Locals Mount Emergency Relief Effort

Missionary Jim Liljegren went to Turkey to hand out Bibles and religious pamphlets.

He ended up scrambling to pass out water to soothe burning throats, food to fill hungry stomachs and bandages to cover open wounds.

The Oak Park resident is part of an eight-member missionary group that left for Istanbul Aug. 13 hoping to help local churches organize Bible studies and start children’s ministry programs.

But that all changed when a 7.4 earthquake struck early Tuesday, devastating the nearby town of Izmit and leaving more than 10,000 dead.

In a telephone interview from Istanbul on Friday, Liljegren, 54, and others in his group described the carnage and their efforts to relieve suffering.

The missionaries said it was not until hours after the quake when the group drove closer to the epicenter in Izmit, about 45 minutes away, that they began to realize the extent of the destruction.

Apartment buildings, businesses and schools were reduced to piles of rubble that in some cases had become instant tombs.

“It was difficult to hear the cries for help from one man trapped inside a building,” Liljegren later wrote via e-mail to fellow church members, “when we knew that he probably would not be rescued.”

“Now, we redirected our focus,” said fellow missionary volunteer Amy Cimino, 34, of Agoura Hills. “It was an incredible opportunity to help people.”

Unsure of what to do first, the missionaries rushed to buy as much water as their small van could carry. But after only a few fevered moments of tossing out water packets, their supply was gone.

The van was mobbed by children, Cimino said, all of them screaming, “Suyu, suyu,” the Turkish word for water.

“They were just reaching their arms out, reaching out for water,” Cimino said. “And we were just out, and it really made me cry because there was nothing more we could do.”

Apparent to all, Liljegren said, was the disorganization of the rescue efforts by local government officials.

“I’m sure plenty of people did die because there was no organized way to get to them,” Liljegren said.

There was plenty to be done, and the missionaries were eager to step in.

Using his laptop computer, Liljegren, who traveled to Turkey as a member of the Pasadena-based International Interns Missionary Agency, sent e-mails to affiliate churches asking for financial assistance.

“The supplies are here,” he wrote. “We just need the money to buy them and then get them to the people.”

Worshipers of Agoura Bible Fellowship, Emanuel Evangelical Free Church in Burbank and other area churches responded with cash donations that were wired to the missionaries.

The missionaries spent the money on renting vans and loading them with necessities, such as water, food, diapers and bandages. They also brought tents, tarps, sheets and anything else that could provide a little shade from the unrelenting heat.

On Friday, group members parked their vans across the street from a large skating rink they learned later was being used as a morgue.

As they handed out supplies to quake victims, the missionaries noticed a large group of people standing silently around a collapsed apartment building. One woman insisted her brother was still alive and she could hear him moaning. An excavation crew stood by, straining to hear sounds of life, but they never came.

“That period is ending now,” Liljegren said. “The first two days, there were more incidents where there were cries from the rubble. But the cries are not coming now, because they are dying.”

The missionaries aligned themselves with Hope International, a church based in Istanbul, to find out what more they could do to ease suffering.

Liljegren said much of their relief efforts have been focused on a local teaching hospital that was severely damaged. The hospital, which took more than a decade to complete, was dedicated only two weeks ago, Liljegren said.

“We kept asking the doctors and nurses there, ‘What can we do to help?’ ” he said. “But they were just all in a daze, just confused.”

Earlier this week, the group managed to get the physicians a generator, water and basic first aid tools--enough to begin treating some of the 500 patients that begged for help.

Those more seriously injured had to be redirected to Istanbul hospitals for treatment.

“The doctors said many of those people probably died on their way there,” Liljegren said. “But they had no choice. They had no instruments, really nothing, to help them at that point.”

Many of the missionaries will return to the United States next Saturday, but others, including Liljegren, are planning to stay a few more weeks. Still more will fly out in the coming days, bringing cash and extra help.

Liljegren said he will remember the stories of anguish he has heard from the quake victims for the rest of his life.

“That’s the function of our people here,” Liljegren said. “When we hear their cries of grief, we put [our] arms around them and listen. And they want to say, ‘Guess what, that’s my loved one under there, my children.’ And people are just standing, staring at the rubble. Yeah, it’s all been a very emotional experience for me.”