The tragic loss of Air Asia Flight 8501,which fell into the Java Sea on December 28 on the way from Surabaya in Indonesia to Singapore, has hit Surabaya’s Christian community especially hard.

Fully a quarter of the 162 passengers and crew who died were from one church. Pastor Philip Mantofa of Sura-baya’s Mawar Sharon Church discovered that 41 of his congregation were on the plane, most of them travelling to Singapore on holiday.