May 2008
As many of you know I have lived in China for eight years. I am currently residing in a tent village in Western China about 30 miles north of the epicenter of the recent earthquake. I went there three days after the quake with ten members of the house church I was working with. What we found I cannot adequately describe, just to say that it is the most devastating situation I have ever seen. There are currently about 10,000,000 homeless Chinese living in thousands of tent villages. There is a complete lack of sanitation facilities, a great lack of food and no medicine. We have tried to organize our area into a livable condition. We have built our own latrines and showers; we have organized a kitchen to supply food, when we can get it. I lost twenty pounds in six weeks. The government is not doing their job in caring for the general population. There are only about 10-15 westerners in the area and no more are permitted in the area because they do not wish the world to see what is going on, all news of the area is filtered through the Chinese government due to the harsh conditions and protests. Because I was there before the military arrived and when they did arrive they found that I was quite useful for their purposes and have allowed me to remain. They have even issued me a special pass to re-enter the area when I return.
Currently the weather is fine except for the rain, however come fall the temperature will begin to drop to below freezing and there is currently no method of heating the tents, nor is there enough warm clothing for the millions of people who have lost everything, their homes, and possessions and in many cases family members.
Our greatest concern is for the health of the people, it is estimated that in the next year as many as 500,000 will die due to disease because of the lack of medicine and starvation as a result of the limited amount of food available. The Chinese government is sending provisions but many of the military are corrupt and we wind up having to pay for food and water.
