Bad Year for Disasters

There is no shortage of disasters this year.

aljazeera.net reports: China has mobilised thousands of soldiers and police to help relief efforts after Typhoon Saomai killed at least 104 people.

Typhoon Saomai - the strongest storm to hit the country for 50 years – had wrecked more than 50,000 homes by Saturday morning and caused blackouts in several cities.

More than 190 people were still missing after the storm struck on Friday.

Saomai weakened to a tropical depression as it hit the southeast but torrential rains are forecast over the weekend in China's south stretching from coastal Zhejiang and Fujian inland to the poor rural provinces of Jiangxi and Anhui.

Wenzhou was hardest hit, at least 81 people were killed and 11 missing, the official Xinhua news agency said.

The storm caused 4.5 billion yuan ($560 million) in damage in the coastal city, 18,000 houses were flattened.

I really enjoy being a Scientology Volunteer Ministers. It's really terrific to be able to help people. And knowing some basic information about Scientology really makes that possible.

Scientology Disaster Relief Teams Now Part of NVOAD

I was really happy and proud to see that the National Volunteer Organizations Active in Disasters has recognized the Scientology Disaster Relief Team a National member of their organization.

Freedom Magazine has a story about the work of 4 different groups of these dedicated Scientologists.

They were also featured in an international Scientology event last month -- a speech by Mr. David Miscavige that included a presentation of the highlights their work over the past few months.

Scientology Volunteer Ministers in Indonesia

I dedicated this blog to the Scientology Volunteer Ministers (VMs) who went to Southeast Asia after the tsunamis in early January 2005. My blog has continued and so have they.

I realized the other day when I was reading through articles on the Volunteer Ministers web site that the reason the Volunteer Ministers disaster relief team was able to respond so quickly after the Java earthquake was because of a VM group in Medan, Indonesia. This is a group of primarily local residents who have taken some training in Scientology techniques and are continuing the work the original disaster relief team started -- making Scientology technology available to the people of the island.

It is terrible that what caused the program to take root in Indonesia was a horrible disaster where so many were killed or badly injured, but I am so glad to see that the VMs are still there!