where 28,000 bodies were retrieved amid scenes of grief, BosNewsLife learned Tuesday, December 30.
As mass burials continued in the devastated town, the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC) announced it had contacted local evangelical churches to respond to spiritual, physical and material needs of communities in the Bam area.
CRWRC Executive Director Andrew Ryskamp said he saw an "opportunity to witness" the love of Christ to victims "in a powerful way," in the mainly Muslim nation. He told Mission Network News (MNN), a Christian broadcaster, that people have shown interest in the Gospel.
"You’re here? Your so different from other people from the west. What is that?," Ryskamp said about questions asked by non Christian Iranians. "And, that’s an opportunity to begin a dialogue about what it means to be in Christ. That’s a real place for testimony to happen," he said.
MANY HOMES DAMAGED
Friday’s pre-dawn earthquake razed much of the ancient Silk Road city of Bam in Iran, about 630 miles (1000 kilometers) from Tehran.
The quake, which reportedly registered up to 6.7 on the Richter scale according some estimates, damaged about 80-percent of the homes while seven out of ten people living in the area are said to be dead, missing, injured or displaced.
Historical structures such as the 2,000-year old citadel were also destroyed and eyewitnesses said the tallest section of the ancient mud fortress "crumbled like a sand castle," killing also one American and injuring another.
"(The quake) reminds me quite a bit of the one that happened a few years ago in Turkey," said Ryskamp, adding his organization was raising funds to rebuild the area of up to 200,000 people.
Ryskamp said food, health care and housing was needed, and suggested the CRWRC would closely work with "Middle East organizations that are into the house church network to really respond in a way that’s coming along side those communities."
SHOW "CHRISTIAN CARE"
He stressed it was part of a major effort "to show them what Christian care really is."
Christian and other aid workers have also asked for clothing, blankets, tents, cooking sets and medicines, as the shattered city digs out from tons of rubble and debris left in the aftermath of the deadly temblor.
Tens of thousands of people have been left homeless by the earthquake that all but destroyed Bam, and many of them have been without shelter in near-freezing nighttime temperatures. One Iranian Church leader involved in the relief effort, whose identity was not revealed for apparent security reasons, urged believers not to forget those suffering because of the earthquake in Bam.
"It is also extremely sad that the world will soon forget the victims," the official was quoted by a Christian news letter as saying, after officials said the total death toll could reach 40,000, and even 50,000.
SUFFERING CHRISTIANS
It was not clear what impact the Church support would have on the attitude of Islamic authorities toward Christians and their leaders, many of whom have been imprisoned, tortured and assassinated by death squads and other individuals, according to several human rights reports seen by BosNewsLife.
In addition church buildings have been closed and bibles confiscated since the closure of the Iranian Bible Society in 1980. Human rights watch dogs say the persecution of Christians in Iran "has decimated the leadership of the Protestant evangelical community" in that country and created an atmosphere of terror under which the church is presently suffering.
The Christian minority, including Muslim coverts, have been linked by militants to what they see as Western and especially America’s efforts to "colonize" the region. While 99 percent of Iran’s roughly 65 million people are Muslim, there are believed to be thousands of born again believers in the Middle Eastern nation.
TENSIONS REMAIN
There were no indications Tuesday, Dec. 30, that relations between Washington and Tehran improved, with Iranian President Mohammad Khatami saying he "welcomed aid" from the United States but that only "a profound change in U.S. policy" would settle political differences.
Diplomatic relations between Washington and Tehran have been cut since 1980 following the Iranian revolution that resulted in the taking of American hostages at the U.S. embassy in Tehran.
Despite their difference the first American military flight to Iran since 1981 arrived in the Islamic republic Sunday, Dec. 28, carrying tons of emergency supplies.
In addition a team of 80 U.S. doctors arrived in southeastern Iran Monday, December 29, with medical and emergency supplies as the search and rescue phase from Friday’s earthquake transitions to humanitarian assistance, the Voice of America (VOA) network reported.
