"The United Nations Children's Fund confirmed a case in Indonesia of trafficking in children orphaned or separated from parents by the Indian Ocean tsunami as ravaged countries were warned to be on high alert for kidnappers," Reuters reports.

"UNICEF and Indonesian police had confirmed that a 4-year-old boy was taken out of Banda Aceh, the capital of devastated Aceh province, by a couple claiming to be his parents," according to a similar report from MSNBC. A charity worker in Indonesia's Aceh province reported seeing a speedboat carrying 100 infants in the middle of the night.

The International Organization for Migration said it has seen seven cases of child trafficking since the tsunami. Reuters reports that other children are being kidnapped and sold into slavery. The Roman Catholic site AsiaNews says there has been one confirmed incident of a man claiming to be a boy's uncle because the government in India is offering $4,500 in assistance for raising an orphan.

Pope John Paul II condemned the trafficking. ''While I renew my prayers for the young victims of the earthquake in Asia, I do not forget those children who are victims of hunger and sickness, war and terrorism, or those children kidnapped, lost, or exploited in vile trafficking,'' he said. Catholic Bishop Elio Sgreccia said some agencies were illegally offering adoptions, according to the British Catholic paper The Tablet.

Meanwhile, Christian groups are working to take care of orphans. John Quinley, an executive director of Youth With a Mission, says, "I think there will be a real need for orphanages in this region now." Compassion International, which already provides aid for children around the world, has pledged "$375,000 in a major immediate relief initiative in Aceh, Indonesia, identifying and caring for orphaned children" and other relief services. And K.A. Paul, founder and president of Global Peace Initiative, says he will care for an additional 2,000 orphans at an orphanage site already home to 1,000 children.

A Swedish boy, Kristian Walker, is feared to be kidnapped by traffickers, according to the Irish Examiner. He "was last seen with a German man at a hospital near Khao Lak on Monday, but has since vanished, despite a desperate search by his American grandfather, Daniel Walker, family and police said."

Fred Phelps's antigay group at Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas (which during our 1999 profile of him included 70 people, mostly of his own family) is thanking God for the kidnapping, saying it is a better fate that being in Sweden and taught homosexuality is okay. Westboro has thanked God for the tsunami, hoping that 20,000 vacationing Swedes would die.

Ake Green, the Swedish pastor who was recently sentenced to one month in prison for a sermon in which he said homosexuality was "abnormal, a horrible cancerous tumor in the body of society," has condemned the Westboro group. Green is praised as a "martyr" by Westboro.

Green told the Swedish paper, The Local

"I think it is appalling that people say things like that," he said, "it is extremely unpleasant."

Green said that he has contacted newspapers in the United States to distance himself from the comments on the website. He added that he is surprised that authorities in the United States have not intervened. "This harms Christianity," he said.

Tax break extended to Jan. 31 for givers
Donor's can claim a 2004 tax deduction for giving to aid victims of the tsunami, thanks to legislation passed by Congress yesterday. So far donors have given $245 million to major charities according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy. To claim a deduction under the rule change, donors have until the end of the month to give.

Note
Our Weblog has a roundup of non-tsunami news today.

More Articles

Christians in the region:

• Missionary helping victims in India | A missionary with plans for routine work abroad intended to leave Athens Dec. 29 and return in March. Instead, he and his colleagues became part of an ongoing relief effort in Channai, India, following the Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunamis that devastated at least 11 countries in Southeast Asia. (Daily Post Athenian, Tenn.)
  
  
• Jungle survival for bishop and flock | Churches survive in the jungle after tsunami destroys homes and villages. (Church Times)
  
  
• Paisley-link church loses 850 members in India | Around 850 members of a church affiliated to Ian Paisley's Free Presbyterian congregation perished in southern India during the Boxing Day tsunami, it emerged last night. (News Letter, Ireland)
  
  
• Indonesia church-led network formed to aid tsunami victims | A coalition of church networks representing 25,000 of 38,000 churches in the predominantly Muslim nation has formed to respond to last week's quake-tsunami disaster. (Christian Post)
  
  
• Dover missionary sees the best and the worst in tsunami aftermath | Since the tsunami thrashed against much of southern Asia, Dover native Gary Dean, a missionary working in the island country of Sri Lanka, has seen both sides of the aftermath. (Foster's Daily Democrat, N.H.)
  
  

Relief & cleanup:

• Food and supplies plentiful, but distribution is lacking | In Sumatra, damage and a hierarchical structure complicate the task of getting aid to the needy (Los Angeles Times)
  
  
• Tsunami forensics team evokes Bible images | They're known as "the team that sleeps with the dead" — a group of ultra-Orthodox Jewish forensic workers who have matched body parts to identities after countless scenes of carnage in Israel. Now in Thailand, they have only one way to describe the aftermath of the tsunami: a disaster, literally, of biblical proportions (Associated Press)
  
  
• OMS responds to need | Aid from donations made through Greenwood-based OMS International is helping to feed thousands left homeless on the tsunami-stricken southern coast of India. "The people are very, very appreciative," contended Don Saum, OMS director of international support, after receiving reports by e-mail from those associated with the Evangelical Church of India (ECI), the OMS-related church in India. "We are encouraged with the contributions and inquiries." (Southside Times, Ind.)
  
  
• Tsunami orphans not up for adoption, agencies say | Asian children orphaned by the tsunami last month aren't immediately available for adoption, and may never be, international and U.S. adoption experts said this week. (Washington Times)
  
  
• Corruption fears rise as aid arrives | As relief officials struggle to reach homeless tsunami survivors, another concern is quietly making the rounds of donor meetings: the threat of corruption. (Associated Press)
  
  

Church aid:

• Canadian religious groups open hearts to tsunami victims | Like other sections of the Canadian society, religious groups have also come out in a big way to mourn the tsunami tragedy in Asia and support ongoing relief efforts. (Canada News)
  
  
• Valley reaches out to Asian victims | From humble church basements to high-end restaurants, relief benefits in the valley continue to add to the efforts around the world that are aiding residents in southern Asia. (Aspen Times, Col.)
  
  
• Mission to Myanmar | Local church group's trip may include tsunami aid (Courier & Press, Evansville, Ind.)
  
  
• Milwaukeeans moved to give from heart | In efforts big and small, area donors pitching in for tsunami victims (Journal Sentinel, Milwaukee)
  
  
• Church community reaches out | Westborough's religious communities have begun their own special collections that will benefit relief organizations in southern Asia. (Westborough News, Mass.)
  
  
• Churches react; tsunami crisis spurs home effort | Local houses of worship are responding to the aftershock of the Dec. 26 earthquake at Sumatra through a combination of that all-American alloy: prayer and money. (Chatham Courier, N.J.)
  
  
• Helping hands | Eight county women are leaving for India and an orphanage there established by the local Hollinger Foundation. They'll offer their help, wherever and however it's needed. (Lancaster New Era, Penn.)
  
  

Muslim militants join relief effort:

• Radical Indonesian Islamic group moving into tsunami-devastated Aceh | A radical Islamic group once headed by the alleged leader of a Southeast Asian terrorist group has set up a relief operation in tsunami-stricken Aceh province, and one expert warned it might try to stir up sentiment against U.S. and Australian troops also distributing aid there. (Associated Press)
  
  
• Militants join Aceh relief bid | Militant Islamic groups are rushing to join the relief effort in Aceh but deny they have any plans for holy war in the devastated Indonesian province - despite at least two of them bearing the provocative word mujaheddin in their names. (The Australian)
  
  

Giving:

• Giving till it hurts not to | What happens once the crisis fades and public attention, ever fickle, drifts to the next big thing? (The New York Times)
  
  
• How much should you give? | The massive amount of cash contributed by ordinary people to the tsunami appeal is unprecedented. Does this herald a new era of altruism? And how much should one give?(BBC)
  
  

Theodicy:

• Simple English for the Church of England | Certainly, a great many people who did not believe in God in the first place have seized on the tsunami as further evidence that He does not exist. But I have yet to come across anybody who has said: "I used to believe in God until the tsunami struck, but I don't any more." (Tom Utley, Daily Telegraph, UK)
  
  
• At risk in the universe … always | And even many Christians and Jews, who above all should have some understanding of the implications of being created absolutely free -- and therefore at risk -- in the universe, seem to be speechless or reduced to platitudes by the death and destruction around the Indian Ocean. (Ralph Kinney Bennett, Tech Central Station)
  
  
• Where was God? | Plus: Is the End near? (Al Tompkins, Poynter Online)
  
  
• Spiritually all at sea in a confusing world | Religion, however, always wants to interpret and defend God's role, even if God, by very definition, is indefinable. (James Murray, The Weekend Australian)
  
  
• 'Never seen anything like this' | The tsunami was, without a doubt, God's will and God's work. But God's venegance upon wealthy Muslims? Upon Americans and other Westerners? (Deborah Simmons, The Washington Times)
  
  
• Eternal questions debated | Was the tsunami divine punishment or a kind of blessing in disguise? (The Sydney Morning Herald)
  
  
• Tsunami, an act of devil, says cleric | President, God's Kingdom Society (GKS), Brother O. E. Aighalua, has described the recent earthquake that swept the coastline of 12 countries in the Indian Ocean, as an act of the devil to further improverish mankind (This Day, Nigeria)
  
  
• Eternal questions debated | Was the tsunami divine punishment or a kind of blessing in disguise? (Sydney Morning Herald)
  
  
• Mystery of the almighty | From worlds away—maybe another planet—"explanations" for the tsunami catastrophe begin. (Diana West, Washington Times)
  
  

Prayer & memorial:

• Lupando to attend tsunami prayer service | Vice-President Lupando Mwape is expected to attend an inter-church prayer service of the Zambia Inter-faith Networking Group on HIV/AIDS (ZINGO) on January 9 at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in commemoration of the tsunami victims in Southern Asia and East Africa. (The Times of Zambia)
  
  
• Service of remembrance for victims of Asian disaster held at Turku Cathedral | Turku Cathedral was packed full on Thursday for an ecumenical service of remembrance for the victims of the tsunami disaster in Asia. (Helsingin Sanomat, Finland)
  
  
• Maltese bishops ask people to pray for tsunami victims | In solidarity with the victims of the Southeast Asian Tsunamis, the Maltese Bishops asked the Maltese people to pray for the victims.( di-ve.com, Malta)
  
  
• With prayers, cash, clothing, tsunami victims are remembered here | Religious leaders call for compassion and generosity as worshippers gather this weekend. (Lancaster New Era, Penn.)
  
  
• Praying for tsunami victims | Toni Pemberton is relying on her power of prayer to help those who survived the tsunami that killed more than 120,000 in Asia. Pemberton joined 45 other St. James Church parishioners Monday night at a prayer service for those who died and were displaced by the devasting quake and resulting storm. (Milwaukee Freeman Newspapers, Wisc.)
  
  

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Related Elsewhere:

Recent tsunami weblogs include:

Tsunami Weblog: S. Korea Worries Christian Relief Groups May Face Terror Attacks | Plus: Where was God in the disaster? Churches giving aid, and orphaned children kidnapped. (Jan. 06, 2005)

Tsunami Weblog: The World Seeks Meaning | Is God to blame for the tragedy? Plus: the recent tsunami updates, ministry amid the wreckage, and Christians give $millions in relief. (Jan. 05, 2005)

Tsunami Blog: World Vision's $50 Million Goal | Plus: Commanding the wave to stop in Jesus' name, missing sponsorship kids, and other stories of faith and works in the wake of tragedy. (Jan. 04, 2005)

Our complete tsunami coverage is available on our website.

Read more from 'Weblog'

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