Two Years in a Refugee Camp

Over two years ago Thyamani Jeyakrishna was living in a home on the shores of the Bay of Bengal. She and her husband are Tamil's, Hindu inhabitants of Sri Lanka who have lived as second-class citizens in Sri Lanka. Not all Tamil's are rebels and Thyamani and her husband were simple fisher-folk.

When the waves came on the morning of December 26, 2004, she barely escaped her house before it was washed away. A tsunami might only be a few inches high two miles off shore, but the mass of moving water interacts with the sloping sea floor to climb higher and higher as it approaches land. Thyamani's husband was at sea and survived the waves because he was far off shore. He didn't know there had been a disaster until his boat returned to a scene of terrible destruction.

With a thousand other fam ilies in their refugee camp, they have lived for two years with nothing but the clothes on their backs and a donated sleeping mat on the hard floor, With no place to plant a garden, dry rations of rice and lentils provided by relief agencies and the meager supplement of fish that is the pay of a fisherman have been their only source of sustenance.

But last month, their lives changed. Thyamani celebrated the dedication and opening of their new home in a small cluster of ten homes built in the partnership between Myers Park United Methodist Church and the Methodist Church of Sri Lanka. A small plot of land with room for a small garden, a colorful brick house with a tile roof, and gifts of pots and pans and simple plastic chairs gave her family a new start.

The Methodist pastor who led the selec tion committee interviewed over 300 families in this refugee camp, spending weeks of his life trying to understand who among them would most benefit the gift of a new home. It is a testimony to this pastor's faithfulness that he chose a simple Hindu family from the lowest caste on the island because their need was so great. Our partnership empowered his love and kindness. Now a homeless family has a new start and hope for a better life for them and their children.