UMCOR joins relief efforts in Taiwan

by United Methodist News Service

September 22, 1999

NEW YORK (UMNS) -- As the search for survivors in the rubble of toppled buildings and houses continued, the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) prepared to make an assessment forrelief work in Taiwan.

As of Sept. 22, more than 1,700 people were reported dead and 4,400 injured after massive earthquake struck the island early the previous day, according to the New York Times. Taiwan's president, Lee Teng-hui, called the disaster the worst earthquake in a century.

UMCOR is dispatching newly-retired United Methodist Board of Global Ministries missionary, the Rev. Jonah Chang, to assess the situation in Taiwan. He will leave in a few days, according to Wendy Whiteside, executive secretary for program management. Chang is a native of Taiwan.

The Rev. Tom Logsdon, a Board of Global Ministries mission personnel executive, said he had sent an email on Sept. 21 to the Taipei office of Bishop Philip Tseng of the Methodist Church in the Republic of China, asking how United Methodists could be of assistance. He had not yet received a response on Sept. 22. The Methodist church in Taiwan has 2,462 members and serves a community of 5,000.

Logsdon already has heard via email from Connie Wieck (right), a United Methodist missionary from the Illinois-Great Rivers Annual (regional) Conference who serves at Wesley Girls' School in Taipei. Wieck had not immediately realized the extent of the earthquake's impact. "It was a strange thing as we all felt the earthquake (which basically rattled everything in the building for about 10 seconds) as well as the aftershocks but everyone figured that was the end of it," she wrote. "I got up to get ready for school at 6:30 a.m. and had no electricity. When I turned on my English radio station, that's when I heard all the reports." She reported that her part of the city had received little damage and she expected school to be back in session soon.

Neither Logsdon nor Wieck had heard from the Rev. Paul and Janice Liao, a missionary couple from the Mississippi Conference who teach at Taiwan Theological College. But they were thought to be safe because they live in the same general area as Wieck. Logsdon also had not heard from a retired missionary, Juanelva Rose, Northwest Texas Conference, whom he believed was back teaching at Tanghai University in Taichung.

The Presbyterian Church, Taiwan's largest Protestant denomination, has called upon its 220,000 members to donate a day's pay to the church's relief fund for earthquake victims, according to Ecumenical News International.