Please keep the nation of Tonga in your prayers. Communication is sparse, but we are thankful our team and their families are safe. Read on to see what one persons experience has been, and in the details, find something to pray for. Their radio ministry has helped many and we hope it and the message it broadcasts will continue to be a beacon of light during an extremely tough time.
From Manasa (Youth for Christ Pacific Region Director)
“We received a phone call from Florian in Tonga this morning, to let us know he and his family – and everyone at the radio station – are okay. However, food and water supplies are running low and the air is polluted with toxic ash. Because most communications with Tonga are down and access is scarce, the call quality is low, so we’ve transcribed some of the conversation below.”
Florian: Thank you for the prayers. Everyone, thank you… We are surviving by the grace of God and we will get through this… There is destruction here in Tonga and also Ha’apai…and oh my goodness…we had those big explosions, and the rock rain and the ash rain the whole night. I was driving through all the ash rain trying to rescue people who live close to the seashore…families and friends…
Andy: Are you able to broadcast?
Florian: Yes we are broadcasting… We are still broadcasting…and…people…they are so down and discouraged and think…that it is the end of the world. On the day it happened I went down…and I noticed the birds were all flying, and the dogs and the animals were running… I have never seen anything like that, and the only thing that comes to mind is that something…is about to happen coming from the sea. And then suddenly we begin to hear these explosions like I’ve never heard in my life. Everyone would kneel as they tried to hold their ears and it was not one explosion, it was one, two, three, four…and big huge ones. You could feel the shaking and the churning of the waves about to come, big huge waves of water…all the way down to the… And you know the place where I used to have retreat with my youth?
Andy: Yes we saw that’s been destroyed.
Florian: Yes all gone…all those…nothing left. Everything is…yeah…terrible. I just want you to tell our supporters, thank you for the prayers and we are still on the radio during this hard time and I think everyone is very emotional…but the nation is working together. People are working together and trying to remove the dust from the roofs of the houses, from the main road…and we are praying for rain. And please do pray that we would have a huge heavy rain that will wash all the stuff…our plants are dying and…yes it is terrible. Everyone here in Tonga is wearing masks even though there is no Covid. We are wearing masks because of the dust. Yeah it was so big…everyone here was holding their ears. You couldn’t stand during it. The island was shaking. Before the explosion we began to see the tides just went dry. We knew that something was about to happen, and everyone had to leave everything.