Christian aid agencies and leaders are keeping Burma in their prayers as they scramble emergency aid to the cyclone-ravaged country.
Gospel for Asia's more than 500 native Burmese missionaries are on the ground helping out in communities badly hit by last Saturday's devastating Cyclone Nargis.
"The suffering of the people is unimaginable," said GFA President KP Yohannan, speaking from India where he is monitoring the situation. "Hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, are homeless. Food is in short supply, and prices are skyrocketing. Electricity may be out for months. People have lost literally everything."
The missionaries are teaming up with other volunteers to form GFA Compassion Services that will speed relief to the thousands who have been left homeless after whole towns and villages were blown away by 120-mph winds. A GFA-run Bible college is sheltering and feeding survivors, whilst a cyclone relief fund has been set up by the ministry that will gift 100 per cent of the donations to relief for survivors.
Coastal towns and villages in the rice-growing Irrawaddy delta southwest of Rangoon bore the brunt of the cyclone, which swept a 12ft tidal wave across the region, and witnesses told of people clinging to trees in a desperate fight for survival.
The death toll continues to climb. Burma's state radio and television report that 22,980 are dead and 42,119 still missing. In the town of Bogalay alone, 10,000 people have been killed and 95 per cent of the homes destroyed.
According to Bangkok-based Richard Horsey of the UN Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 5,000 square km (1,930 square miles) of the Irrawaddy delta remain under water.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has sent a letter to the Archbishop of Rangoon, the Most Rev Stephen Than Myint Oo, assuring the Anglican Church in Burma of the prayers of the worldwide Anglican Communion.
"Our hearts grieve with all those who have lost their loved ones, their homes and their livelihoods," the Archbishop of Canterbury wrote. "In the face of such loss, all I can offer in my prayers for you is the totality of the love of God, even in the face of all that on earth is disfigured by natural disaster."
Quoting John 6.39, he added, "Please be assured that your brothers and sisters across the Communion are holding you in their prayers."
GFA's Yohannan also appealed to Christians to keep Burma in their prayers. "The people in Burma live in clusters of small communities in simple bamboo structures. Literally hundreds of these simple structures were just blown away. We are praying here in India and are asking Christians around the world to join us."
