Untitled - St.Francis Magazine

St Francis Magazine Vol 8, No 2 | April 2012 Gospel.” In reality, not all Christian foreigners departed ... Several decided to stay in the country to be identified with the sufferings of the people they came to serve. Some stayed even in dangerous areas ... An example of those courageous people is a … friend of mine. He is currently offering a “glass of cold water” in the name of Jesus Christ to the sisters and brothers of Jesus … (I hope that his case is not to be considered an act of disobedience to his mission organization, but an act of heroism). There were many questions and criticisms about the decision to evacuate, but the leadership had taken the decision in response to the needs of those on the ground both individually and as a group. The organisation’s Evacuation Policy states that mandatory evacuation would be considered when there was a high level of personal risk due to: war between the host country and another power, the outbreak of civil war, the outbreak of a regional war that results in significant unrest, a natural disaster or epidemic, complete breakdown of law and order, a personal threat, local medical, food and water supplies having run out, all outside communication being cut with no hope of repair in the near future, a Partner being overwhelmed by stress, a Partner not having support locally, a Partner not having access to funds, a Partner being subject to assault/robbery. The international leadership undertook an evaluation of the evacuation, in consultation with a number of the entities that were affected by the decision, and made several changes to its policies on handling crisis and evacuations. These sought to embrace the individual sense of call whereby some personnel choose to stay through a crisis where otherwise evacuation is called for. It was an exercise that sharpened the understanding of the relationship between organizational and individual responsibility, and sought to reflect the relationship between the 153