The Story of Erny - a survivor of the 2004 Tsunami
by Erny (Wife of a Businessman, 36 years old)
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This is the story of Erny, the wife of an Indonesian business man. She is a survivor of the December 26, 2004 tsunami.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
My name is Erny; my husband's name is Akiong. Everyone calls me
Ernie Acing and I am an elder of the Indonesia Mission Gospel Church
(GMII).
My husband and I own a business selling motorbike spare parts and
a repair workshop for motorbikes. I have often shared with people that
before I knew the Lord Jesus, my business was just normal but after
knowing the Lord personally through our teacher and evangelist Mirna,
who frequently comes to Malabo, I could see the abundant blessing of
God upon our family and business. More importantly, I have become
God fearing, leaving my bad-temper, my old sinful habits and all that is
not related to God. So successful was our workshop business that we
became well-known from the western part of Ache to the regions of Sin
bang. Not only were we blessed materially, but more importantly, we were
blessed spiritually as well. We had peace, marital joy, good children, good
health and a purposeful life serving the Lord. These are the blessings
that I received from the goodness of our Lord Jesus. He is so kind to
those who believe and love Him.
Because of all this I cannot live a life without God. Everyday, I
would begin the day with morning devotion. Pastor Mirna taught me to do
daily devotions. On the 26th, December, 2004, I woke up early to do my morning
devotions. Acing, my husband and I did our devotions together, enjoying
the fellowship with God, singing praises to Him, reading His word,
meditating on it and praying and surrendering our lives to Him all morning.
Humbly before God, we were immersed in His presence and enjoyed His
beauty.
As my morning devotion came to an end and before I could move
from my seat, my husband suddenly said to me,
"Ma…earthquake!"
I
could feel the tremor and hear the loud rumblings. Buildings along
Blangapulo Street with other permanent structures, were shaken by the
quake and they rumbled simultaneously. Rising to my feet, I said,
"Blood
of Christ!... Lord Jesus, protect me and my children…"
I staggered towards
my children's room because my house was like a vessel hit by a storm. I
was surprised at how the house shook. I could not walk straight and with
each step I kept shouting,
"Blood of Christ!... protect me!"
Finally Akiong
and I reached the children's room. Their room felt so far away when, in
fact, it was only 3 meters away from where we were seated a while ago. I
woke Ronny up and my husband woke Kristy,
"Wake up, child!...wake up!
Earthquake! Hurry up!...."
The four of us staggered as we tried to run out
of the house. I was still calling out the name of our Lord Jesus as we went
down the stairs. It was like climbing down from a steep cliff. After much
struggling, we finally reached the ground level but we were not able to go
out through the front door of the house because of debris and the many
shelves that had toppled to the ground. So we ran out through the back
door.
As we came out to the open, we saw crowds of people in hysteria,
shouting and screaming. Suddenly we heard a man crying out in
pain. It was my neighbor, Avin. He was trapped by the rubble from his
half crumbled house. Everybody panicked and the hysteria got worse. I
said to Akiong, "Go and help Avin!.... let me take care of the children."
Akiong got hold of a steel-cutting machine to cut the iron that was trapping
Alvin's feet.
Because of the panic and commotion that was going on my children
became frightened. So I told Kristy and Ronny to go to their aunts' house
which was not far from where we were. It was a 3 storey building and was
within sight.
While my neighbors were busy, I approached my husband and said,
"Pa…I have a bad omen that something is going to happen. It is as if
God is saying that something big is coming".
My husband was silent and
felt uneasy. Then I continued,
"Pa… our profit for this wee is still in the
locked drawer, I will go and get it for safe-keeping".
But my husband did
not want me to go back into the house because he was afraid that the
house would collapse on me. But, I said I would go in because no one
knew if there would be any more aftershocks. He relented and allowed
me to go back into the house to retrieve the money while he and
the rest of our neighbors got busy attending to Avin, who had fractured
his legs. During that time, I went to the restroom and also asked for a
glass of water from my neighbor. Suddenly, people were screaming,
"Water! Water!"
Although I could not see the water yet, it was like God
gave me a vision that the impending water was massive. So, hurriedly I
grabbed my husband's hand and we ran as fast as we could. We ran past
the traditional market and went towards National Road where the Sony
shop was located. It was a 3 storey building where we usually worship.
While running, my husband reprimanded me for asking our children to go
to their aunts home. I told him it was no use blaming me. Instead, we had
to pray to God and ask Him to save them. We kept praying as we ran.
When we reached the front of the Sony shop and before I could catch
a glimpse of the collapsed buildings, my attention was directed to the
water that came rushing towards us. It reached my feet as I ran toward
the SDS building. I was doubtful if the building was strong enough because
unlike the other buildings it was not a permanent structure. It was made
of wood. But my husband said,
"Let's go in and pray".
We entered the
building and ran immediately toward the stairs. We remained there as
the waves came crashing into the building. It went up as high as 4 meters,
flooding the ground level and reaching our knees while we were on the
2nd floor of the building.
All of us screamed together at the same time in
great panic. And we shouted out the name of Jesus. Gathered in the
building too were my congregation mates, sister Aven and Efendy, an
elder of GMII. We prayed and called out to our Lord Jesus, our Helper
and Friend. We prayed and sang wholeheartedly. Suddenly, the wall of
the next building collapsed and I could see sister Akiuk in that building,
also Delima, the theological college student in our congregation and many
more Acehnese whom I did not know. It was crowded with people.
These
people from the surrounding houses had crowded into the building which
is situated at the end of the row of shop houses along National Road.
Because of the collapsed wall, many people fell into the water, swimming
desperately to reach the 2nd floor of the building. The building was
overcrowded and it was threatening to collapse.
We all prayed to God
and asked that the building would not collapse even though it was loaded
beyond capacity. Everyone cried aloud the name of Jesus. Sister
Delima took the initiative and we all held hands to pray and sing together.
I prayed, "Lord help us! We surrender our lives into your hands. Help us,
Lord…!" And we sang, "I Surrender all… I surrender all, all to Jesus,
Lord our Savor, I surrender all". After praying we all calmed down.
At that moment I remembered a story from the Bible when Paul was
imprisoned. They praised and worshipped God and then the miracle
happened. The jail door opened and their chains came off. With
this faith and hope, we praised and worshipped. We hoped we would be
spared from this terrible disaster. Also, at the same time, we commanded
the water to retreat back to the seas,
"Hey, you water of the sea, stop there
and retreat back to the sea, in the name of Jesus!"
Not long afterwards,
the water receded. In our midst was a non-Christian and he said,
"Wow,
your Lord is real and alive. He listens to our prayer!"
We all thanked God
because of his faith. Seeing that the water had subsided, my husband
suggested,
"Ma, I'm going out for a while, I want to look for our children. I
want to see our children".
I was worried but yet longed to know the well
being of our children and finally said to him, "It's up to you." Then he left
to look for them.
Not long after that the water came again and this time the waves
were even bigger. It reached up to our chest on the 2nd level. I took the
initiative to remove the corrugated iron sheets which formed the roof of
the building and one by one we pulled each other up. We sat on the
rooftop ridge of the building. There we continued our praise and worship
and also prayed to God. That was the only thing we could do.
Then I recalled
the preaching of sister Mirna 5 days earlier,
"Do not fear, even if the earth
shakes, and there are bomb threats everywhere, be calm. Remember
Immanuel God. He is always with us while we still live in this world and
even when we die, we will enter heaven."
I felt I was privileged to remain
alive, so I raise my request to God,
"Lord, give me the opportunity to
live. I want others to know the works of your hand. I will be Your witness
and tell of how you have saved us, your children."
Finally, the water receded again, but I had no idea if my husband and
children were still alive. I didn't want to go down because I was afraid that
I might see the dead bodies of my family. At that moment, I thought
to myself, " I am alone in this world now, how am I going to go on
without my husband and children?" But quickly I cast out those awful
thoughts and made my way down slowly from the roof. Wading through
the waist deep water. I used my feet to grope beneath the water, cautiously
avoiding nails and broken pieces of corrugated iron sheets. I also stumbled
on bodies and it was such a horrible experience I did not want to carry on
but I knew it was useless to stop, so I cried as I walked over beams and
heaps of rubble which were obstructing the road. After hours of struggling,
I reached the general hospital which was flooded by the sea water.
I was relieved a little when I met pastor Amyati there. She is the
shepherd of our congregation and she greeted and hugged me. I whispered
in her ear, "Sister, I am all alone in this world now." Then she reprimanded
me and said, "Sister, don't have such awful thoughts, we do not know yet.
Put your hope in God. Come, let us pray for them." Shortly afterwards,
someone greeted me and told me my children and husband are safe.
I shouted for joy, giving thanks to God because He saved my most precious
possession. I cannot describe the relief I felt. I cried and cried. Thank you
Lord. Even though our 4 shops and the two cars (totaling five billion
rupiahs) were destroyed, our lives are more precious than all of these.
Once again, Amyati asked me to pray and give thanks to God for His mighty love.
That night, many thoughts went through my mind. We had lost all our
possessions. I had plans to redecorate our home, to make it more beautiful.
I had plans to increase my wealth and also various plans for the future
right up to our retirement age, because I am already 41. But human
thoughts and plans are futile. The glory of the world is like vapor, God
says. Then I understood the part in the Bible where God says, "For my
thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways". One
wonderful lesson I've learned from this is that from now on, I must be faithful
in tithing and be grateful that our Lord is most gracious and loving - He
did not repay me my wrong doings but gave safety to my family. I believe
that as I tithe, everything that was lost will be returned. God's Word is
never wrong. I was one that was wrong all the while and in the future
I will strive to be faithful in all things.
Used with Permission. Indonesian Mission Church.
http://dairicf.googlepages.com
TODAY's Thought: Daily Devotional 
