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Dear friends,

First of all, thank you so much for your prayers, your kind emails, your phone calls.....your love and support! I have felt incredibly supported over the past week.

The fire was a week ago: Monday night, October 31st from 8pm-10pm (type in "Kampung Baru kebakaran" in youtube and you get some images taken from a cellphone). My house and my immediate neighbors were not touched by the fire, but we all had moved our important possessions to an area further away because we thought the fire would reach us. It was an evening of fear, tears, and trauma for most of our neighbors as we watched the HUGE fire.

About 150 families in Kampung Baru lost their homes and all their possessions. The fire was too large and too fast for people to have time to grab anything except their children. Thank God no lives were lost. If the fire had been later on in the evening, after people had gone to sleep, surely there would have been deaths. The fire spread into our community, Cipinang Besar Selatan, and consumed about 40 homes. A tricky part of the relief response has been having to navigate two different communities, with two different leaders, and two different relief distribution sites. That has made things more complex.

Ironically, the name "Kampung Baru" means "The New Village." And since it was completely flattened, it is now indeed being built anew.

Tuesday I went to see the sight of the fire in daylight for the first time, and to sit and be with my many friends in that community. The sense of community is very strong in Kampung Baru, everyone knows everyone and people look out for each other.

That first evening after the fire, I joined the hundreds of people sleeping in the four large government tents set up-- literally on the trash mountain. It reminded me of college how we used to have weekly times of "Prayerfully Sleeping" on the EMU hill to pray for refugees and areas of conflict in theworld. I didn't sleep much, but it was an important time of bonding with these people that I love.

Our relief response began on Wednesday, after talking to the community and getting a sense for what was needed. Obviously, as a team of three, we could not have done this all by ourselves. It would have been impossible. Praise God for His faithfulness in providing us with amazing Indonesian brothers and sisters to help with shopping, with assembly, and with distribution! It's been incredible to see how people have come forth to help us.

RELIEF PHASE ONE: school uniforms and shoes and backpacks so the kids could get back into school as soon as possible. Our pastor and his wife along with my friends from church helped a lot with this project.

PHASE 2: plastic tarps for constructing tents to live in (the government provided big tents on top of the garbage hill for the first 5 days. They have now been removed). Catholic brothers helped us with this.

PHASE THREE: large wash basin, plastic bucket, dipper for showers, oil stove, and a basic pot and pan for cooking.

[Written by one of the Servants Team members in Jakarta, Indonesia.]