents are already in use. Pakistani students always wear uniforms. But many of these children were wearing the only clothes they have - the ones they were wearing on October 8 when more than 100 of their classmates died. Every student had lost at least one family member. Later, flying out of Bagh by helicopter, John noticed makeshift tents that looked like patchwork quilts. He couldn't help wondering if the material had been someone's favorite shirt just two months before.

Recently a Pakistan Consulate dignitary commented on how many churches have sent so many thousands of dollars to the Pakistan President's Earthquake Fund. Our donations and our participation--our Christian concern for Pakistanis in need--is a powerful statement in that largely-Muslim nation. Much is said today about the war on terror. Your gift, your love, can do more than the armies, the bullets and the bombs that are perceived to be the weapons in this war. God says, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." (Matthew 5: 16) What better way to combat misunderstanding, hate and anger than by love.

What are John's goals for the next week or two? He says, "We need to deliver 10,000 more shelters in the next 10 days. At $175 per shelter, that's $1,750,000. We need to deliver 100,000 more quilts. Cost: $2,000,000. Total urgently needed: $3,750,000!"

I think of the song "Let Your Heart Be Broken" (Church Hymnal #575)? It reads:
Let your heart be broken for a world in need;
Feed the mouths that hunger, soothe the wounds that bleed,
Give the cup of water and the loaf of bread-
Be the hands of Jesus, serving in His stead

Let your heart be tender, and your vision clear;
See mankind as God sees, serve Him far and near.
Let your heart be broken by a brother's pain;
Share your rich resources, give and give again.

The Lord can keep holding back the winter weather. Continue to pray. Blanket the Kashmiri survivors with prayers. The work must not decrease in intensity until the UN declares it too late to provide shelters.

Today one can almost hear the voices of children shouting, "Allah-o-Akbar!" as they receive their new tents and warm quilts. Our hearts join them in that prayer of praise, "God is great!"

If God impresses you to give, please do so ASAP.

Donations may be sent through the Central California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. Checks should be made out to the CCC and mailed to:
Central California Conference
Attention Donna Krazan for Pak Quake Fund
2820 Willow Avenue
Clovis, CA 93612

For Visa or Master Card donations, phone Donna Krazan in the CCC accounting office at 559 347-3119.

To donate by Paypal (or VISA or MasterCard) online, use the PayPal at the top right of this blog's home page.

Mernie Johnson

For questions, or to receive the daily updates, e-mail Mernie Johnson at georgeandmerniej@cs.com

Update #20 - Before the Setting Sun

2005-12-19T00:23:00.000-08:00

Today's newsletter is musings of Ellen Park, the volunteer from California, as she sits in her tent in Bagh.

- Mernie

_____________________

Before the Setting Sun

He stands out. I hadn't been here long. I could already pick him out of a crowd. He carries himself with dignity. His tall, lanky, somber frame is usually draped in an over-sized army-green-colored coat. In the evening, the temperature drops. Then, I see his head and neck wrapped in the same, multi-colored knit scarf. The black tassels decorating the ends seem to bounce in rhythm with each deliberate step. His dark, thick skin looks worn. The wrinkles by his eyes run deep.

I can't help but wonder what his story might be. He's a middle-aged man. The small patches of white hair around his ears tell me he's older than I might think. I watch him from my corner in a burgundy plastic chair. The aroma of cooking potatoes, onions, and spices are over-powering. For a moment, my germ-phobic compulsion seems to evaporate with the steam coming from the Pakistani dish of lentils simmering over the gas stove. The stove sits on the floor against the left wall on the bright blue tarp. (I don't think the set-up would meet fire-code!) He moves with skill about the "kitchen." The kitchen is a beige-colored, canvas tent. I try not to wonder if the water from the "sink" -- a smashed, blue, rusting metal barrel -- is clean. The barrel is outside. It's propped on a rock and two blocks, probably from the rubble of what was once a building.

Later that night we're in the "office"-a tent set-up in the center of the compound. Our project director tells me the story. "The day" fell on the same day Besharat's only daughter, a twenty-year-old mother with her one-year old daughter had come to visit from out of town. The house collapsed. Both were killed. Now, he spends seven-days a week cooking for ADRA's fifty-three employees. He almost tells me the story matter-of-fact-like-facts only. This is how stories are told, at least here.

It's the next day. Besharat is called into the office. He hands me a picture….

He turns his face away. He fights to keep his face unmoving. He is dismissed. He turns to leave. I watch him from my desk through the window netting. His usual controlled step falters. He makes his way around the corner-the opposite direction of the kitchen. I see him stand in a space between two tents. I follow his gaze over the hill. The clouds are tinted pink. The sun has set on another day in Bagh.

A Prayer

It's five.
The air is getting cold. The vast sky reveals small patches of pink. From where we are, I never do see the sun set. The colors are still nice. The voices of the call for Muslim prayer seem to relay their cries across the city, as if singing in rounds.
I always marvel at their ability to sound
the chant,
the song,
the cry
across such distances.

I think about the rest of the city and the technological advances made or not made. I am reminded about what their priorities must be. The call for prayer is important.
I wonder what kind of sound system it takes. Is it a tape, a recording, or live? Who decides who gets to sing?

I guess it doesn't really matter.
The one word I recognize is "Allah."

I believe
He recognizes their cry.

Ellen Park
Friday, 16 December 2005
Written in UN meeting tent

Update #19 - 13 year old asks for all her Christmas presents to be donations to Pakistan

2005-12-16T18:21:00.000-08:00

First, let me thank you, on behalf of ADRA Pakistan, for lavishing your prayers, your salaries, your bank accounts, your birthday and Christmas gifts, your savings, and your compassion upon the mountain people of Kashmir.

A friend wrote this week that his granddaughter Kaitlyn "chose to prepare special postcard invitations to her 13th birthday party asking for no presents but donations for Bagh survivors. She has sent [in] over $1,000 in this effort."

Tonight, I can assure you that her generosity and yours has made it possible for ADRA Pakistan to save the lives of 36,379 people in 5,197 families by providing:
2,170 tents
2,452 shelters
63,120 warm quilts
340 wood-burning stoves

In addition to distributing the quilts and shelter, ADRA Pakistan also has a team of six women health educators. The health team includes one registered nurse, a nurse/midwife, and four other college-educated young ladies. John McGhee has spent time teaching them some of the public health "tricks" he has learned through the years. To encourage more handwashing, he simply challenges the women to pray five times a day in their homes -- all Muslims must engage in a ceremonial washing and cleansing before praying. John says that training the young women "was such fun - I truly love equipping health educators!" The health team has already been given 6,000 hygiene kits to distribute. In addition, ADRA has sent $75,000 worth of medicines into Bagh.

All this would not have been possible without the direct donations of nearly $800,000 which you have given in the past three weeks through the Central California Conference, ADRA International, savebagh.blogspot.com, and World Medics Inc.

And God has heard your prayers. The snow has not yet fallen over the beautiful mountains of Bagh. The brutal winds have not yet started to drive down the wind chill factor. Though heavy frost falls, with ice forming on water during the night, days are still a balmy 70 degrees.

This phenomenal change in weather patterns is due, I believe, to a blizzard of prayers mixed with the fervent prayers of those at-risk mountain people who can still warm themselves around a fire tonight. Today, while I was being interviewed by the editor of an Urdu Newspaper with the largest distribution in Pakistan, I made the point that ADRA is a very small NGO. But the prayers of Seventh-day Adventists world-wide have simply multiplied ADRA assets in ways that cannot be measured, audited, or accounted for.

Allah God truly does have "a thousand ways to provide for us of which we know nothing." (E.G. White)

On October 8, at least 60,000 families - 420,000 people - whose homes were 88% destroyed. To date, all of the NGOs and military efforts together have provided only about 19,000 shelters. That leaves 287,000 men, women and children -- 41,000 families -- spending tonight in the open air without any blankets or quilts.

Many of you have sacrificed, have prayed, have volunteered to help in various ways. For that we are deeply grateful. And yet, while many Kashmiris shiver around their little fires by night and struggle to put their lives back together by day, may the prayer of each one of us be, "Lord, what would you have me to do?"

May God guide and bless you,

Mernie Johnson
e-mail: georgeandmerniej@cs.com

----------

If you would like to make a donation to help save lives in Kashmir, choose any of the following:

To donate through ADRA, phone credit card information to 1 800 424-2372*. To donate through the ADRA website, go to adra.org and choose "Pakistan/Kashmir Relief" as the fund to be credited. Checks may be made out to ADRA International. Specify that the funds are for the Kashmir Shelter, Stove and Quilt Project. Mail them by the fastest way possible* to:
ADRA International
12501 Old Columbia Pike
Silver Spring, MD 20904
*The ADRA International offices will be closed from December 23 through the Christmas holidays.

The Central California Conference is still accepting donations by mail and by credit card. Mail checks to Central California Conference of SDA, attention Donna Krazan, 2820 Willow Avenue, Clovis, CA 93612. For Visa or Master Card donations, phone Donna in the CCC accounting office at 559 347-3119.

To use Paypal for donations, use the button at the top right of this blog's home page.

Online donations may also be made through World Medics, Inc. Go to worldmedicsinc.org and click on "links" then on "Network for Good". Type in key words "World Medics" and click on "search." Click on option 4, "World Medics Inc." then on "donate now. Under "designation," type in "Pak Quake."

Checks may also be made payable to World Medics. Please do not write on the check which project it is for. Instead, attach a note specifying that it is for Pakistan quake relief. Then mail your check to:
World Medics, Inc.
c/o 11247 San Juan
Loma Linda, CA 92354

Update #18 - "I was there today--and that was scary enough!"

2005-12-15T21:10:00.000-08:00

Today John McGhee asked his volunteer administrative assistant, Thearon Staddon, if he would write out his impressions of his first trip into the quake-shattered Karakoram mountains. His report follows, titled simply "Report from the Mountains."

Dear Friends,

How can I really explain to you my first visual, on-site opportunity to see some of the results of the stupendous energy and destructive force of the earthquake of October 8? Perhaps the best way is to simply take you with me as I walk out the gate of the ADRA compound here in Rawalpindi with my boss, Dr. John McGhee, on our way to the airport.

Once we got to the airport, I spotted a fork lift driving down the street in front of the terminal with a car perched up on the fork. For whatever reason, the operator had the car hiked up about 10 or 12 feet in the air, swaying and rocking along. Maybe he could see better driving through the airport terminal mix of taxis and buses with the car up and out of the way. Apparently the driver of that car made the mistake of treating a no-parking zone a tad too casually.

In a few minutes John and I were through security and waiting for the UN helicopter for our ride into the mountains. The helicopter was an Mi-8, which I believe was manufactured in the old Soviet Union. It was piloted by a Ukrainian crew. The captain spoke fairly good English, and with each stop he announced the next leg of the journey almost like we were riding in a bus in some city. "Next stop, Muzaffarabad--15 minutes!"

The first leg of our journey helped me get a sense of these mountains. They're high and relatively dry like the Colorado Rockies, clad with a thin forest of pines and a liberal supply of rocks. Yet they seem to be as steep and rough as parts of the South Dakota Badlands.

Our flight up to Bagh was via the "milk run." We went to the opposite end of the most severely-damaged area, then worked our way back toward Bagh, landing at three other locations in between. Naturally, I was all eyes at each landing, looking for buildings that had collapsed. At the first landing site, because of all the tents set up in farmers' yards, I didn't see a whole lot of earthquake damage other than the hint of lots of structural weakening, if not downright flattening.

On our first approach to landing, I saw how the mountain people make cropland out of mountainsides. The fields are narrow and long, wrapping in and out, following the contour of the mountainside. There's a short berm at the outer edge of the field, then a breathtaking drop nearly straight down to the next strip of field some distance below.

On take-off after the next stop, I spotted a four-story building with the whole central front part crumpled into a mass of rubble. From the air it looked like some giant had taken a 10,000-ton maul to it, attempting to finish off the building with single swing. But missing slightly, it took out only the center front portion-clear down to the ground. That was an amazing sight.

The closer we got to Bagh, the worse things looked on the ground. In fact, just up the valley from Bagh, we flew through an area where the whole side of the valley was a mass of fresh landslides. Literally hundreds of millions of tons of rock and soil must have gone roaring downhill when one whole hillside simply gave way. In another location I saw a fresh landslide area where there were three "chutes" joined into one huge slot probably a mile across, and something like 3,000 or 3,500 feet from top to bottom. It's almost impossible for me to describe how stupendous those landslides really are.

In places, I was shocked to see how whole mountainsides slipped downhill, leaving "steps" at various levels on the hillside with intact forests on each of the steps, and each step separated from its sisters above and below by sheer faces of fresh rock and soil. I've never seen anything like it in my life. I just can't imagine the immense power and energy expended in the course of that earthquake.

When we got to Bagh, I was almost overwhelmed by the devastation. Buildings everywhere were flattened-and there are still bodies buried here and there under all that rubble. It was rare to see a building without X-shaped cracks in the walls, spidering out from the corners of windows and doorways, and especially from the top and bottom of walls at the corners of buildings. Big, ugly, wicked-looking cracks. Obviously those cracks were advertising, loud and clear, the danger of even entering such buildings. But the weird thing is that there are still shops in the ground floor of cracked-up buildings where the shopkeepers and customers are doing a brisk business.

Iqbal, our Project Director there in Bagh, drove me around town for the better part of an hour. He had to maneuver between piles of rubble, pedestrians, motorcycles, cars and small pick-ups. And add to that the huge NATO trucks and equipment brought here from a variety of European nations to help clear away the rubble so the region can begin a new life again.

In the course of our drive, Iqbal told me that a large governmental agency had hired a number of tractors (invariably Massy Fergusons) pulling heavy trailers. Their job was to cart away the countless trailer loads of rubble-with the rebar removed for recycling as concrete reinforcement. Iqbal desperately needed tractors with trailers to haul shelter components, tents, quilts and other materials up to outlying villages, but because ADRA isn't willing to just throw money at problems, he knew there was no way, based on pay alone, that he'd ever be able to hire any tractors.

But Iqbal being Iqbal, he began talking with some of the tractor drivers/owners. Then he said to me, "I, ah, like we say in our language, 'let the human come out of them' and helped them see that anyone could haul rocks and trash, but that by helping me, they could actually save lives. And saving lives is so much more important than just hauling rocks and trash."

To the surprise of their former employers, four of the tractor drivers are now working for Iqbal and ADRA, hauling life-saving shelter and warm quilts up into outlying villages-for lower wages than their former employers paid.

To me, there's a marvelous challenge for the rest of us in the decision of those tractor drivers. They decided money meant less than other people's lives, and they moved from hauling rubble to saving lives. Are our lives saving other lives? Or do we spend our time hauling rubble?

There's so much more I could tell you…

I could tell you about the UNHCR (the UN refugee agency) representative who came to Iqbal's "office" in a tent to thank us for the winterized tents that are of such high quality compared with all the others. I could tell you how he said he had asked UNICEF for tents and they offered him 50, maybe 75. But when he talked about getting 300 winterized tents from ADRA, they suddenly urged him to accept at least 200 from them!...

I could tell you something of John's conversations with mental health workers and the crying need for psycho-social intervention in the wake of this disaster…

I could tell you about the two volunteers who came from America and are sleeping in ADRA tents in Bagh, and the fabulous job they're doing keeping Iqbal's "office" efficient and effective while he coordinates the distribution of life-saving materials in outlying villages around Bagh…

I could tell you about how John fell fast asleep, his chin dipping down toward his chest, before the helicopter was even ten minutes out of Bagh…

But rather than ending with any of those stories, let me instead simply tell you that today was one of those profound days that meets us in life only occasionally. Today was, for me, a day that helped further develop in my mind a deep, significant respect for those hardy hill people who are truly survivors, as John so often reminds us.

I wonder how I'd have reacted that Saturday morning when the earth rumbled and shook, the buildings around me collapsing into rubble and dust and whole mountainsides shearing away and crashing down into the valley below in a roar of dust and rock and broken trees…

I wasn't there then, but I was there today-and that was scary enough.

Update #17 - The Shepherd of Trucks

2005-12-15T09:37:00.000-08:00

Pakistani trucks come in two sizes: large, fat trucks carrying a maximum of 6 tons; and small, scrappy "mountain" trucks carrying a maximum of 12 tons. Confused? Now you are beginning to understand why a "truck shepherd's" life is never dull.

Meet Radek Spinka, ADRA Pakistan's logistics officer, on special assignment from the Czech Republic. He is our primary truck shepherd.

Today he will manage millions of rupees, analyze thousands of details, make hundreds of decisions, and dial up scores of phone calls. All this just to put 23 trucks -- carrying a total of 147 tons of relief supplies -- on the road to Bagh.

At this moment he is trying to find a truck that has disappeared since it left the steel sheet factory near Peshawar, and has taken 30 hours to make a 7-hour trip.

Stacked all over our Rawalpindi office lawns are 500 winterized tents that will take 10 trucks to deliver today. Additionally, he'll send 39 huge custom-built wood-burning heaters on another truck. These were converted into two-burner cooking stoves specially designed for the sixty 1,000-pound miracle school tents we mentioned last week -- 35 of which were delivered and erected by our ADRA team in the past three days.

Then there are the three trucks filled with steel sheets, hammers, nails, saws and shovels, which left Rawalpindi at 3:00 a.m., 5:l5 a.m., and 6:40 a.m. this morning. They should be arriving at the Bagh town of Deerkot within a few minutes. There are six more trucks filled with 2,700 quilts that will be loaded this evening, and two additional trucks filled with steel sheets from Mardan.

Radek is on the phone right now with Ismah, his counterpart in Kashmir. She is a competent 22-year-old with her BA in commerce and speaks English fluently. Recently promoted, she manages to keep about 50 ADRA employees busy off-loading trucks, putting up tents, helping people erect shelters, and coordinating estimated arrival times of the trucks with Radek's help.

Pakistani truck drivers are famous for being tough, diligent, honest, spiritual, and gracious. They are also infamous for being drug addicts, slothful, extortionists, radical fundamentalists, and exacting. You can't tell by looking at the outward appearance. Besides, Radek doesn't hire the drivers. He simply "inherits" them.

It works like this. We have three NGOs (non-governmental organizations) in Pakistan which do nothing but provide free trucks, jeeps, mules, and helicopters to those NGOs --such as ADRA -- that are registered with the United Nations consortium. When we have NFIs (non food items) to deliver to Kashmir, Radek calls up one of those three "transportation" NGOs, giving them 24 hours advance notice. They will want answers to the questions:
What will be loaded?
How much will it weigh? What is the volume?
When will it be loaded? Where will it be loaded?
Who is the contact person?
Where will it be unloaded?
Who is the contact person?

Radek uses ATLAS, a French NGO, most of the time. He gives the information, and they hire the trucks. Then Radek goes the extra mile, getting names of truck drivers, license plate numbers, and mobile phone numbers if possible, so he can help Ismah trace them if and when they get lost -- which happens about 40% of the time!

I'm not ashamed to tell you that our ADRA staff often stops to pray for these trucks, their loads, and their drivers. So far, Radek hasn't lost one of the 118 trucks carrying 812 tons of lifesaving items you have donated with love for the Kashmiri earthquake survivors.

Good news! Radek just informed me that Ismah called and said that the one lost truck has been found, and it is now unloaded.

The shepherd of trucks has done his job today. So has the Divine Shepherd.

Your donations of $3,000,000 during the next nine days will be received with joy so that Radek can faithfully keep on filling, sending, and shepherding trucks filled with shelter kits and quilts to save another 63,000 lives before Christmas.

Reported by Dr. John K. McGhee
ADRA Pakistan

Update #16 - Two new volunteers on the ground, Mountain people digging graves to prepare for inevitable victims of freezing.

2005-12-13T13:30:00.000-08:00

Winter in Pakistan - Newsletter # 16

Two new volunteers arrived in Pakistan this past weekend to help with the relief work. Ellen Park from California and Carol Mattison Myers from Oregon, arrived in Rawalpindi just in time to get two nights of sleep, receive briefing on the ADRA Pakistan relief effort, re-pack their bags to leave for Bagh. And squeezed in between all of that, they had to shop for clothes that would be more "culturally sensitive" - the traditional women's shalwar-kameez, the very comfortable long blouse-like top and baggy pants. As Ellen writes, "It sure surpasses any 'modesty' attempt of mine in the States!"

On Monday, Ellen and Carol flew to Bagh by NATO helicopter to begin their duties as base camp manager and logistics reporter. While there, the ladies will go without a proper bath or shower for the next two weeks. They will sleep in tents, ride over rough roads, and work 14 hours a day - with night duty thrown in whenever the ADRA supply trucks arrive!

As the logistics reporter, Ellen is supposed to report back to ADRA Pakistan headquarters each day on what is happening with the by-now dozens of workers in Bagh who are helping with the distribution of ADRA relief supplies. "Of course you need to understand," says John, "that Ellen will have to file her report, save it on a memory stick, walk a kilometer to the United Nations Joint Logististics Commission (UNJLC) tents, get past the security guard, hope that the electricity doesn't go off, pray that the phone lines are working, really pray that the internet is not down, wait for a free moment when the UNJLC people or any other NGO with e-mail capabilities can give her a moment on their computer - then in a flash, if all goes well, she will plug in, copy, and send - with probably not much time to receive."

So far John has not been able to confirm any damage from yesterday's latest quake with his team in Bagh, but has promised to keep us informed. Weary from the long days of work, he says that he slept right through the shaking in Rawalpindi, 220 miles from the epicenter. His Rawalpindi-based logistics officer, however, "woke up when his bed began skating (and there was carpet underneath)." Several others were awakened by their beds shaking and the dishes rattling in the cupboards. And, "after the quaking stopped, the crows began a chorus of cawing!" John points out the "sobering but absolutely true" reality that "even if another quake as bad as the October 8 Kashmir disaster hit us again, less people would die in it than the number that will probably die of cold within the next three weeks."

Sadly, many people in the mountain region anticipate that they will not be getting any help. Reports are coming in that some of the men are already beginning to dig graves before the ground becomes frozen hard.

What are John's goals for the next week or so? He says, "We need to deliver 10,000 more shelter kits (metal sheets, hammer, nails and shovel) in the next 10 days." At $175 per kit, that's $1,750,000 needed. Besides that, "We need to deliver 100,000 more quilts in the next 10 days. Cost: $2,000,000." Total urgently needed, $3,750,000!

John tells us that his leading Pakistani ADRA worker decided to donate the money that he and his wife had planned to use for their son's birthday celebration - which can be a sizeable expenditure! Furthermore, he plans to contribute all his per diem plus one month's salary. Gifts large and small - all are appreciated. From the major donations of $100,000 to the three one-dollar bills that came in an envelope without any note. Was it from an elderly person who gave whatever possible? Or from a little child, touched by the need of children in a faraway land. God knows, and He cares. And we are thankful for each one of you who is giving, praying, writing words of encouragement, or helping in some other way.

Several of you have already e-mailed prayers, which I have forwarded to John. Please keep them coming so that he can "wallpaper" the offices with your prayers.

Thank you, and may God richly bless each one of you.

Mernie

Update #15 - Huddled around the fires with no blankets or tents...

2005-12-12T17:30:00.000-08:00

As this newsletter goes out, word has just come in that an earthquake of about 6.7 magnitude has hit northwestern Pakistan/northeastern Afghanistan. The rugged terrain in that area is very sparsely populated, and at this time there are no reports of damage or injuries.

ADRA's truck-unloading supervisor in Bagh has overseen the unloading of 93 truckloads so far. And he always seems such a cheerful man - in spite of the bitter blow dealt him on October 8. When John McGhee asked his project director in Bagh if the man had suffered any losses in the quake, he heard a heart-breaking story. "That man with the generous smile, strong handshake, and loyal heart is almost mortally wounded emotionally," says John. "He feels a crushing guilt because he was not able to rescue his little daughter" - his only child. His wife barely escaped with her life, but her pelvis was totally crushed, and now the realization has hit that they can probably never have another child.

ADRA is one of only five Non-Government Organizations providing shelter in the quake-devastated area of northern Pakistan. The other NGOs are providing health services, food, sanitation, and educational kits. As a shelter provider, ADRA has been assigned a whole region of small villages two to four miles from the Bagh District town of Deerkot. There -- "hovering over little campfires tonight without shelter or even a quilt or blanket to wrap around their shoulders" -- live 3,500 families, or about 24,500 men, women and children. In fact, according to an Associated Press report, soon after the quake hit, many survivors burned broken furniture to stay warm. Others stormed the badly damaged national library in Muzaffarabad, pulling out newspapers and books-about 10,000 of them in one night -- to make bonfires. A library clerk wept when he saw what was happening. "The books are like my children," he said.

In the past two days, the ADRA team has inspected more than 2,000 family dwellings and prepared a list of 1,600 families who will receive a "family package" in the next few days. That will provide each family with 7 razai quilts, a tent, and a cook stove. ADRA workers still urgently need 3,500 more family packages, each costing $250 - a total of $875,000.

Meanwhile, ADRA has now begun sending more permanent "shelter kits" into Bagh - 350 of them went last night. Each shelter kit includes
Eight 26-guage metal sheets for roofing
One hammer
2.2 pounds (one kilogram) of nails
One shovel
It takes five trucks to deliver the 37+ tons of building material to the Deerkot area, a five to eight hour trip, depending on road conditions. There, about 50 ADRA staff will offload the materials, distribute them among the pre-screened families, and help the families to build their shelters. Walls are already being made of broken bricks, sand bags, wood frames, and other materials salvaged from their quake-shattered houses.

This week John is praying for a blizzard - not of snow, but of prayers. "I'm starving for more prayers," he writes, "written as special e-mail messages. Denise has printed out and put up on the walls all the prayers which we have received. We have about 10. I'd like all three rooms of our ADRA office to be covered with prayers." He would also like to post as many prayers as possible on the walls of the ADRA tent base camp for all the Muslim ADRA staff to read as well. If you would like to write out the prayer that you are praying for John and the people of northern Pakistan, please e-mail them directly to John or to me at georgeandmerniej@cs.com

Update #14 - A bumpy ride

2005-12-10T06:45:00.000-08:00

Tonight I want you to take an imaginary trip with me - only for John McGhee it was not imaginary! He has just returned from Bagh, but not by helicopter as planned. He had no clue why the helicopter didn't arrive. "All the NGO [Non-Government Organization] people were waiting on the helipad," John says, when "finally the guy from UNOPS (United Nations Operations Systems) told me the copter just wasn't coming."

By then it was late afternoon, leaving John and some of his ADRA team to make the road trip in the ADRA 4-by-4 pickup mostly after dark. Not a problem in North America. But in the quake-shaken mountains of northern Pakistan, for the first four hours "the road was bumpy, a mixture of partial pavement, rocks, potholes, dirt and gravel." Only the last hour -- from Murree {Pakistan's most famous mountain resort town) down to Islamabad and Rawalpindi -- was good road.

But the "speed bumps" would not be the worst part of the trip. They had to go through three mountain passes. And the narrow mountain roads often twist and turn, sometimes with nothing but a sheer 3,000-foot drop-off on one side. Add to that the fact that some of the big trucks, as well as the vans and pickups, may have only one headlight. Or none at all! And if an oncoming truck meets you flashing his headlights, it simply means, "Watch out -- I'm coming through!"

Everyone in the pickup started out hungry - most hadn't eaten since morning. But "after about two hours of twisting around hairpin curves, while managing to avoid rocks which had slid onto the road because of small earthquakes during the previous 24 hours," the newest ADRA employee got sick. By the time they had to stop four times for her to vomit, John says that "the smell had permeated our ecosystem, [and] none of us gave much thought to eating!"

Through the long night drive, however, John says "we spent at least three of the five hours singing Pakistani Zaboors (Psalms) of praise." Then he told stories of how God had saved his family several times from certain death. "So we had a wonderful Sabbath worship, [adding] fasting and prayer to the menu."

When I asked John what he did while in Bagh this past couple of days, his answer made it clear that he'd had a very busy but profitable time. While there, he visited with the military commander in charge of all relief operations in the Bagh District. The commander is working up a list of reputable business people in the area, encouraging ADRA and other NGOs to purchase as many items as possible locally to help stimulate the economy.

He also visited with leaders from the Spanish/Italian NGO "Alizei" which is focusing on education, working with local councils and the District Commissioner to analyze where schools should be located. ADRA is collaborating with Alizei on the brief storage and setting up of the huge tents which had miraculously come through from Turkey. Although Alizei had originally planned to move the tents into the appropriate locations, the organization later said it was impossible - the 1,000-pound tents were too big! Usually John would use tractor-trailers to haul the tents to where trucks cannot go, but another NGO had already hired them all. So ADRA will likely have to hire jeeps to transport them. Meanwhile, John arranged with his on-site director, Iqbal, to hire more than 40 men to pitch seven of the large tents each day for the next eight days.

During this trip into Bagh, John also made some other good contacts, among them the on-site coordinator of the United Nations Human Rights Commission, which is dealing with emergency contingency planning. When the brutal weather hits, UNHRA expects 20,000 residents of the high country to migrate down to the valley town of Bagh virtually overnight, thus doubling the town's population. UNHRA is working on a collaborative plan, uniting the efforts of several agencies.
* ADRA would provide 1,000 winterized tents, to be used in two of the three planned camps.
* UNICEF would provide schooling materials, good latrines, and water supply.
* WHO would provide medical care.
* WFP (World Food Programme) would provide three months of food rations.
* The Pakistani military would provide security.
* The government of Pakistan would pay rent to a local land owner for prime space in the valley by the river - "It would be multi-million dollar property in Seattle," says John.

This proposal should get underway on Monday, and John expects that within one week, the preparations should be half done. "I haven't figured out the matching dollars yet," he says, "but it wouldn't surprise me if for every dollar ADRA was investing, another four dollars are being invested by other NGOs. And this doesn't even include the dollars that the civil government will spend for rent, or the dollars it will cost the military to provide a detail ensuring security."

"By the way," John says about his recent trip, "I took a picture of a stable filled with over 100 mules. I hope it turns out…. I was quite curious because the news reports I have been reading say that there is a shortage of mules to make deliveries in the high mountains…. I guess they are resting on the Sabbath!"

Please continue in prayer for the efforts of John and his ADRA team in northern Pakistan. And may God give you a blessed Sabbath rest.

Mernie

Update #13 - 280,000 still without shelter in Bagh, night temperatures now below freezing.

2005-12-09T18:40:00.000-08:00

WEATHER REPORT: Northern Pakistan, Friday, December 9:

Balakot Saturday: slightly cloudy. Sunday through Wednesday: clear. Highs 59-64, nighttime lows 30-41.

Chitral Elevation: 4918 ft. Saturday: scattered clouds. Sunday through Tuesday: clear. Wednesday: scattered clouds. Highs 51-55, nighttime lows 26-37.

Murree Elevation: 6975 ft. Saturday: scattered clouds. Sunday through Wednesday: clear. Highs 57-60, nighttime lows 32-42.

Skardu Saturday through Wednesday: clear. Highs 39-46, nighttime lows 8-17.

How long did God hold the Red Sea "highway" open? How much time did it take for ALL of Israel to cross over the Jordan River? As tents and blankets are being delivered, as money has been transferred daily almost halfway across the world, how long will God hold the opportunity open for people to be saved? His heart remains pure love. His thoughts are all good. He is mighty to save!

John McGhee responded to us earlier this week, "Tonight there are two million Kashmiri people hovering over a fire to keep warm, without one blanket or quilt to wrap up in. And there are 42,000 households - more than 280,000 people -- with no shelters. $2,500,000 would keep one fourth of all the families in Bagh from freezing, providing 10,000 shelters, 10,000 stoves, and 70,000 quilts. Our ADRA Pakistan team is poised, practiced, and prepared to deliver. We'll work through Christmas and New Years holidays, if the weather holds."

As you can see from the weather report, God is holding the weather. We praise Him and we thank Him for that miracle of love and mercy.

Yesterday I received an e-mail from John McGhee's oldest daughter, Jennifer. I share that with you, along with the attached poster she and her youngest sister have designed.

"Dear Aunty Mernie,

"Here is a poster that Jondelle and I made to raise money for Pakistan. You could post it on the Blog as a picture, I think.... Send it near and far.

"Thank you for all you're doing for Pakistan. Every day we pray and talk and pray and talk here, and hope that people will continue to join in making a difference!

"Like the song says, 'Dill dill, Pakistan' - 'my heart is in Pakistan'."

To acquire the poster in reproducible format (which you could take to Kinkos or elsewhere for enlarging), go online to savebagh.blogspot.com. (One correction is that on the ADRA website -- adra.org -- people should click on "Pakistan/Kashmir Relief".)

We close this week with the good news that just over $500,000 has been contributed through the Central California Conference "Pak Quake Fund" since we began this newsletter almost two weeks ago. During at time, we understand that ADRA/International has also received donations and directed about $500,000 in additional aid to the earthquake victims. Praise the Lord.

Thank you for caring. Thank you for your gifts.

Mernie

Update #12 - Colors of a Catastrophe

2005-12-08T12:59:00.000-08:00

The following newsletter is from an e-mail received hours ago from the internet. We forward the message to you. The effort in Pakistan has been supported by many people and countries around the world. John McGhee, emergency director of ADRA Pakistan describes ADRA directors thousands of miles away who have written proposals and have sacrificed to focus assistance in the Bagh District of northern Pakistan. We will continue to send you messages such as these along with news items from Bagh so you can pray and support ADRA Pakistan's race for life for the Kashmiri people.

Sincerely,
Mernie Johnson

Colors of a Catastrophe

After 9/11/2001, I saw red, white, and blue (the USA's flag).

After December 26, 2004, I saw white and red (Indonesia's flag),
orange, green and white (India's flag),
yellow, green, red, and orange, (Sri Lanka's flag),
blue, white, and red (Thailand's flag).

On October 8, I saw green and white (Pakistan's flag).

Each of these flags represents people whose lives were devastated by an historic mega-disaster. Tonight, I see flags reflecting all the colors of the rainbow -- glimmering in the 1,755 tents, 15,000 quilts, 33,500 blankets, 120 stoves, 6000 hygiene kits, 2,500 lanterns, 300 food packets, and 117 boxes of medicine costing $999,159.00, which are being delivered to the mountain people of Kashmir by ADRA Pakistan.

These flags represent people, who have given multi-colored currencies to keep Kashmiris alive this winter - generous people from:
Australia
Austria
Belgium
Canada
Czech Republic
Denmark
Finland
Germany
Japan
Korea
Luxembourg
The Netherlands
Norway
Portugal
Slovakia
Sweden
Switzerland
The United Kingdom
The United States

I am so proud of the 18 ADRA directors and their teams from each of these donor countries for putting in thousands of extra hours writing proposals, calling donors, recruiting a gifted and extremely motivated team to work with me in Pakistan, and writing countless email messages.

Two days ago, ADRA Sweden, Switzerland, and Germany sent nearly $200,000 for shelters, quilts, and stoves. ADRA International has sent $110,000 for shelters, quilts, and stoves, with much more in the pipeline from donations received during the past week.

Alex is just one example of an ADRA director used by God to move a mountain. He lives in Turkey. Although his office did not send any money to ADRA Pakistan, he actually gave a donation worth $180,000 -- the cost of paying for three C-130 cargo planes to deliver 60,000 pounds worth of tents to Pakistan. When the huge tents were donated by several European ADRA donor countries, promises were made by a certain airline that the tents would be sent free of charge to Pakistan. It didn't happen.

So Alex was asked to find an alternative. He immediately trucked the tents from Europe to Turkey, arranging free passage with a huge Russian cargo plane. But the tents arrived too late. A couple hours later, during a United Nations Joint Logistics Center meeting in Islamabad, our ADRA Pakistan team learned that NATO was making its last flight out of Turkey within 36 hours. Alex personally traveled hundreds of kilometers with the truck drivers, driving non-stop through snowy passes at night, and got those tents loaded onto three C-130 cargo planes in time for NATO's final free flight.

Today those tents are in Bagh. This week, they will be distributed by trucks and helicopters to villages where about 50 people will sleep in them by night, and about 75 children will study in them by day.

Last Friday I visited a 700-student high school in Bagh where two tents are already in use. Pakistani students always wear uniforms. But many of these children were wearing the only clothes they have - the ones they were wearing on October 8. More than 100 students from this school died in that 92-second mega disaster. Every student in that school has lost at least one close family member.

I looked over that student body, noting the many colors of clothing. A couple hours later, while flying low over the mountains via helicopter, I noticed makeshift tents, that looked like patchwork quilts. The colors looked about the same as what I had just seen at school. I couldn't help but wonder if the material had been someone's favorite shirt just two months ago.

When Jennifer, our firstborn, was a little girl, I used to sing this song to her in the very room here in Rawalpindi where I will soon be sleeping tonight. That was 29 years ago. But the words are now even more appropriate than ever:

"Goodnight, I said to my little one;
All tired out when the day was done;
She said to me as I tucked her in;
Daddy won't you tell me what color's God's skin?

What color is God's skin? What color is God's skin?
I said, It's black, brown, it's yellow, it is red and it is white.
Every man's the same in the good Lord's sight."

So what are the colors of a catastrophe? The shades are countless. But I leave you tonight with two: the green and white in Pakistan's flag, matched by the green and white in ADRA's logo -- "Changing the world, one life at a time."

Update #11 - ADRA Fundraiser Endorses Appeal for John McGhee

2005-12-07T11:04:00.000-08:00

God continues to work marvelously! Yesterday a letter was e-mailed from ADRA/International to Conference offices across North America. In the letter, Elder Cyril Miller, who is retired and serves voluntarily as an ambassador for ADRA, appealed for members and churches to respond to the urgent need in Pakistan. Those of us who have been praying and supporting victims of the Pakistan earthquake are overjoyed at Elder Miller's letter. We knew that our newsletters would only reach a limited audience with the urgent appeals from Pakistani Kashmir. The ADRA/I appeal will go far and wide. For this, we praise God. We quote Cyril Miller's letter below:

"Dear Conference Leaders:

"Fierce freezing winter weather is coming to the Kashmir mountains, and here is a very urgent humanitarian appeal that could mean life or death for tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of Pakistan earthquake victims before Christmas arrives.

"Since retirement; I have become a volunteer Senior Ambassador for ADRA located at our world headquarters in Silver Spring, MD. In view of this, I am sending you a very urgent email from John McGhee, who is the ADRA International Emergency Coordinator for relief assistance to the Pakistan earthquake survivors.

"John is a personal friend who was raised by missionary parents in Pakistan and has been recently commissioned to coordinate ADRA's efforts to save as many lives as possible before the extreme harsh weather arrives.

"As you carefully read John's very moving email report, prayerfully ask God to guide you and your constituency in making a major life-saving donation to help these devastated and desperate people.

"Also, please send this urgent appeal directly to your pastors and church leaders asking their congregations for financial support by sending an emergency, tax-exempt gift ASAP as follows:

"1) On line to ADRA International at http://www.adra.org under "other opportunities" "South Asia Earthquake relief" or

"2) Via credit card, by calling ADRA International, 1-800-424-2372 or

"3) Mail a check to ADRA International, 12501 Columbia Pike, Sliver Spring, MD 20904, using a 24 hr. mail service.

"Please emphasize the urgency of this appeal via email or fax to the leaders of your churches because due to the harsh winter weather after December 24th ADRA cannot airlift the life-saving tents, blankets and food and those without will die.

"Thank you for joining Joyce and me with a generous response,

"Sincerely your friend,

"Cyril Miller

"P.S. A wealthy Pakistan businessman has pledged to match every dollar that we raise for the earthquake survivors. So, your donation actually doubles in value to help save lives!"

As of last evening, approximately $300,000 has already been directed to Pakistan in response to our newsletters. By the end of this week, we expect that a total of $500,000 or more will have been realized as a result of your generosity. God has been so good to keep the weather much more mild than normal.

Now we thank God for this general appeal by ADRA/International. What a blessing! We understand that every dollar donated by December 23 will go directly to ADRA/Pakistan for the relief efforts there.

We understand from Pakistan that many of the first-responders to the disaster accepted the conventional wisdom that by December 10 it would be too late for further aid to be delivered. Within the next very few days, ADRA will be one of the only agencies still providing shelter and blankets to homeless victims of the quake. We understand that the United Nations and the Pakistan army have adequate helicopters and other transport to move the tents and quilts into the affected areas.

In the Karakoram Mountains of Pakistani Kashmir tonight, we can almost hear the voices of children shouting, "Allah-o-Akbar!" as they receive their new tents and warm quilts. Our hearts join them in that prayer of praise, "God is great!"

Mernie Johnson

Update #10 - Why Use Tents?

2005-12-06T12:38:00.000-08:00

Over the past few days, several people have inquired of John and of me, "Why tents?" Aren't they going to blow down in the storms? Why not build more permanent structures? Let me give some of the answers to these questions. First from John McGhee himself:

"Firstly, there is absolutely no question that a shelter is the better option. ADRA Pakistan is vigorously working on this option. The best shelters are made with wood frames, retrieved from the collapsed houses, walls made of sand bags filled with gravel, barbed wire laid between each layer of sandbags to hold the walls in place, and corrugated roof panels. The shelters made like this are warmer, they are earthquake proof, and they will certainly last longer than any tent on the market. Plus you can build a fire inside, whereas with a tent, you have to have a special wood burning stove with a chimney.

"Secondly, you should know that the Pakistani market for corrugated roof sheets (it takes 8 sheets per shelter) is extremely limited because both the Pakistan army and many Non-Government Organizations are ordering these. Thus the price is higher than usual, and the supply is almost non-existent."

It is impossible to deliver enough sturdy building materials to house all of the affected in time for winter, what with road blockage at times and the fact that much of the relief aid is sent in by helicopter. We would have to say that something is better than nothing.

The tents which John is getting now are winterized tent technology from Japan, so should be the best available. They do have some layers of insulation.

Interestingly, John has recently mentioned that many of the high-mountain people have preferred the colorful razai quilts to tents. They tell him that with the thick quilt they can keep warm at night. But even more, they can walk around or sit outside during the day, still warmly wrapped up in their quilts.

Yes, it is true that occasionally during the fiercest storms a tent will go down. Even so, it can serve as a tarp over the family huddled underneath! My own best answer to your question, though, is that those mountain people are fascinating folk. They have ingenuity, fortitude, persistence -- they figure their way through logistical problems. All of life is a challenge for them. They do whatever it takes to survive!

Please keep praying that God will continue to hold off the severe weather a while longer so that thousands more families may receive those supplies necessary to get them through the winter.

Mernie

Update #9 - 9,000 shelters up. 41,000 to go. Weather miraculously holding.

2005-12-05T07:16:00.000-08:00

At this moment there should be 10 feet of snow over much of the terrain. The weather has miraculously warmed up during the past three days. Today the daytime temperature in Bagh was a balmy 75-80 degrees F. Having said that, Bagh is the headquarters of the District Bagh, and is located in the valley. Naturally the temperatures at higher elevations would be considerably lower. Yet the fact that they don't yet have snow piled up around them is an indication of God's mercy and goodness. God has heard our prayers, and extended our window of opportunity.

Some of you have read news reports on relocating people to refugee camps in a milder climate. "Wouldn't that be much better than leaving them where they are?" A good option? That's difficult to say. The news reports also indicate that these camps will be breeding grounds for disease -- likely of epidemic proportions. And for many that move from their mountain homeland is not even an option, whether logistically, physically, economically, or emotionally. Furthermore, refugees require food, handouts, and free care, whereas, when people stay where they live, they can better take care of themselves, begin rebuilding their socio-economic base, and feel better about themselves. These are some of the reasons why ADRA Pakistan is committed to helping people where they are, rather than relocating them.

There are at least 50,000 families in Bagh whose shelter or home is 88% demolished. All the Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) together have provided 9,000 shelters to date. By the end of this week, ADRA/Pakistan will have added another 3,000. That means that some 38,000 families-- about 270,000 people-are still without shelter and will probably freeze by Christmas unless we can put a "family package" of a shelter, a stove and several quilts into their hands.

The attached photos show trucks unloading those "family packages" in Bagh, some of the damages, and towns now more tents than real buildings.

Thank you so much for all your help.Your prayers and support have been deeply appreciated. Please continue to keep the work of ADRA/Pakistan in your prayers. The work cannot decrease in intensity until the UN declares that it is too late to provide shelters.

The Lord can-and already has-held back the usually-fierce November weather, yet the window of opportunity is frighteningly short. If the Lord impresses you to give, please do it ASAP.

An additional prayer request this evening. John's wife, Denise, is at this time beginning her 30+ hour journey to Pakistan to join John in the relief efforts. Please keep her in prayer as she travels.

Mernie

Update #8 - Encountering the horrible human losses

2005-12-03T07:38:00.000-08:00

We have just received a report from John McGhee following his return from Bagh. I hasten to share with you some of his observations and experiences. Many have asked questions about the mission of ADRA, whether the assistance given is appropriate, whether there is still time to save more lives, etc. His e-mail answers many of those questions. Share the message with others.

John reports:

"I just flew in from Bagh a couple hours ago. You'll see pictures soon, but they don't begin to detail the massive destruction. There is not one person in Bagh whose family was spared.

"Today, when I thanked our ADRA cook in Bagh for breakfast and asked how his family was, he told me that he had invited his only daughter and her baby from Karachi, to celebrate Eid. In 80 seconds on Sabbath, October 8, around 9:00 a.m., the roof started crashing as walls were crumbling. Everyone in the extended family was able to get out of the disintegrating house except his daughter and her baby.

"Our administrative office (tent) manger in Bagh is a young 23-year-old lady named Ismat. She speaks English fluently and has her bachelors degree in Commerce. Yesterday, I went to visit her family. She took me inside her house, which is just waiting for another earth tremor to crumble. I quickly went inside and had my picture taken with her in a room where 80% of the wall is gone, and the ceiling is hanging down.

"She has been sleeping inside because there is no room for her in the tiny little tent outside, made of patched cloth scraps. I then visited her three little sisters, and found out that her baby sister had died in the disaster. I cried with her.

"Tonight, I moved out of my tent here in Rawalpindi, and am sending it by truck up into the mountains tomorrow so Ismat and her family can have a big enough place to sleep. I arranged with a local school principal whose property is adjacent, so that our team would have permission to pitch the bigger tent in a safe place where no buildings can fall on it.

"Today the first 670 tents and 2300 quilts arrived which have been funded by donations received in the past week from individuals in Taiwan, Australia, Canada, and the USA. These life-saving items were distributed within 6 hours.

"Over the weekend, we have gained access to a distribution team of 95 volunteers from 19 villages who have been most severely affected, meaning that 88% of their houses are gone. We made a plan to distribute 5000 dwellings, 5000 stoves, and 50,000 quilts in three days. And another similar distribution in seven days.

"However, our total funds pledged and received will only pay for 3000 dwellings, 3000 stoves, and 30,000 quilts. We are waiting on the Lord and praying for His guidance.

"Our ADRA team is poised, prepared, and practiced to deliver these items, and we are equipping our monitors with cameras and hand phones to document everything.

"In four days, I will have a communications system in place so that all who are interested around the world will receive pics and details of every delivery within 24 hours.

"Today, my ADRA team was on hand taking pictures and getting the names of each recipient. Today, I found a donor in Pakistan who will match every dollar donated from abroad. For every family dwelling we donate, he will donate a second one for the livestock to survive the winter. This ensures a certain level economic viability for our recipients, so that don't have to beg for food throughout the winter.

"The weather was very warm in Bagh today. Prayers of thousands are being heard tonight, as God continues to extend this grace period just a little longer. However many communities on the mountain tops are experiencing frigid weather conditions.

"Bagh is a city and also a district. Our headquarters is in the city. But our deliveries are in the district from 1 - 3 hours away by truck. And that doesn't count the time that our volunteers are climbing mountain paths to the dwelling places."

Please continue in prayer. God has answered many of our prayers already, and the weather continues milder than expected. I am thankful for the ministry of ADRA through John and his large team. We all are part of that effort.

Sabbath blessings,

Mernie

Update #7 - Fighting terrorism with food and love

2005-12-02T21:42:00.000-08:00

Just one week ago we sent out the first message "Winter is Coming." We thank so many of you who have helped, donated, made suggestions. We thank God that He has touched many hearts. And that Providence has delayed the extreme weather in the Karakoram mountains of northern Pakistan a little longer.

This week more than $100,000 has been sent to ADRA in Pakistan by the Central California Conference and World Medics, Inc. Today two volunteers worked on their day off to continue processing donations. Thursday afternoon and Friday morning, over $42,000 more has come in. A member in the church that donated $4,500 last week collected more funds this week, and just reported that she has another $12,000 to send. We are grateful that ADRA/International also released another $105,000 this past week for the disaster. The need is huge, but every dollar counts

Today we received the first photo of the quake. I will send it as an attachment. We were hoping for more pictures. Those will come later. The photograph shows just a little of the terrible destructive power of the quake. It also gives some idea of the rocky mountain terrain and the extreme danger to those people who live on the mountains and in the valleys of the Karakorams.

Some of you have made suggestions. Many of those suggestions have been helpful. We have learned to trust the discretion and judgment of people in the field as this disaster response unfolds. Some have wondered if the quilts and blankets are enough, if tents are appropriate or if some other type of response would be more sensible. Actually, the Pakistan Government assigns relief tasks to the various relief organizations-ADRA's assignment was tents and blankets. Also remember that John and the ADRA staff are up close to the disaster, and will use the funds and support we send in the best possible manner. Though it may not be ideal, remember that "Something is better than nothing." Right now John is on a three-day trip to the high mountain passes, and we know that the response of ADRA will be fine-tuned as a result of his trip.

Remember, after we deliver tents and blankets, the disaster is not over. Food will be needed in the second stage. Reconstruction will follow in the spring. ADRA has already committed about $2.5 million for reconstruction.

This week a dignitary in the Pakistan consulate commented on how many churches have sent so many checks and thousands of dollars to the Pakistan President's Earthquake Fund. Your donations and your participation--your Christian concern for Pakistanis in need--is a powerful statement in that largely-Muslim nation. Much is said today about the war on terror. Your gift, your love, can do more than the armies, the bullets and the bombs that are perceived to be the weapons in this war. I think of the Bible text, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." (Matthew 5: 16) What better way to combat misunderstanding, hate and anger than by love.

"…[He] who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And 'this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also." (1 John 4:20-21)

Have you ever heard the song "Let Your Heart Be Broken" (Church Hymnal #575)?
The first and last verses read:
Let your heart be broken for a world in need;
Feed the mouths that hunger, soothe the wounds that bleed,
Give the cup of water and the loaf of bread-
Be the hands of Jesus, serving in His stead

Let your heart be tender, and your vision clear;
See mankind as God sees, serve Him far and near.
Let your heart be broken by a brother's pain;
Share your rich resources, give and give again.

Thank you for your participation in this, God's work.

Mernie

Update #6 - $100,000 received today!

2005-12-01T23:35:00.000-08:00

"Al humdulilah!" God is great! By this evening (Thursday), you have sent in enough money to buy more than 600 tents! Or more than 13,000 quilts. By tonight, more than $100,000 has been received at the Central California Conference and forwarded to Pakistan. Today ADRA/International has also sent in an additional $100,000.

As earlier reported, ADRA has been bundling seven quilts with a tent and a little stove, expecting that to care for a family of seven. However, it is likely that there will be three or four people huddled together under a quilt. A mother may have two or three of her children tucked in beside her. The father likewise. The people of Pakistan are used to crowding-into a rope charpai bed, into a house, into a vehicle. I still recall my own amazement when I did a head count in our Ford Transit van going to a funeral 40 miles away-with more than 40 men, women and children plus the body of the deceased! Yes, the Karakoram mountain people will make good use of the quilts and tents you are sharing with them.

Yesterday John ordered 2200 more tents-each one with the ADRA logo on it. They won't be delivered and ready to ship for another four days. He has paid the required 50% down, but at that time he had nothing but faith to go on for the balance due! And he says, "I should be ordering 25,000 more tents now to have them in time."

Already the official death toll from the cold stands at eight. Hundreds of people have entered Karakoram region hospitals, suffering from pneumonia, hypothermia, and other illnesses. Fortunately the weather for the past 24 hours has been beautiful--"Cold, clear, light snow, most roads are open." Pray that it will continue that way.

Even as I send this newsletter, John is enroute to Bagh. "I will be flying in a helicopter…through some of the most rugged, dangerous mountains in the world," he wrote today. For the next three days he will be recruiting five teams of seven people each to trek out to various mountain villages looking for those most in need. Then donkeys and even the men themselves will haul the relief supplies over steep and rugged mountains.

In an e-mail this morning, John McGhee says, "I am delighted to request all who have been deeply touched by and wish to respond to the need of cold, dying Kashmiris, to direct their resources to ADRA International." ADRA has assured him that until December 23 they will provide a free flow of all donations to the work in Pakistan without the usual overhead deductions. That means that for the next three weeks (when it will likely be too late to provide more tents and blankets), ADRA International will immediately send John 100% of all donations that come in for this project.

Initially ADRA did not mount a large-scale fund-raising effort on behalf of the Pakistan relief effort. When John McGhee first requested assistance from family and friends in gathering funds for the Pakistan quake relief, the Central California Conference provided an immediate avenue for funds to be collected. That was a temporary measure so that funds could begin coming in quickly. Yesterday we informed you that World Medics, Inc was willing to step in and help with the collections. The Central California Conference as well as World Medics, Inc will continue to process donations to ADRA as they come in. However, we now recommend that you now donate directly through ADRA.

To donate by check:
Make checks out to "ADRA International". Specify that the funds are for the Kashmir Shelter, Stove and Quilt Project.
Mail them by the fastest way possible to:

ADRA International
12501 Old Columbia Pike
Silver Spring, MD 20904

To donate by phone:
Call in your credit card information toll-free to 1 800 424-2372.

To donate online:
To donate online, go to the ADRA website, and choose "South Asia Earthquake Relief" as the fund to be credited.

Tonight I join with John in saying, "I am especially thankful to all you who are praying and giving."

Mernie

Update #5 - Operation Winter Race

2005-12-01T05:45:00.000-08:00

"Post-quake winter claims its first life" read the headlines of yesterday morning's Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California. Surviving the horrible earthquake, only to die from the cold, the 8-month old baby boy became one of the first official victims of the Karakoram mountain people's new worst enemy - winter. Many earthquake survivors are already sick with pneumonia, and young children and the elderly are especially at risk.

The whole relief effort in northern Pakistan has been called Operation Winter Race.
A United Nations Humanitarian Affairs office spokesperson says the race is not lost yet, but time definitely is running out. Quickly! Helicopter flights have been sporadic this week because of stormy weather. Landslides have blocked some of the roads, but Pakistani military engineers are working hard to clear passageways so that relief trucks can reach those so desperately in need of shelter and warmth.

Today the weather in northern Pakistan is cold but clear. There is light snow, but most roads are open. Tomorrow John McGhee himself will be flying into the Bagh district to hire several teams to search for the needy and to work out the delivery of supplies, including the 6,200 blankets he has ready to deliver.

While transport is a challenge right now, UN and Pakistan Government agencies alike repeat that funding is the greatest challenge facing the relief operations. We are thankful that the Seventh-day Adventist Church has its ADRA team on location in Pakistan doing its level best to provide tents and quilts to the many thousands left homeless in the high-mountain Bagh District.

We praise God for the donations that have come in already. Today we learned of $9,000 coming in from a little overseas church school. Teachers are figuring out creative ways of helping their students learn compassion for those in need.

Today the trickle of funds became a stream. We are praying that it will become a rushing river! Today some $50,000 in checks and credit card transactions were processed through the Central California Conference office. Those funds have been passed on immediately for the purchase of tents and quilts.

Because the Central California Conference accounting office is not set up to handle the volume of calls that have been coming in, the CCC is transferring the majority of the collections over to an Adventist organization in Loma Linda, California, called World Medics, Inc. (www.worldmedicsinc.org). World Medics, Inc. (WMI) will be accepting on-line donations and checks, and will send wire transfers of funds to Pakistan on a daily basis.

World Medics, Inc. is committed to humanitarian service all over the world. WMI sends to the specified project one hundred percent of all donation dollars it receives. It is a charitable organization, registered with the IRS, and a tax-deductible receipt will be sent for all donations made through World Medics, Inc.

To donate online:
1. Go to the www.worldmedicsinc.org website.
2. Click on the "Links" section at the bottom of the left-hand side.
3. Click on "Network for Good (online donations)".
4. Type in key words "World Medics" and click on "search".
5. Click on option 4, "World Medics Inc".
5. Click on "donate now".
6. Fill in your donation amount and answer the next two questions. Then, under "designation", type in "Pak Quake". Click on "Add to giving cart."
7. Proceed to checkout, filling in personal and credit card information as needed.
8. Where it asks for "profile information," simply use any name or number as a type of password.

To send a donation by check:
1. Make checks payable to World Medics.
2. Please do not write on the check which project it is for. Instead, attach a note specifying that it is for Pakistan quake relief.
3. Mail your check ASAP (time is important!) to :
World Medics, Inc.
P. O. Box 1606
Loma Linda, CA 92354
(To overnight or FedEx an overnight check, you will need a physical address. In that case, mail to: World Medics, Inc., c/o 11247 San Juan, Loma Linda, CA 92354.)

Thank you again for your compassion and your generosity.

Mernie Johnson

Update #4 - New winterized tents available

2005-11-30T12:21:00.000-08:00

As a child, John McGhee enjoyed singing the song "Into a tent where a gypsy boy lay, dying alone at the close of the day…." Tonight John sleeps in a tent. He works in a temporary office on the roof of what was once a British military officer's house. And he sends his e-mail messages from the Intercontinental Hotel in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, the land of his birth.

Yet nothing in his 27 years of experience living and working in Pakistan and other Asian countries prepared him for this emergency assignment. "It's a job unlike any other I have ever done," John says. "God and God alone must work through me…."

By now, we have heard several stories from donors-many have touched my heart. One woman had just bought a new and bigger computer monitor for herself. But after she read John McGhee's newsletters about the extreme need in Pakistan, she told her husband, "Take it back -- it's going for a tent!"

Another family decided together that any money that would have been spent on Christmas presents would go now for tents and quilts instead. School children at home and abroad are collecting money for tents and quilts. They know what it is like to be chilly. But how many of us can possibly understand what it is to be really cold, night and day, with no place to hide from the storms?

A new winterized 17 x 17-foot tent has just become available in Pakistan. It is made of a Japanese parachute material, with two inner insulating layers, and the snow will simply slip off the top. Today John is hoping to order 2,000 of them--if he has money in hand. He must pay $160,000 down, and another $160,000 four days later. He says, "Today I should give an order for 4,000 tents, but I only have funds to order 1,000. We really need 25,000!" In addition to a tent and seven quilts, a small heating/cooking stove is also being included in each family's bundle.

John continues with his urgent request, "I invite you to join my team by blanketing the Karakoram mountains with prayers, even as the snow falls there tonight on so many people who are dying alone--without even a tent or a blanket."

Update #3 - It's NOT too late to help!

2005-11-28T09:02:00.000-08:00

If you have watched CNN's recent report on the earthquake in northern Pakistan, you may feel that it is too late to help the survivors. But that is not true. We must press forward ASAP. Whatever we can purchase and deliver in the way of tents and quilts, we will do until December 15, when the window for surviving the intensely cold weather is basically closed. At that point I will throw all remaining and on-going donations into food to keep the survivors alive.

Today there were no shipments. But that was because of misty, cloudy weather--not really related to the snowfall, which has started now. But every day is a new day in the Karakoram mountain range. Due to high winds--often over 100 miles per hour--terrific storms blow in and blow out in a matter of a few hours.

Snow will not affect the helicopters' deliveries too much because they are using nets which cradle the payload underneath. Thus the heli doesn't have to land, but simply hovers while the nets are unhooked, the material is rapidly off-loaded, and the nets are handed back to the crews.

This saves a lot of time and allows for winter deliveries without needing a place to land.

A friend of mine has expressed something you, too, may have wondered. "Looks like it would be wiser and cheaper," she says, "to transport those survivors to lower elevations where it's not so cold in the winter. With the tents and all, to live on the plains where it's warmer, animals and all. Before they freeze to death!!" This friend's solution sounds logical. But human beings are not always logical. These people have lived in the remote mountain areas for generations. Their tiny postage-stamp terraced farms dot steep mountainsides, with often just a stream or river flowing through the lowest point, like the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. Even if there were plains with warmer temperatures within walking distance of their homes--which there are not!--these people would not leave their animals and their property. They fear that when (and if) they got back, someone would have taken away everything they had worked for since most of them are not owners but simply squatters.

Mernie Johnson and Don Roth have volunteered to become the primary reporters who will send frequent updates regarding the situation in Pakistan. They will receive information from me and craft it into short news briefs. I am simply stretched to the limit and cannot manage to answer the showers of email I am receiving. So, soon you may be receiving answers from Mernie and Don directly. You may also contact them you're your questions.

Thanks so much for your prayerful interest.

John McGhee

Update #2 - 2,500 quilts delivered, 5,000 more arriving soon

2005-11-27T08:10:00.000-08:00

Praise the Lord. 2,500 ADRA quilts were delivered through the night. We have repacked them in bundles of 7, for one bundle per family. Now 10 trucks are waiting on the street to be filled.

It snowed last night and blocked the road. But these truckers are willing to go.

Tomorrow, I have 5000 more ADRA quilts coming and we will do 5000 a day until our money runs out. Day after tomorrow, the tents and quilts which you lovingly sponsor through the Central California Conference of SDA will begin traveling to Kashmir.

WINTER IS COMING!

2005-11-25T09:14:00.000-08:00

Reported Friday, November 25, 2005, by John McGhee, Emergency NGO director, Pakistan

I am not a weatherman. But having spent the last nine nights in a tent here in Rawalpindi, I can testify that winter is coming to Pakistan. At this time last year,10 feet of snow blanketed the rugged mountains of the Bagh district where 58, 275 households with 7 people per family lived, in temperatures ranging from 20 degrees F down to -30 degrees F. As of tonight, there is miraculously no snow on the ground.

Bagh is a mountainous district where the non governmental relief organization I direct has been assigned to work by the United Nations-led consortium of of 42 NGOs and faith-based agencies.

WINTER IS COMING
Kashmiri mountain people from Bagh live in cave-like dwellings made of wood and stones which are carefully carried or rolled down precipitous mountain heights to the building site. There they cook over wood fires and kerosene stoves.

This year, these wirey, tough shepherds grazed their sheep, planted small terraced gardens, handmade their rough clothes and quilts, and dried food. All of this to prepare for the brutal winter, when they stay inside, snuggling up to their sheep, goats, donkeys, and cattle to keep warm.

And then one of the world's largest earthquakes on record hit Pakistan, posting an official death toll of 72,385. Now, more than a month later, another 64,290 are still missing. Tonight, in the Bagh district alone, there are 12,486 less people. They did not migrate. They died or are missing. And there are another 10,000 walking wounded.

I saw some of them two days ago in Islamabad, Pakistan's capitol, at a 1500-bed hospital jammed with more than 6000 patients! They were being treated in tents, entryways and broom closets. In some wards, I counted 20 beds jammed together, filled predominantly with women and children whose faces and limbs were squashed from falling rocks.

If this disaster were not bad enough, WINTER HAS COME TO KASHMIR. According to statistics compiled today by my staff, working on their day off, people in the Bagh district have lost 88% of their cave-like houses.

Tonight 51, 282 families are sleeping outside with no shelter or blankets. If you do the math you'll find that 380,512 mountain people are shivering in sub-freezing tempartures, with very few animals left to generate warmth. This is just in Bagh, one of three Kashmir districts hit by the mega-quake.

From the first day of the quake, I have carried a heavy load in my heart for the survivors. I was moved by the text in 2 Timothy 4:21, "Come before winter." I volunteered and was later invited to lead an outstanding NGO that is providing non-food items (NFIs) like medicine, hygiene kits, lanterns, stoves, blankets, and tents to the Bagh district.

Since arriving, nine days ago, our staff in Europe and Pakistan has distributed 20,000 blankets, and 497 tents based on funded proposals from generous donors in Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, and Sweden. Another 15,000 blankets, 60 large tents for schools, 120 wood burning stoves for the schools, and 6000 hygiene kits, will be distributed by helicopter within 5 days.

But I can't sleep tonight because WINTER HAS COME TO KASHMIR and the United Nations logisticians comprised of veteran military commanders, statisticians, scientists, and computer wizards with whom I have met every other day since arriving, told me today that by December 10, we won't have to worry about transporting tents and blankets any more. There just won't be a need for them. At that time 14 of the 23 helicopters which now transport over 200 tons, making 180 trips per day, will be going to back to the UK and Iraq.

Yesterday, the president of Pakistan spoke on TV, detailing the three most urgent priorities:
1. tents
2. quilts
3. psycho-social services for survivors

As of this moment, all ten of the NGOs working the Bagh district have distributed a total of 9,000 tents (20% of the needed tents) and 124,192 blankets (35% of the needed blankets), during the past 5 weeks. At this rate, 250,000 human beings from Bagh will freeze to death by December 10, 2005.

WINTER HAS COME TO KASHMIR TONIGHT
This reality is simply unacceptable. It is crunch time.
It's time to face the fact that the combined might of Pakistan and US military, UN forces, and more than 40 NGOs cannot deal with the impending mega-disaster.

So Denise and I are prayerfully proposing to raise 8 million dollars of private tax-exempt donations within two weeks in order to provide enough tents to for everyone to be warm, if two families pack themselves together (14 people in a winterized tent that is 12' by 12") and enough warm quilts for everyone.

I have arranged, by faith,for the first installment of 1000 of the needed 35,710 tents to be delivered on Monday.

1. I have arranged for a loan to pay for this first load which will take 10 trucks and 10 helicopter drops to deliver. This order must be paid within 48 hours.
2. I have arranged for 1500 tents costing $225,000 to be delivered every day after that until it's too late.
3. I have arranged for 10,000 quilts costing $75,000 to be delivered every day until there are no more needed, starting on Sunday.

It will take $7,375,005 to do it. Denise and I are anxious to begin this drive with a donation based on 10% of our net worth. Thanks for partnering. Please send your tax-deductible donation ASAP by a 24 hour mail service to:

Pak Quake Fund
Central California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists
P. O. Box 770
Clovis, CA 93613