“Fear and insecurity is what you sense and feel,” said Pastor Manuel.  “Based on what I have seen, there is a desire for healing.  People want to hear any message of hope.  We are using it as an advantage to share the Gospel.  The physical needs are immediate, but the spiritual needs will be next.”

Click here for pictures of the latest trip to communities affected by the Chile quake.

On March 3, 2010, our national director, Manuel Diaz Bascur, and Chile staff from the Santiago office loaded scriptures, food supplies and training materials onto a truck and headed south to help earthquake victims.

Their first stop was in Peralillo, located 200 kilometers south from Santiago and 40 kilometers from the coast. The area was desolate and still. There was no electricity or water available for the locals. Then they traveled 60 kilometers further south to Curicó. These rural zones were hit the hardest. The further south the Chile team traveled, the more destruction they saw.  Many areas looked as if they had been bombed, and people were sleeping in tents in the city centers.

In each place, the team met with local volunteers and trainers to encourage them in the ministry and provide helpful materials to support outreach in the coming weeks.  The team returned to Santiago in the evening.  What would normally be a three-hour trip took seven and a half hours to complete due to damaged and closed roads.  At one point they waited more than an hour to go down a road that had been reduced to one lane due to cracks.

“We arrived very tired but very happy and satisfied with having obeyed the Word of God that says in Matthew, ‘For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink…I needed clothes and you clothed me.’”

---Pastor Manuel Diaz Bascur

The violent 8.8 magnitude earthquake rocking South America’s coastal nation of Chile on February 27, 2010 left nearly 2 million people homeless, more than 700 people dead, and approximately 500,000 structures destroyed. “Many places, especially rural areas, have no electricity and are without water,” reports Manual Diaz Bascur, our national director in Chile. “The capital is closed, buses are not running due to the cracks in the roads, and all flights are cancelled. Our Chile staff is fine, and we are looking for the best way to support local churches in this crisis.”

For survivors left to rebuild their lives, the spiritual and psychological effects of the quake will linger. “Your prayers are much needed and appreciated as all churches have cancelled or postponed their training,” adds Bascur. “Pray that God will provide for Chile’s hurting people in an extra special way during the next few months as we come alongside churches—encouraging them and equipping them with materials needed to witness to families in the aftermath of the catastrophe.”