Tsunami Relief Efforts - Scientology Volunteer Ministers
I am getting e-mails from friends who are Scientology Volunteer Ministers who are either in the disaster areas, or are about to leave to go there, and I will be updating my blog with information on what they are doing.
There are teams currently in India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Indonesia. More are on the way.
Here are some of the messages I've gotten so far:
Here’s what happened with the
Volunteer Ministers yesterday.
In Indonesia 22 Volunteer Ministers are there and 20 more have booked flights to join them.
The first team went to a refugee facility. We thought it would have 2000 refugees. But that was not so, and only had a couple of hundreds as most had found relatives to stay with. They were almost all Chinese, no Sumatrans. There were hundreds of relatives and volunteers as well in the center. There were people who were ill but mostly they were not so sick as they were suffering shock. We did
Scientology assists to help them.
Sometimes the lights went out at the center and we had to continue with torch light. One woman told us how her 8 family members ran from the flood. She was too scared and ran upstairs in the house instead. They all died. She lived. There was another woman who told us how she saw the wave from her house as she lived near the beach, and then the wave crashed down on her house from above destroying it and her family. She lived. There were many people also who ran and ran from the wave, and they survived but were severely injured.
When we finished helping people there we were asked to go to another place. There were about 30 people living there. There were really some miracles. One old man who had once had his back hurt when young and now had a curved spine was given a nerve assist and it really was great. He was grinning ear to ear, with only two teeth left. When the team left the place was buzzing. Spirits were high. Toward the end there was a queue of people wanting assists and they were those same people who had refused assists. They all got one.
Then as the team went along the street people were waving, thanking them
The second group went to a local hospital where injured survivors were being treated. At the hospital, the team was welcomed by the hospital director, a Chinese speaking Indonesian, who had been briefed yesterday during a preliminary visit. He was delighted that we had returned and Sue Chang, from the Scientology Mission in Kaohsiung, told him about the procedures to be used. Lance Carr explained that these Assists would not conflict with any medical treatment but make such treatment more efficient. The Director understood this and immediately called a senior nursing sister from the Intensive Care and Recovery Ward and told her to give us the run of the ward. The team went to the ward, fanned out and began delivering assists.
After half an hour, the Chief Surgeon of the Hospital who earlier had received a demonstration of a Touch Assist and who had been observing the results demanded that the team deliver an assist to one of his patients, a man who had been in Intensive Care for five days. The Chief Surgeon said the man had multiple fractures of his right arm which had become septic as he had been not found for six days on Aceh. Although he had received extensive surgery it was feared that the arm would have to be amputated. This man had also lost 28 relatives in the disaster. When the assist was started the patient was slipping in and out of unconsciousness and was unable to speak. After forty-five minutes, he was fully conscious and felt relief from the pain. He was given a locational assist and then he began smiling and talking about what had happened to him. He was very grateful for the assist and asked for a photo of his benefactors so he could “keep it close to my heart”. By the time the team left the ward, this patient who had been barely alive for the past five days was joking and teasing the nurses and gave the Volunteer Ministers a big farewell smile.
The team members were giving assists in English, Indonesian and Chinese and did extremely well, delivering assists to every patient. By the time they had finished they had attracted a large crowd of curious relatives and patients’ friends who wanted to know what they were doing that was obviously helping the patients so much. Also observing was the hospital’s chief gynecologist who approached Lance and wanted to know what was being used. Lance explained the principles of the assist tech and also that the main purpose for the team was not only to deliver these assists themselves but to train others to be able to do so. The chief gynecologist enthusiastically agreed and immediately asked what was needed in order for this training to be done in the hospital - as soon as possible. He arranged a space and offered transport, translation and even finances. Lance said that what they needed most were the people to train whereupon the doctor set out thru every ward of the hospital selecting relatives of Aceh victims to attend the workshop at 10 o’clock the following morning.
The mayor of Medan arrived and Dobson met the mayor and explained it all and he looked over the assist booklet and said it was very logical and made a lot of sense. The doctors there want a seminar so Gary Bromwell and Lance are arranging it for the doctors and relatives. The Mayor in essence opened the door to all hospitals for us.
This does not get us to Aceh however, which is where the bulk of the people are. It seems most people are in Aceh. Medan has many people in hospitals, but they only number thousands. The bulk of these people who really need our help are in Aceh. We will have to go there sooner or later. Banda Aceh, the town on the tip of Sumatra, the place has generator power and so forth. We perhaps should look at going there. It seems fairly safe from the rebels. The rebels in the area do not seem to have a problem with foreigners. And the rebels keep to the hills. There is nothing on the low lands now, not even buildings. So it seems free of rebels. Apparently, according to a person who mixes with them, they are pleased to tell foreigners what they are fighting against, but foreigners are scared of the government so do not want to get involved with the rebels.
History: Aceh was never run by the Dutch as a colony. When the Japanese liberated Indonesia from the Dutch this did not include the northern province of Aceh. It was independent. But when the Japanese were then moved out, it was the Indonesians who simply took over control of Aceh. The same as they did in East Timor and West Papua. Thus the Aceh people have been fighting the govt. It is not a religious fight, but it is political. But like most fights, it has oil and is rich with it, though undeveloped.
The question is how we then go to Aceh. If we go by plane it will cost $60 a person commercially. Then there is taking water, food and bedding. But we could hire a small vehicle we sleep in. That is one possibility of getting there from Medan. It takes about 14 hours to drive there from here.
We need permits first to go into Aceh no matter what we do. We will explore it first and make sure there is no danger before proceeding.
Also, one cannot travel much down the other side from Banda Aceh, down the west side of Aceh, as a big ship was tossed over the highway. It was a cement tanker and will need to be cut up, or the road moved. There are bridges gone too. So the west coast is out as any possibility. Most of the people seem to have been moved to Banda Aceh. That is where we need to go in a few days from now. It would seem the most intelligent thing to do is go there for a day, with one person. Check it out, map it out. Find out who is there and come back and organize what we really do need to do. But until then continue in Medan.
Later in the evening an Islamic group arrived who wanted to be trained. We had met them coming to Medan. There were 5 of them. They were given assists. They want to learn it to use to give to others. They will be attending tomorrow's lectures on how to do it.
Then very late at night, about 11pm, another group arrived. They are starting a Trauma Center in Banda Aceh and want it manned by Scientology Volunteer Ministers(VMs). Of course we can hat Indonesians to do it as well. The people asking this of us say there are so many refugees up there totally traumatized they need the help of the Scientology VMs. They say we have the tech to do it. The person behind it is an Australian who has lived here for 25 years and has an Indonesian wife and she lost 20 of her family. She will come in for an assist tomorrow. He and another of this team were also given an assist. One of his team was a pathologist from Saint Elizabeth Hospital here and another owns a hospital in Aceh. They want to learn the tech and use it too in their practices. Jane from Melbourne met these people on a plane. But manning the trauma center is really the right way to go. It really is. It is what we do. And the person said not to worry about food or water and such as they would handle it. We only need to be there. Some of these people will also be coming to this lecture to learn how to do the assists.
