While the monsoon season happens every year in South Asia, some years are worse than others. In some parts of South Asia, heavy rains and flooding are the worst they’ve been in 40 years. ANM is aware of these natural disasters and is working with native missionaries to respond. One native missionary from the area shares about his ministry’s response below.
Recent Flooding in South Asia
There are two monsoon seasons in some parts of South Asia: summer monsoon from April to September and winter monsoon from October to November. The 2024 summer monsoon weather has been more severe than previous years, especially in parts of India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan.
This year, flooding events started in May and continued because of heavy rains in June, July, August, and September. Droughts earlier in the year, storm surges, man-made river dams, and the proximity to glacial lakes in the Himalayas made flooding worse during the most recent monsoon season.
Effects of Flooding in South Asia
Flooding in South Asia can cause other natural disasters, such as landslides, and humanitarian problems, such as waterborne disease. Floods and landslides destroy vital infrastructure in cities, such as roads and healthcare buildings, and decimate rural areas, such as small villages and farms. In some cases, floods or landslides have wiped out entire communities.
As of October 2024, international authorities know of at least 450 deaths in the area. Millions of people are stranded with little to no access to necessities such as clean water, medicine, and food. Hundreds of thousands of people are internally displaced. Women, children, refugees, the elderly, and disabled people are at an even greater risk of experiencing violence, exploitation, and abuse. You can donate to help native missionaries who are reaching these people through ANM’s website.
Emergency Flood Response from a Native Missionary
In September of 2024, I had the opportunity to interview a native South Asian missionary named VJ about his ministry’s emergency response to flooding. This interview has been edited for clarity and concision.
Rebecca: Can you give me an overview of what happened and how your ministry responded?
VJ: Usually, we have cyclones in my home country. It comes with heavy wind and rain and thunderstorms and stuff like that, but this was slightly different. It just rained for like two, three days non-stop. Outside of the city is a river, so that excess of rain just flooded the river there. The riverbank flooded and the water gushed into the city.
I received a couple of phone calls from our church members. They said, “We’re not able to come to church today because there’s two feet of deep water.” They hadn’t seen more than 2 feet of flood water in 50 to 70 years, so they thought it was manageable. They just didn’t have any food, so we sent vegetables and rice. Then, overnight, the water level suddenly increased to seven to ten feet. A lot of people were not expecting that. As the water was coming up, I think some people evacuated to higher ground or higher floors in their buildings. Then that water level stayed for the next three, four days.
As a church, we tried to contact church members. There was no electricity. The power supply was damaged. So the next day, we tried to go to the entry point of the flood. It came up from the river and almost 40% of the city was under the water. We were on the other side of the city where our church building was located in the 60% of the city that was not flooded. We all gathered and we tried to bring in some cooked food, water and milk, and things like that.
Some people were able to come out and get supplies, but then there were people stuck further inside [the flooded area] and they didn’t have access to water and food. We decided to carry bottles of water and cooked food on our heads. The water was at chest level. We walked almost two kilometers in and then the water force was too strong. There were some families that didn’t have water for a day and we were able to supply them with water.
Then the next day, there was a lot of people at the entry point [of the flooded area], but nobody wanting to go inside. We prayed and asked the Lord to help us reach a family that was really in need. The Lord connected us with a young man, and his younger sister was seven months pregnant. She didn’t have food or water. He had ventured seven kilometers and heard that we were a church and asked if we would come. We weren’t very sure whether we wanted to go that deep inside, but he stayed and said there were 30 families with them that really need water and young children that don’t have milk or formula. The Lord really drew us to this man and we said, you know what? Let’s just go.
The water was chest high. It was sewer drainage. There were diapers, chicken pieces, fish bones, and more. We were in it for seven kilometers. We saw some dead bodies being brought out on a boat and I saw a dead body lying down that nobody had touched. And the people– I’ll never forget the desperation in the eyes of the people.
We kept going, we kept going, we kept going. After four kilometers I said, how much farther do we have to go? Because I started getting a bit scared because the current was strong. The only thing that kept us going was the thought that there are some little children without food or hot water or milk.
They were so thankful. What we brought was life-giving. But when we arrived, we heard a rumor that there was more flooding coming. We decided to walk back real quick.
When we were about to leave, I was able to pray with the brother. I shared the Gospel with him and all the people who received food and water. We exchanged phone numbers and we will follow up, hopefully with a visit. I’m excited and hopeful to see the outcome for the Kingdom, for the Gospel work.
The relief work is continuing now. It’s a very hopeless situation. But I think as a church, we were able to bring not only supplies but also eternal hope during this time. So that kind of work will continue for another three to six months. We are excited about all the Gospel opportunities, Gospel conversations, that we may have.
Every calamity has a Gospel opportunity, an evangelistic opportunity.
Gospel opportunities during floods in South Asia are plentiful, just as VJ said. If you want to support native missionaries as they respond to urgent needs around the world, you can do so through our website.
