NATCHEZ &045; The 24 hour news coverage has stopped, the donation drives have fizzled and the nearly 3-month-old tragedy that struck a world away has been all but forgotten by many Americans.

But the hurt is still there, the cleanup is ongoing and the prayers are still needed, two locals who recently returned from the tsunami-struck area said.

Volunteers through the Mississippi Baptist Disaster Relief team, Delores Spinks and the Rev. Dale Little spent a week each in mid-February in the Banda Aceh community on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. Aceh was the area hardest hit by the Dec. 26 earthquake and following tsunamis. More than 230,000 Aceh residents died, and 120,000 are still reported missing.

&uot;There’s so much loss,&uot; Spinks said. &uot;They want to tell the stories, but they have no one to tell them to.&uot;

The emotional pain is something Spinks and Little said was lingering two months after the disaster.

&uot;Villages’ compositions changed drastically,&uot; Little said. &uot;They hear waves at night and are afraid. Emotionally, the devastation is now worse than anything else.&uot;

At first, they stood, stone-faced and emotionless and tallied off the family members killed, Spinks said. But a second question from caring faces would provoke the emotional release of telling the whole story to a stranger.

Spinks, a nursing professor at Alcorn State University, went as part of a medical team including doctors and nurses from around the state. Little, director of missions for the Adams-Union Baptist Association, joined one other Mississippi man to do electrical, construction and support work for teams to come.

&uot;The area looks like a huge landfill that’s been pushed and bulldozed flat,&uot; Little said. &uot;Everybody was gone. Unless somebody saved the children, then they couldn’t make it.&uot;

And yet, the trip showed new hope and open doors to things previously unwelcome, Little and Spinks said.

&uot;The tsunami opened doors to a closed country,&uot; Spinks said. &uot;Everyone was very, very warm and receiving to us.&uot;

The mostly Muslim area has not been welcoming to Christians in the past, especially Americans. Though the primary focus of the construction and medical teams’ visits was to offer physical aid, Spinks said her group took every opportunity to pray with the Indonesian people and share Jesus. More teams from the Mississippi Baptist group will make follow-up visits.

&uot;It’s a very slow process,&uot; Little said. &uot;You are being used and you don’t know how much. We’ve opened the door and we’ll never know what seed we’ve planted. Someone has seen compassion in our eyes.&uot;

Little said he saw major changes in the political makeup of the region, as military and religious leaders put their battles aside to welcome help.

&uot;They knew we were trying to do something positive,&uot; he said. &uot;This is just one opportunity we had to do a little and let the Lord bless it and take it from here and do what He wants.&uot;

Little was assigned to the trip by the Baptist team, and mentioned Spinks name for the medical team.

&uot;They called, and I had 10 minutes to make the decision,&uot; she said. &uot;But there was really no question because my prayer had been to go since I saw it on TV. I did nothing, I went as a vessel for God.&uot;

Little said in the future the community they worked with will need clean water, bedding, housing and more food, things his organization hopes to help provide. Most important, though, they said the people need prayer.