TCU’s Indonesian Students are Grateful Faculty Members, Staffs and Students Prayed for Earthquake Affectees in Indonesia

Text/Photo: Chia-Yi Lee
Translation: J.B. Willis, Steve J. Lin

A powerful earthquake hit Indonesia on September 28, 2018. The confirmed death toll had reached 1,763 by October 8, with thousands of people injured, and over 5,000 still missing. On October 1, TCU invited faculty members, staff and students to pray for those who were affected, and many Indonesian students attended. Jeshika Febri attended this prayer session, and she is from Indonesia. She was grateful to TCU for sponsoring the prayer session for her countrymen, and she wished the prayers could help reduce the impact of this catastrophe.

The 7.5-magnitude earthquake and tsunami affected many Indonesians. TCU’s President Pen-Jung Wang pointed out that this earthquake was caused by collisions between tectonic plates. Taiwan and Indonesia are 4,000 kilometers apart, but are coincidently are in the same “Ring of Fire,” which is a major area for many earthquakes to take place. In this area, the earthquakes are mainly triggered by collisions between plates, which can happen anytime in Indonesia or Taiwan. President Wang invited everyone to pray for Indonesia, and take action to help the Indonesian friends.

Many Indonesian students stood behind the crowd, while the session was going on. When the music “Prayer” came up, they were in tears. TCU was aware that this earthquake was a big shock for Indonesian students, so it sponsored this event for them to get together and console each other. Victoria has the vivid memory of an enormous tsunami that hit Aceh, Indonesia in 2004, and caused over 200,000 deaths and injuries. She said: “I was only 5 years old when it occurred, and my mom took our family to a temple which was located on higher ground, so we were unharmed. But when we went back home several days later, all the walls of our house had been destroyed. ” Seeing this recent earthquake has caused many deaths, injuries or people to be missing, she felt sad and cried.

Kusnanto Tanius is a junior in Communication Studies. On September 28, many faculty members and his peers asked him about his family in Indonesia. Fortunately, all of them were safe and their house was intact. But people in the disaster area were not so lucky, as many of their houses have collapsed, and many have lost their lives or been injured. Kusnanto Tanius was glad he is in Taiwan, and felt grateful to the Taiwanese and people elsewhere, for caring and helping his country, as they did in 2004 when a devastating tsunami hit Indonesia.

Besides the Taiwanese, many international students also offered sincere prayers. Leong Chu Yoke, a Malaysian student, received a LINE message from Su-Zhen Yang, a member of TCU’s Health Clinic, and then rushed to the Main Campus for this event. Chu Yoke believed that prayers would be helpful to those who were affected. She wished that those who were affected would go through it smoothly, and she furthermore longed for the day this world will be free of disasters.