Vista man lends a hand in Indonesian tsunami relief efforts

By: ANNE RILEY-KATZ - Staff Writer | Sunday, February 27, 2005 9:11 PM PST ∞

VISTA ---- Good help is hard to find. Just ask Dave Ketcham, a Vista resident who traveled more than 8,000 miles to do a good deed.

Ketcham, the director of Information Technology at North Coast Church in Vista, has been in Banda Aceh, Indonesia for nearly a month, working to set up a communications center for relief workers helping the victims of December's devastating tsunami, which killed more than 170,000 people in Indonesia and Sri Lanka.

Setting up a communications center halfway across the globe takes a unique set of skills. So how did the 60-year-old Vista resident qualify for the job?

Ketcham worked as a missionary pilot for nearly 9 years, is a technology professional and speaks Indonesian, making him one of what is likely a small number of people able to handle the position.

"My previous years of living in Indonesia were good preparation for this," Ketcham wrote. "However, I was not prepared for the degree and extent of the massive destruction of homes and lives."

Monthly bandwidth costs to keep the $25,000 center up and running are more than $3,000, and the first two months of service are being donated by Loral Skynet, a communications and satellite service provider. The hub allows relief workers throughout the tsunami-ravaged areas of Indonesia to communicate with one another.

"We have great experienced, dedicated and motivated people who want to use their skills to help the people of Northern Sumatra who have lost so much," wrote Ketcham in an e-mail.

Ketcham, who has a 30-day work visa and will return early next month, is working in a tent in what he described as "debilitating" heat. He celebrated his 60th birthday while in Indonesia, a far cry from relaxing at home with his wife, Pattie, children and grandchildren.

Jennifer Groth, North Coast Church's pastor of growth and development, said Ketcham was perfectly suited for the job, in both disposition and career background.

"He is a caring, thoughtful man with a great sense of humor," Groth said. "There are a lot of relief efforts going on over there, but no connectivity between them. He thought it would be wrong not to take this position."

To date, North Coast Church has collected $67,000 for tsunami relief efforts, including one gift of $10,000.

"Aside from the one really large donation, a lot of it is just from good people emptying their pockets on the way out of church," Groth said.

Contact staff writer Anne Riley-Katz at ariley-katz@nctimes.com.

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