When I was at the church yestereday, I spoke to our district president for a bit. He’s an educated man, a doctor, and has kept himself as updated on the information as he could. But he can’t afford a computer, so he’s been relying on the newspapers and television accounts. In the conversation we had, I told him what I knew, which was a lot more than he knew – simply because I was getting information off the internet, which isn’t as old as the television or newspaper accounts.
Sometime today or tomorrow, humanitarian aid people from the church will arrive to help out. He’s asked me to compile information about Sri Lanka – what’s happening where, what areas need the most help, that sort of thing. The church only has so much money to spend, so they can’t go everywhere and they can’t fix everything. So that’s going to be one role I play in this, gathering information.
And as we talked, I mentioned some of the problems to him. For example, the Battacaloa district is very badly hit. But getting transport there is almost impossible. Not enough trucks. Not enough petrol. Bridges washed out. Trains swept off the railroad tracks (killing thousands right there). And it’s on the opposite side of the country where we have no church members, so we have no local contacts.
The decisions of where to go, who to give aid to are thankfully not up to me. I would hate to have that responsibility. But I can help in getting the most accurate information I can.
My second counsellor in the relief society called this morning. She was supposed to teach this Sunday on Setting Goals. That lesson is no longer appropriate for this Sunday. And she’s not in any state where she’s capable of teaching. She’s in too much emotional turmoil. The losses . . . I don’t know if she’s lost anyone personally, but even if she hasn’t, she’s still much more connected to the loss here than I am – she’s one of them. She’ll have lost friends, her co-workers will have lost friends and family, her husband’s friends and co-workers will have lost people. Loss is all around her. She’s asked me to teach instead. I agreed, but what? I’m in emotional turmoil myself, and at this moment, I can’t even think about what these sisters need to hear, or what would comfort them. The Plan of Salvation? Or would that just be rubbing things in? Chances are, I’ll just wind up crying in front of them. Heck, we’ll probably end up having a blubber fest together.
