Dear friends,
After the quake, I just could not stay at home. So I spent the week end at City
Hall Plaza. To my surprise, there are about 2,000 volunteers already there. We
helped to arrange the deliveries of the donated supplies to the quaking area. We do not know each other, but we worked hand in hand. Some worked in tears,
some in sweat.
In our Sunday morning service, the church members donated nearly USD 15,000 at
the disposal of church authority. God told us, " You shall love your neighbors
as yourselves.
As of today, the earthquake has caused 2,060 killed, about 200 lost, 8,000
injured and more than 800,000 homeless. After the major quake on Sept 21, 1999, we have suffered from 8 after-quakes
about 2,000 small quakes.
A 6-year old girl was found by a rescue team on the 4th day after the Quake. The news paper said it was a miracle! However 2 days later, two (2) 20 -years
old brothers walked out from the collapsed house. The mother did not believe
they were her sons, but their ghosts coming back from the other world just to
show them self to their family. It is a real thing! Later on, they did not understand why they had to be sent to the hospital by ambulance.
They told the mother, "I need the water, I need the water!"
A girl college student went back to seek the family and other relatives. She
found not only no parents and relatives, but also no houses at all. She found
the whole mountains disappeared and covered the whole families and houses,
except few roofs and woods. On the next following day, she was found she committed suicide herself. She left a short note, "I want to see my papa and
mom."
During these days, we received many letters from a lot of my friends. I would
like to take this chance to say my thousands of thanks to you, my dear friends.
We shall stand strongly in the days to come. We shall help each other and make
Taiwan recovered soon. We know, God will help us.
There are more and more stories so touchable to the glory of human being, as it
happened everywhere the disasters occurred. The only thing I strongly believe is
the government and people on this island shall help each other like the 2 young
brothers helping each other in the hopeless darkness. We have the confidence to
recover the whole situation within 2 to 3 years.
Businesslike speaking, We are fortunate that the earthquake center is mountain
and most agricultural area of Taiwan. That means Taipei, economic and political center of Taiwan , and
Kaohsiung , industrial center, do not have much damaged. And therefore, the
strong competition of Taiwan products will still be active over the world, we
hope.
God bless you and us all.
Best regards,
Aki Tsai