Doctors return from Pakistan earthquake zone

It's been one month since a devastating earthquake hit Pakistan and the country and its people are still in dire need of help. A group of Tulsa doctors just returned from a relief mission there.

Friday, November 4th 2005, 10:08 am

By: News On 6

It's been one month since a devastating earthquake hit Pakistan and the country and its people are still in dire need of help. A group of Tulsa doctors just returned from a relief mission there.

As News on 6 reporter Steve Berg explains, they treated wounds both physical and spiritual. Dr. Christine Liu had never been to the scene of a major disaster and didn't know what to expect. She says the damage was mind-boggling. "It was just leveled, all the major buildings were just leveled and people were camped out on top of their homes, those that had survived, they had makeshift tents on top of their homes."

Liu is part of "In his Image", a group of Christian doctors that go all around the world on relief missions. With everything that's going on in the Middle East, they weren't exactly sure how they'd be received as Americans, let alone Christians, in a nation almost entirely Muslim, but in the middle of all the anguish, they found smiles. "The small percent of a society that is angry and frustrated and wants to hurt you is extremely low."

More surprising perhaps, Dr. Mitch Duininck, the group's leader, says they even prayed together with the Pakistani people, though he says he was careful not to appear too forward. "And yet every time we offered and that's how we would do it, would you like us to pray for you? They always said yes. Please do."

They found many Pakistanis felt they were being punished by God. Dr Christine Liu: "They would say well, God did this to us or only God is powerful enough to do this and we were just able to speak with them and say God loves you, he loves you specifically, and he loves your family and he cares about you.â€

But the doctors say Pakistanis feel the world has forgotten them. Dr Mitch Duininck: "People had walked out for three days and said where's our government, where's out help, where's our people. We're up there and we're starving. Nobody has come to us." But these doctors did.

The doctors slept in tents on the grounds of a local hospital during their weeklong mission. It takes 3 days just to get to Pakistan and back.