Tsunami Testimony by Curry Blake

The fact that I was even able to go is a miracle in itself. On Dec. 26, we began to hear of the tragedy. As I watched the news reports, I told the Lord, "If you make a way I will go. (I did not have the finances available to buy a ticket.) Later that evening my wife sent out an email letting some of you know that I might go. Immediately (within 24 hours) the finances where there to buy the tickets. There was also enough to buy a ticket for my daughter, Rebekah, to go with me. As you may know, my son, John, his wife Stephanie, and their son Josiah, had been planning to go to Thailand as missionaries for almost a year. When this happened, many thought they would or should re-consider. They decided it only proved that Thailand needed the JGLM message more. All five of us left the same day ( Jan. 4, 2005 ) though on different flights.

We (Becky and I) arrived in Bangkok on Jan. 6 and proceeded to Phuket (pronounced: Pooket) where we were greeted by my son John and one of the F.I.R.E. School Missionaries, (Clinton Garsee and his two sons). We passed through Phuket City and viewed the destruction that many of you have seen on the news. It was horrific (a word I will likely use many times as I describe what we witnessed over the next 10 days.)

We traveled on to Khao Lak (which was actually the hardest hit area in Thailand ). We arrived very late at night and obtained a room at what was once a very exclusive resort hotel (for only 500 baht = $12.50 us). There were no other guests because they could not find keys to the rooms because the people that were staying there when the tsunami hit, did not return them. Mainly because many of them were among the missing and dead. The beach looked like a war zone. I have been in the military, and I have never seen anything like this. Colin Powel said it well when he said it looked like a nuclear warhead had hit the area. The next morning we went to the beach to see what we could do to help. It was totally deserted except for a sentence written in the sand which read," I miss you". The video of the trip will be made available to those who donated funds for the trip (at no cost) and to our monthly partners (also at no extra cost). We found many items on the beach that were stark reminders of the loss of life, including children's school books and backpacks, one tennis shoe that would have fit my 10 month old grandson, a prosthetic foot, just to name a few. As we moved through the rubble of the buildings, there were several places (under huge slabs of concrete building walls) that it was obvious that dead bodies were still there. (If you have ever smelled bodies that had been dead for a while, you know that the smell is unmistakable, and the flies help confirm it also). Later that first day we went to the gathering area where the poster boards were that had the pictures of the confirmed dead and the missing. Behind the tent, in a field 2 miles from the shore, was a Thai Warship (a 100 ft. long destroyer) that had been guarding the King of Thailand's grandson as he jet- skied in the bay. The tsunami picked up the ship and carried it 2 miles inland and dumped it in a grove of trees. The grandson was also killed. Caskets were everywhere and some fires were still burning. It looked like a scene out of "Apocalypse Now". From there we went to the Body Holding Center where the officials held the bodies until they were identified and then they were burning them or putting them in caskets. I must close for now but I will continue in the next update.

God bless,

Curry Blake