It hardly got a mention on the BBC news but on 2^nd April a severe earthquake, which measured 8.1 on the Richter scale, shook the Solomon Islands. This resulted in huge tidal waves as the tsunami wrought death and destruction on many islands in the western province. I was asked to visit the United Church of the Solomon Islands to stand alongside our brothers and sisters there in their time of trauma and need.

The Solomon Islands are made up of 922 islands, of which 347 are inhabited with a total population of about half a million. Today about 85% of the population still live in villages, most of them by the shore, which has made the devastation caused by the tsunami so severe.

The United Church is mainly concentrated in the western province, where the tsunami struck, and has about 60 000 members as well as hospitals, schools and clinics across many of the islands. This was my second trip there as I went to share in the centenary celebrations of the Church in May 2002. It was a real privilege to return but so sad to witness the terrible effects of this natural disaster.

The headquarters of the United Church are at Munda, a village on one of the largest islands of New Georgia. It took two full days of flying to reach there and I arrived at the same time as three people from the World Council of Churches relief task force who had come to run a 3 week course on trauma counselling. People gathered from all the affected islands and I was privileged to listen to some of their stories.

One of the jewels of the Church is Goldie College, situated on a small island near Munda and it is one of the best secondary schools in the country. However the earthquake had destroyed almost all the teacher’s houses, the students dormitories and many of the class rooms. The head teacher was anxious that they could get electricity restored (through a new generator) and clean water supply. Some of the teachers were already building new homes with local wood. There is much work to do before the children can ever return to school.

My visit to some of the worst hit islands was an exciting and sobering experience. We travelled by canoe (a 7-seater small boat with an outboard engine) for four hours through the lagoon and then the open sea. As the dolphins leapt beside us and the flying fish before us the waves grew taller and taller… and I remembered a few hymns about those in peril on the sea… I saw communities utterly destroyed. Where there had been a village of 80 homes with a school for 120 children, now there was only a beach with debris. We stood by the place where the body of the bishop was discovered under fallen palm trees, where there had been a fully staffed and good quality hospital there now stood rubble from the nursing quarters and the hospital building had a look of terminal illness. So now all the emergencies have to travel by canoe the two hours to the Church’s hospital in Munda.

People had fled up into the hills to escape the tsunami. Here there are camps of tents, donated by relief agencies from across the world, alongside newly built leaf houses. Many of the people are too traumatised to return to the lowland areas near the beach. So these camps are being transformed into communities and perhaps will become permanent villages eventually. The Church is actively working among the people offering what help it can. The Methodist Church initially sent £10 000 and this money, along with other donations from partner churches, is being used to help people buy fishing hooks and nets, kerosene oil for their lamps and food provisions in some of the worst affected areas. Fulwood Church gave a very generous donation of £500 and I took this along with other gifts and offered it to the Moderator to use to continue to bring hope and help to the people.

There are signs of hope and despite all that they have gone through people continually gave thanks to God sharing their testimony to His faithfulness. So why did the Methodist Church here send me? The best answer for me was as a love gift— a sign of our love here and God’s love for them, a visible sign of our standing alongside those who have suffered and lost so much. This is the Gospel we believe and proclaim— of our God who became human and lived among us in Christ Jesus. Perhaps this needs to become our understanding of mission here in Britain today!

Rev. Stephen Poxon