Family gives thanks that missionary, orphans survived tsunami
|
Web image courtesy of Samaritan Home Relief Inc. The Samaritan Children's Home housed 28 orphans in Sri Lanka. |
| The
Samaritan Children's Home was founded in Navalady, a small village on
Sri Lanka's eastern peninsula. The orphanage was built by Dayalan
Sanders through money from the sale of his Maryland home and donations.
It was destroyed by the Dec. 26 tsunami. A Web-only image courtesy of
Samaritan Home Relief Inc . Accompanies UMNS story #018. 1/10/05 |
Jan. 10, 2005By Melissa Lauber* WASHINGTON (UMNS) — "The sea is coming!" These
words haunt Diyana Sanders, a member of Grace United Methodist Church
in Gaithersburg, Md. They were spoken by an orphan in Sri Lanka at 8:45
a.m. on Dec. 26, as one of the deadliest tsunamis in history approached
the orphanage where Diyana’s brother, Dayalan Sanders, worked. A
day so full of tragedy — when at least 150,000 people died — also had
its miracles. For the Sanders family, one of those miracles occurred at
the orphanage. Diyana’s sister, Kanya Sanders Gunaratnam, also a member of Grace Church, tells the story. It
was the day after Christmas at the Samaritan Children’s Home in
Navalady, on the eastern coast of Sri Lanka. Dayalan, a missionary to
his homeland, was going over his sermon for the 28 orphans when two
staff members alerted his wife that something was wrong. "The
sea is coming!" he heard one of the girls cry. He reacted immediately,
and in less than a minute gathered up more than 30 people and squeezed
them into a boat that normally seats 15. The water was rising. Uncharacteristically, the motor on the boat began on the first tug of the cord.
|
Web image courtesy of Samaritan Home Relief Inc. Dayalan Sanders is the founder of Samaritan Children's Home in Sri Lanka. |
| Dayalan
Sanders is the founder of Samaritan Children's Home in Navalady, a
small village on Sri Lanka's eastern peninsula. The orphanage housed 28
orphans before it was destroyed by the Dec. 26 tsunami. A Web-only image
courtesy of Samaritan Home Relief Inc. Accompanies UMNS story #018.
1/10/05 |
"It was God," Diyana said. "The hand of God was everywhere in this." Especially, she said, when Dayalan decided not to try to outrun the tsunami but to turn and face the wave. Kanya
continues. The sea was thunderous and black, she said. The water was
destroying buildings around Dayalan and his group. People nearby were
pleading with them for help. Dayalan’s group was able to save one man
but had no room in the boat for others. The
children were crying and praying, "God help us." Dayalan remembered the
verse from Isaiah 59:19: "When the enemy comes in like a flood, the
spirit of the Lord shall raise up a standard against it." He
faced the waves, which in some accounts rose more than 20 feet, and
commanded them in Jesus’ name to stop, Kanya said. Her brother believes
the waves stalled for an instant, she said. The
boat made it to the opposite shore, to the city of Batticaloa. Dayalan,
his wife and the orphans are staying there with friends and trying to
rent a house. When
the tsunami subsided, Dayalan visited the orphanage. Seeing the
tsunami’s destruction made him cry, his mother, Kamalan Sanders, said,
adding that it made her cry too. When
she visited the orphanage a few months ago, flowers bloomed everywhere,
she said. "In the peace there, you didn’t even sense the civil war
taking place in the country," she said. On television reports, she now
sees corpses where children once played. While
it breaks their hearts not to be with Dayalan, family members in
Maryland are expressing their love by attempting to raise $400,000 to
build an even larger orphanage. Funds
are pouring in, Diyana said. On Jan. 9, the family held a fund-raising
open house at Grace Church. More than 400 people packed the fellowship
hall, writing checks and bringing in donations from area businesses,
schools and Girl Scout troops. One
donation arrived by letter from William Clay Ford Jr., chairman and
chief executive officer of Ford Motor Co. in Michigan. Ford Motor will
be donating $70,000 to match what the sisters had raised as of Jan. 6. At
the event, Diyana and Kanya told the story again and again. Both said
that in the bustle of raising funds, they had not taken the time to
grieve or to really let the events of the disaster sink in. When
Dayalan’s mother saw him on CNN, she wanted to reach out and touch him.
"I wish I was there. He looked so tired," she said. Ever
since he was a boy in Sri Lanka, he has given to people, Kamalan noted.
"We used to find little purses in which he would save up money to give
to the beggars. He took in stray puppies." Amid
their sadness, fear and resolve, the Sanders family is thankful to God
that Dayalan, his wife and the orphans survived, Diyana said. The tsunami struck a dozen countries around the Indian Ocean, and Sri Lanka was one of the hardest-hit areas. Said Dayalan’s mother: "Hearts are broken now, but God will mend them." *Lauber is associate editor of the UMConnection newspaper in the Baltimore-Washington Conference. News media contact: Tim Tanton, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
| 
Korean News
