Taiwan Church News

3311 Edition

August 10 - 16, 2015

Headline News

PCT Care For The Inflicted Aboriginal Churches After Typhoon Soudelor

Reported by Lin Yi-ying and Chiu Kuo-rong

After the strong typhoon Soudelor swept across Taiwan on August 8, many aboriginal churches were seriouslybattered. According to the report of PCT's Tayal Presbytery, a rampant mudslide almost destroyed the village of Hbun-ainqumi of Luofu Li at Fusing District, Taoyuan City. It was fortunate that 25 people among 15 families had been evacuated one day before the arrival of this typhoon.

Meanwhile, the bridge and mountain path at 14 kilometers of the road from Taigan to Smangus, located in Jianshi Township of Hsinchu County, was utterly damaged. There were no electricity, drinking water or foods to reach the people of Smangus.

Due to the electricity pole lines, from Quei-san Rd. to Chong-che Rd. at Wulai District of New Taipei City, were totally flushed away by mudslide, the whole Wulai District was in a black out. Until the evening of August 9, the villages like Hsin-sien, Hsia-pen and Wu-lai were informed safe. But, it's still a pity that two PCT members of Chong-che village were missing in the devastating mudslide torrent.

In the morning on August 10, Rev. Hwang Che-jian, Moderator of Tayal Presbytery, together with his staffs in Tayal Presbytery, walked into the Wulai District to understand the devastated situation and learn the actual demands of those typhoon-inflicted victims. It was a great relief to see three PCT evangelsts, Noray of Fu-san Church, Yukuy of Hsia-pen church and Hsu Jun-hsiong of Hsin-sien church, were all safe.

After the site review, Rev. Hwang Che-jan found that the air-borne materials like instant noodle or rations were notwhat the people needed. Instead, the people desperately demand salt, rice, canned meat and candles, as salt could preserve the food longer and the food like rice and meat could empower more strength in the job of reconstruction.

This demand was passed to the joint meeting of Tayal Presbytery, PCT's Church and Society Committee and Aboriginal Mission Committee in the evening on August 10. PCT decided to pay NT$ 100,000 in advance to buy the necessary goods immediately and recruited 40 some aboriginal youth taking these goods to about 200 families in three inflicted churches - Fu-san, Hsia-pen and Hsin-sien - in Wulai District in the morning on August 11.

Translated by Peter Wolfe