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On remote Breueh Island, northern Sumatra, lie two fishing villages, Lhoh and Lampuyang, which serve as home to local fishermen. Lhoh faces west on the island's inlet. Lampuyang is on the other side, much closer to the island's mountains. Lhoh is smaller and is known for its popular coffee shop. Lampuyang is larger, richer, and has a vibrant downtown and the local mosque.

Stories of fishing adventures were being swapped the late December morning that a massive earthquake shook the region. Minutes later, a Lhoh villager shouted, "The water is disappearing!" The quake had moved thousands of square miles of ocean bottom to the east, triggering three gigantic waves—a tsunami of frightening proportions.

Mohammed, the Lampuyang village headman, heard shouts from people running from the beach. He started to run also. He looked toward the ocean and saw "water like a mountain." Immediately, Mohammed looked toward his home, his wife, and his child. "I turned around and looked, blinked in fear, and they were all gone."

The powerful tsunami scoured villages from the island landscape, and gigantic waves created a whirlpool one mile across. About one-third of the villages' people reached safety in the hills and mountains. They waited three days and three nights for what they thought was the end of the world.

All told, more than 130,000 Indonesians died in the 2004 tsunami. About 200,000 houses, 1,900 schools, and countless businesses were also destroyed. The tsunami assaulted what really counts in Sumatran life—families and villages that are self-sustaining and strongly independent.

Breueh Island's 500 survivors eventually crowded onto one undamaged boat and headed east for refuge. They found Banda Aceh, the provincial capital, decimated. The airport had escaped the tsunami, but it was transformed into a refugee camp and logistics center.

In the wake of the tsunami, Indonesian Christians were overwhelmed with how to address the colossal needs. But they stepped up to the challenge. In December, Christianity Today traveled to Banda Aceh at the invitation of Christians working in the region and with assistance from Compassion International. We found that Christians have expanded the ministry capacity of charitable groups to encompass relief work as well as sustainable development. They have also formed new organizations to address the ongoing need for shelter, food, clean water, education, and health care for millions of people still at risk.

In a province known as "the window to Mecca," with a fearful reputation due to radical Islamist and rebel violence, this newfound commitment to relief work is earning Christians respect within the Muslim community.

The tsunami also spurred immediate and impressive political change. Desperation threw together an odd alliance. The Indonesian government, the rebel separatist group GAM ("Free Aceh Movement"), Western governments, and faith-based ministries all determined to seize every opportunity to ease tensions. The government and GAM militants struck a truce. More than 700 nongovernmental organizations piled into Sumatra in a ministry free-for-all unlike any seen since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union.

Evangelical groups included both familiar and lesser-known relief agencies, many inexperienced in emergency relief. Banda Aceh was largely unknown in Christian missions circles, because the government had forbidden missionaries to work there due to radical Islam. Yet these groups stretched beyond their comfort zones in providing innovative support:

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March 2006, Vol. 50, No. 3