Father, Father

Charles, a Southern Baptist volunteer from North Carolina, encountered a man who forever changed his idea of being called “father.” After eating a quick lunch near the village mosque, Charles and his team ran into a man with one young son.

As they talked with the man they found that they were standing on the rubble that had once been his home. He shared how he had seen the wave coming. He tried to carry his two boys to a nearby hill to escape the wave, but he wasn’t fast enough. And when the wave hit he wasn’t strong enough.

“The wave took one of my boys right out of my arms,” he said. “I could only watch as the wave carried him away. He was waving to me yelling, ‘father, father!’”

He begged the team to help him look through the rubble, but he knew that he needed heavy machinery to have any hope of moving all the heavy debris.

Charles and his wife had recently adopted two children. As a new father he was deeply moved by the man’s story. He said, “I’ll never hear my own children call me ‘father’ without thinking about this manSurvivors will continue to be reunited with their families.

Pray that:

Those who have lost so much will be able to grieve.

The rebuilding of homes can start soon.

Pacific Rim is a region of the International Mission Board, SBC.