Christian charity Tearfund has suggested the ways people can be praying for residents in Tonga.

Currently water, tents and protective equipment are being sent from the UK to the island, to help with recovery efforts after last weekend's tsunami.

Andrew Robinson, Programmes Manager for Tearfund based in Auckland, New Zealand has been speaking to Premier.

He said: “Tonga is a nation of 105,000 people and they have relatives all around the world and they just want right now to hear from them how are they doing, so I think we can wrap our prayers around the Tongan families wanting to hear how their families are doing, it must be such a distressing time.

"We also ask if people can pray for the vulnerable and the elderly too, as this has been a traumatic time.

“There has been incredible generosity from the church of New Zealand and the way Tearfund will work, is we will partner with the Church in Tonga to work with their communities and rebuild, because they are the ones that will really understand the need.

“They understand the needs of the people, so prayers for God’s wisdom, that we do find those who need the help the most.

“There is all this historic information that these communities have and how they have coped with previous disasters.

“We really want to come behind them and help them lead their own response and the Church is just the best way to do that.”

Tearfund is a Christian charity that partners with churches in more than 50 of the world's poorest countries.

Andrew said: “We are asking people to donate at this time, because it is going to take a long time for the island to recover.

“The land will need to recover so that they can plant new crops.”