My post below recounted the miraculous survival of 400 worshiping Christians during the Christmas Day tsunami that devastated their city. Urban Legends, in the quote that follows, says it is a myth, although they have not yet contacted Bill Hekman – who can certainly affirm or debunk the story. Hekman’s church, however, has put a disclaimer on its website (CALVARY LIFE FELLOWSHIP) stating that the story is fictional.

“It is a wonderful story, a parable for our times. Unfortunately, the facts do not support it.

“After the tsunamis, disaster teams moved into the city of Meulaboh as quickly as they could get there, both to bring relief to the surviving inhabitants and to establish one of the two major aid distribution points for Aceh province (Banda Aceh is the other). Even amid all the chaos, the return of 400 people would not have gone unnoticed, nor would their story of having been away worshipping on a mountaintop when the waves came in have gone unrepeated.

“Yet despite the immediate presence of aid workers from around the world who came to help distribute supplies, a great many of whom were Christian and who would have been happy to trumpet any good news from the site of the disaster, the story did not surface. The press failed to pick it up too — not so much as one of those 400 supposedly spared told his tale of salvation to any of the reporters there to cover the devastation. Some might be tempted to attribute this dearth of news coverage to a lack of interest on the part of a secular press far more fascinated by other aspects of the disaster. Yet that would not explain how the Catholic News Service could on 24 January 2005 manage to produce this article on conditions in Meulaboh yet fail to mention the miraculous survival of the city’s Christians.

“‘Now the Muslims of Meulaboh are saying that the God of the Christians punished us for forbidding the Christians from celebrating Christmas in the city.’” The claim of Meulaboh’s Muslims decrying the disaster as a punishment earned for their having prevented Christians from worshipping in the city on Christmas Day lacks support.

“First, there is no reason to suppose Meulaboh’s Christians were asked to go elsewhere, or indeed that any objection to their celebrations was voiced, by Muslims or anyone else. Second, although there have been numerous prayer meetings and religious gatherings in Meulaboh since the tsunamis, we find no record of anyone’s having asserted at them that the religious majority’s having treated Christians uncharitably brought on the waves.

“Indeed, former Prime Minister of Malaysia Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said in his 4 February address to the congregation at the Baiturrahman Mosque the catastrophe was a test from God on the faith of the Muslims. Others have echoed this view of why the catastrophe happened (God was testing his Muslim followers), with nary a mention of the supposedly widespread lament of the Muslims having been punished for their treatment of the Christians in their midst.

“It is interesting to note that a number of mosques in Aceh survived the tidal waves while other buildings around them were destroyed, an unfolding of events those of the Muslim faith might take as a sign of their religion enjoying heavenly protection, not censure, in that it could appear an attempt was made to spare the faithful. Yet it is also true those mosques were better constructed and more structurally sound than the buildings that were razed.

“The account of the 400 Christians who left Meulaboh to celebrate Christmas on a nearby mountain often lists Pastor Willem (Bill) Hekman of the Calvary Life Fellowship in Indonesia as its author. While we can confirm that a person of such name is a pastor with that organization and that the e-mail address often provided with the chronicle is associated with him, we cannot as yet establish that he is indeed the author of the piece. Our e-mailed query to him about his possible involvement with the tale has so far gone unanswered. (Which, given the state of things in Indonesia at the moment, is hardly surprising.)”

UL says it is a myth, and so it would appear. But as I said in my earlier post, whether it is a true story or not, Christians do need to display far more humility and far less entitlement and demandingness in life. We are seeking another city, whose builder and architect is God (HEB 11.10), and are but ambassadors for our King in this present life. We have no genuine rights or responsibilities other than those that He has given to us; we have work to do, not rights to claim for ourselves (LK 17.7-10).


2 Cor 1:13