Just to clarify, what hit Indonesia was an earthquake and then a tsunami.
The Philippines was hit by a strong typhoon last month, and Ethnos360 put out an appeal for donations then too.
I sincerely hope the funds donated to help in Indonesia will be handled with more integrity than were the hundreds of thousands of dollars raised in 2013 for relief work in the Philippines following Typhoon Haiyan.
The infuriating thing back in that situation was the assurance that NTM offered repeatedly:
"Any funds collected in excess of the needs of NTM's direct involvement in relief efforts will be forwarded in their entirety to reputable relief organizations that NTM has verified are doing relief work in the wake of the typhoon."
... and then to find out a few years later that NTM had not forwarded their funds to relief organizations, but instead, used the funds to build an airstrip on one of the islands where NTM has a work.
(As far as I can tell, that money is gone, and the airstrip remains unfinished. And unneeded now, because Ethnos Aviation is using helicopters, and no longer needs long airstrips for fixed-wing airplanes.)
From what I have read, Ethnos personnel were directly affected by the earthquake that hit the Palu, Indonesia area. They have needed to be evacuated, and their mission guest house was badly damaged. I don't have a problem with people donating to help Ethnos missionaries ... as long is there are no promises made about passing on the funds ... if those promises are not going to be kept.
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