Seeking Guidance: Yogyakarta, Central Java, Indonesia

It's only natural that during times of disaster people take solace in their faith and none more so then in Central Java at the moment after the devastating earthquake. On Friday, Muslims prayed for the first time since the earthquake and yesterday it was the Christians who flocked to their damaged churches.

Those Christians going to church for prayer found that as most of the churches were in some way un-structurally sound, found themselves praying outside their places of worship. Some churches were still standing, most bore visible cracks on their walls and spires. There is one fine structure in Yogyakarta known as St. Francis Xavier and not so long ago a new church was built next to the older and original church.

Previously, the church of St. Francis Xavier was a divided church where the Dutch Christians during the occupation prayed in one section and the Javanese Christians in another side less adorned than their occupiers side.

Meanwhile, aid agencies have fanned out into the worst-hit areas where tens of thousands are homeless and many injured victims still need help. I read an article today where the Foreign Minister of Indonesia was quoted as saying that no additional foreign medical aid was necessary and groups should now focus on reconstruction.

Without foreign aid to assist in reconstruction it will be a carbon copy of what has occurred or is still occurring in the strife torn areas of Aceh. Reconstruction in those areas is at a snails pace and thousands still live in refugee camps. Admittedly that disaster was more devastating and more lives lost, but people still need to be housed and effectively for them to proceed with some normality in their lives.

Further, Indonesian authorities maintained a red alert for smouldering Mount Merapi as activity at the volcano continued to intensify for an eighth straight day since an earthquake rocked the region. In the first six hours of Sunday the volcano spewed 118 lava trails and six heat clouds.

On Saturday, Merapi belched out nearly 500 red-hot lava flows, plumes of smoke stretching 800 meters into the sky and more than 100 heat clouds, some of them drifting four kilometres down the peak.