Here's what will answer the "When" question for us:
DEFINITION OF THE CURRENT RESPONSE SITUATION:
The following definitions were given to be helpful for understanding the aftermath of a crisis like this.
- Rescue: this is what is currently taking place. This is done by professionals, and we need to trust them with this phase.
- Relief: can be defined as the urgent and temporary provision of emergency aid to reduce immediate suffering from a natural or man-made crisis. There is a need to halt the free fall, to stop the bleeding, and this is what relief attempts to do. It targets those who are largely incapable of helping themselves at the time. The Good Samaritan bandaging of the helpless and bleeding man is an excellent example of this. Once the rescue work is done and access to the region is opened to the public, groups on the ground here want to be ready to have teams going in bringing relief and initial assistance.
- Rehabilitation: begins as soon as the bleeding stops. It seeks to restore people and their communities to the positive elements of their pre-crisis condition. The key feature of rehabilitation is a dynamic of working with the victims as they participate in their own recovery. This is a much longer term involvement. One way to engage with this is to get churches inside and outside of Japan to become sister churches with those in the affected zone, working through them to bring help in rebuilding the communities.
