Sumatra and Samoa
Many Christians have been severely affected by the earthquakes in Sumatra, Indonesia.
In the Sumatran capital, Padang, and the surrounding areas, which were at the centre of the earthquakes, hundreds of professing Christians have been left homeless and have missing relatives.
According to the Barnabas Fund, one church community were meeting for prayer, when God told the pastor’s wife there would be an earthquake and they should get out of the building; they did, and were safe when the quake struck.
News reports suggest that over 1100 have been killed, while relief efforts have been slowed down by the sheer impassibility of some of the roads outside of Padang.
Just before the first earthquake in Sumatra, an earthquake registering 8.3 on the Richter scale hit the South Pacific, which caused a tsunami to rush over Samoa.
More than 100 people were killed and more are still missing, while thousands of homes and livelihoods have been wrecked.
