Update From Java
After a grueling 34 hours of travel, my father and younger brother finally arrived in Java just miles away from the epicenter of an earthquake which caused utterly-massive devastation. The needs there are far greater than anyone in their group had expected, thanks to mass-media tucking this issue far into the back pages of the news.
My father reporting from a remote village says:
There are enough supplies to last one more week here, just enough food to serve the families of these 3,200 children. Then the money is gone. The red tape is too much to get through to apply for government funding so this group, like so many others, are solely dependent upon outside help. Each time you read another post, I will ask you to donate, to call someone you know, to send them a link to this site, to help the thousands of people here in this beautiful country get their lives back.
Earthquakes create a certain type of massive destruction that is nearly impossible to imagine. Seeing is truly believing. Structures that stood for 50 years are violently shaken as the earth sways and grinds, reducing all but the most heavily reinforced houses of concrete and wood to nothing more than a pile of dust, stone and rubble in less time than it took for you to read this post. We drove into the heart of earthquake zone this afternoon, a village called Pleret. Densely populated streets now lined with end of the world devastation for miles and miles. Everywhere we looked, there was nothing left.
Please take a moment to donate, read their blog from the streets of Java and support their amazing efforts!