SoCal AG News
Chile Earthquake Updates from Missionaries Mike & Dodey Files
Saturday, February 27, 2010
March 9th Update:
Good evening!
Tomorrow morning, myself and the group from Convoy of Hope will begin to work our way back to the states.
Follow-up to insulin and chicken story - Sunday morning we visited 2 churches prior to attending the church of the District Superintendent - Pedro Contreras. One of the churches that we visited is where the insulin and chicken was delivered. We asked Sonia, the pastor's wife, if the insulin had arrived in good condition. She said that everything arrived perfect. I asked her about the chicken. She said - "Oh, I cooked that and feed it to some kids."
My last day in Concepcion was full of contrasting imagines. On the one hand we began to see the city of Concepcion returning to some semblance of normalcy. The curfew was changed to start at 9am and end at 9pm. From one day to the next the gas lines disappeared. There are still long food lines as people wait for hours to buy a small bag of basic food items. And, there is a sense of real concern as people begin to understand that it will be at least 2 to 3 months or more before they can go back to work! If food is readily available to buy - how will they put food on the table for their families if there are no jobs and no income? Thank God - that we were able to visit and bless every Assemblies of God church in the affected area around Concepcion with enough food to help most of the families of the church! Thank God - we were able to confirm that all of our pastors and their families are safe! Thank God for his protection - it is so amazing that more of the homes and our churches were not destroyed! The destruction is huge - I can only say thank God that Chile has demanded strong earthquake building codes!
On the other hand, we visited what is left of the city of "Dichato". What was once a thriving fishing village with some of the best fish restaurants in the country is now totally gone (please see picture). Every church except one has been destroyed and even that church was totally destroyed inside. This city will not be rebuilt in a couple of months and there will be no jobs here for a very long time. Please pray for this city and the people!
We have been blessed to see our pastors and their congregations that in moments of great tragedy put aside their own self needs and did everything they could to assist everyone that needed help. But, we have also seen the worst in the heart of man! People with no immediate need for food or new appliances - looted and then destroyed grocery stores by setting them on fire. Instead of taking a short time to restore the city to some form of normalcy - the very same looters caused the city to be set back days and weeks. The looters weren't just gangs or thugs, they were regular middle class people that allowed themselves to be taken in by the mob mentality.
I am reminded of Joseph's words in Genesis 50:20 - "...you meant to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.". Please pray that what has harmed so many, will be turned to good and the saving of many lives. Please pray for our pastors - they are going to need God's grace, wisdom and strength to walk through these next months with the church and community! Thank you for praying and for your support!
God bless,
Mike
March 6th Update:
Good evening!
Thank you so much for praying! I can't tell you how much we have sensed your prayers and appreciated every note of support.
Praise God! - Every day around 11am we begin to see cars lining up at the gas stations. Today we passed at least 2 or 3 lines for gas that were over 2 miles long. We had been out to visit three churches where we had heard that people were living in tents. As we came back into the center of Concepcion on our way to reload our truck with more food we noticed that a gas station had 1 car - yes, I said 1 car getting gas. We immediately turned into the station and asked if they would sell us diesel and gas. They said "yes" and told us we could buy as much as we wanted. Within seconds the line started behind us and just kept getting longer and longer. We filled up and left to go the food. Within 1 block we ran into another gas station that had a line of at least 1 mile. Can you imagine that people had been waiting for hours - not knowing that just 1 block away was all the gas they wanted and no line!!
Today was our hardest day since arriving. We were able to visit a total of 5 Assemblies of God churches. All of the pastors and their families are safe and their churches are intact. Yes, there is damage, but it is not so severe that they will have to rebuild. Praise God!
What was hard was to arrive in the ocean front town of Arauco and find that at least 2 thousand people are living in tents up in the hills. At first it was a little hard to understand why they were still up there. But, as they started telling us their stories of how they have heard so many false tsunami warnings and time after time had to run to the hills to escape the waves, I began to understand their fear. One family told us that when the warning starts to sound people start running like cattle with no care about running over someone or even a child. As we spoke with the pastor and his family at the encampment they just felt is was better to stay in the hills then to risk getting run over with a new tsunami warning.
One final story: The first day as we were driving towards Concepcion we received an urgent call to go to a pharmacy and purchase insulin for one of the pastors wives. She was totally out and there were no pharmacies open in the city. We stopped at the next town and found the first pharmacy available. They would only talk to us from a tiny steel window because of fear of people looting and destroying the store. They refused to sell us the insulin because we did not have any way to keep it cold. We looked for ice - and no one had any. We hurried to a restaurant - thinking that they might have some ice. The girl very kindly told me no. And, then she invited me to come to the back of the restaurant and look in the freezers to see what might work. All that I could see was 2 chicken legs and thighs. I asked if I could buy the chicken. She was so surprised she didn't know what to say. Then her mother walked in and said yes - in fact she gave it to me free. We walked to the pharmacy and they approved the purchase. We placed the insulin between 2 pieces of frozen chicken and were on our way. The insulin was delivered to the pastor's wife with no problem - all thanks to frozen chicken!!
Tomorrow we will be visiting another 3 churches in the Concepcion area. Please keep praying!!
Have a great Sunday and remember - Jesus is Lord of all! Even when in the midst of tragedy - He is still Lord!
Mike
March 5th Update:
Good evening from Concepcion, Chile!
Answers to Prayer:
1. With so many gas stations closed – we praise God that we found the diesel and gas that we needed to fill up our trucks before entering Concepcion.
2. We entered the city looking for a special pass for free passage throughout the region at all times of the day. Without knowing how to find the military base, within seconds of entering the city we were 2 blocks from the base. After waiting over an hour in line we received passes for 3 vehicles for 1 week each.
With our new passes we started towards the first Assemblies of God church where we were going to distribute food. Pastor Victor Burgos, was standing at the front of the gate almost as if he was waiting for us. Due to no phone service and lack of transportation - he had not been able to speak to the majority of his church members or anyone from the Assemblies of God since the earthquake.
Through donations from Convoy of Hope and the Assemblies of God, we were able give him cases of cooking oil, rice, noodles, beans and tea – he said, “Brother Mike we literally had nothing more to eat. My wife had sent me to search for food and I had come home with nothing. We had no more cooking oil and almost no food and we didn’t know what we were going to do. “ All of this food would be given out to the people in his community. The reality is that every single grocery store that we passed on the way to this church had been totally looted and most had been destroyed by fire. With tears he said “thank you so much for being here with us and for this help.”
We then visited the church of Pastor Daniel Reinoso in the center of Concepcion. Next to the church we found his home totally destroyed (see attached picture). The church is in good shape. At least 4 families from the church had their homes destroyed and are now living in the church.
Please pray for God’s mercy, provision, and grace for Chile. Please pray for our safety today as we deliver food and a word of hope to 2 more churches. These churches are located in 2 of the most affected areas.
Finally, please pray for our safety & for the people of Chile! To buy a small amount of basic food the people are waiting in lines that at times are over 3 blocks long. Today, as people were leaving the grocery store with what they had just bought there were several cases of thieves waiting outside and stealing their food. Please pray for the safety of our Chilean brethren that are helping us by driving 6 hours one way to bring us large quantities of basic foods.
Thank you for praying!
Mike
March 3rd Update:
Good evening from Temuco, Chile!
This will be a short update, but, I hope will clearly give you an idea of how you can pray for tomorrow.
Let me start with a praise report - We have been looking everywhere to buy empty paint buckets. That sounds like such a non-important thing. However, they are critical to setting up water filters and providing the people with fresh, drinkable water. Usually you can buy them for almost nothing. We looked and looked for the buckets and could not find them anywhere. After finally arriving in Temuco, Chile - we made one final stop at a hardware store. Everyone kept telling us that nothing was available. Then, we see one of the first young store clerks that we had spoken with climbing down a large ladder with 8 clean empty paint buckets for us. I then took a chance and asked them if they would be willing to drill a special size hole that we need to make the water filters work. They did it (you have no idea of what a miracle that was)!! And, then they brought out 10 more buckets and gave them to us free! The Convoy reps and I just kept looking at each other and saying it has to be God! Praise God for all of his provisions.
How can you pray for tomorrow. Please pray that the Lord will supply every need that we have for gasoline and diesel fuel. Today, almost every-time we passed by a gas station we had to stop and top off the gas tanks. At some locations we are only allowed to purchase about $5 of gas. Please pray that the Lord will protect us tomorrow - we will be taking in a large amount of food and supplies. Please pray that we are able to obtain a "free-passage" letter from the military that will give us permission to move around and work during the curfew hours. Please pray for our people in Concepcion - while I was on the phone talking to one of our pastors, they had an aftershock of 6.5! I could hear the panic in his voice and tonight they need our prayers.
Thank you for praying and for your notes of encouragement,
Mike
March 2nd Update:
Good evening!
Early tomorrow morning our team of 5, including 2 members of the Convoy of Hope assessment team, Steve & Rhonda Wilson, missionaries in Chile, plus myself will start from Bariloche, Argentina and cross the Andes Mountains to begin our trip north to Concepcion. Please keep us in your prayers.
Good News - We received word today that all of our Assemblies of God pastors in the primary earthquake area are all safe - including their families. We want to be able to assess as quickly as possible the damage to any of our churches.
If you have not seen the news today, you may not be aware that the situation in Concepcion has reached a level of desperation that the government has been forced to declare a curfew from 9pm at night to 12 noon the next day. No one is allowed out without a special pass. And, once the curfew is lifted, the people begin to leave their homes looking for stores and places where they can take whatever they find available. There is very little food and no water. The police are trying their best to keep control - but, until the government manages to begin to regularly deliver clean water and food - it will be very difficult to regain control of the city. Our hope is to arrive as quickly as possible to the city with a truck full of food and water filters to begin to provide clean drinking water.
Would you please pray that the Lord will give us favor with local government officials, especially the Mayor of Concepcion, to obtain permission to move about the city and to give us security as we move about the city. There is a very serious shortage of gas and diesel - please pray that the Lord will give us favor to find fuel for the 2 vehicles that we will be taking into Concepcion. Please pray that the Lord will give us favor to find the quickest and best route to arrive safely in Concepcion. And, please pray for the safety of each of our pastors as they are working to do everything that they can to provide for their communities and please pray that the Lord will guide us to locate each of our pastors.
Thank you for praying!
Mike
February 28th Update:
Hi everyone;
I wanted to update you and let you know that I am leaving early tomorrow morning (Monday) to travel to Chile. I will accompany the Convoy of Hope assessment team to look over the devastation and the find the best way to help the people. Due to the fact that there is still no food source or water in Concepcion, we are going in "self-sustained", taking our own food and water filters.
We hope to arrive in Osorno in the southern part of Chile by Wednesday afternoon. We will be joined there by missionaries Steve & Rhonda Wilson and then will head north towards Concepcion. Please pray for our safety! And, please pray that the Lord will guide us, give us wisdom, and will lead us to the exact roads to get us in to Concepcion. We are consulting with several people on the ground about the best routes to get in, but, we need the Lord's help and your prayers.
As I can I will try to send some updates. Thanks for praying!
Mike
February 27th Update:
URGENT UPDATE: - Earthquake Chile:
First, we want to assure each of our friends & family that we are safe. We had come to the U.S. to attend some meetings and are currently in Southern California visiting with Mike's parents. At this moment Mike is talking with Convoy of Hope about leaving early Monday morning, possibly traveling through Argentina, then crossing over the Andes Mountains to get to the south of Chile. Several have asked what they can do to help. First and foremost please pray for Chile, the Pastors, the Latin America ChildCare Schools, and members of our churches that have been affected, plus those that are injured or missing. Please pray specifically that the phone lines will begin to function correctly. And, please pray that we can find a safe and secure way to get into the Concepcion area.
We want to quickly explain that Chile is famous for it's huge earthquakes. When we first arrived in late 1984, just a few months later - we had an 8.2 quake centered near Santiago. Chile averages a major earthquake every 20 years. Yes, they are prepared better than most countries, with earthquake codes that match anything in the U.S. But, the devastation of an 8.8 quake is beyond what anyone could have imagined. The latest death toll is now over 300 and will probably continue to rise. Plus, many of the older parts of both Concepcion and Santiago were made of adobe and the news is showing a lot of devastation in these areas. Up until just a few minutes ago during a brief contact through "Facebook", we learned that the national church leadership in Chile has not been able to make contact with anyone in the southern part of the country. The Chilean church is going to need a lot of help and prayers.
We have spoken with several people at our church in Santiago through "Facebook" and all of our church people are safe. Actually "Facebook" has been our only way to contact people in Chile. Our church was not damaged at all. And, it appears that from an initial drive-by look, our apartment building is ok. But, we do not know what the inside looks like or if our STL vehicle was damaged.
In addition, please pray for all of our Latin America ChildCare Schools in Chile. We have been unable to reach any of our schools or pastors at the schools. School is currently out for the final couple of weeks of summer vacation. Please pray that we will be able to reach our school leadership.
We are thankful for the protection of the Lord for us and our missionary family. All of our missionaries are safe. And, we know that our National Superintendent, Roberto Ruz is safe. But, we want to be there as soon as possible to help our friends, colleagues and brethren!
Thank you for praying! And, thank you for your many notes, prayers and letters of concern! Keep praying!
Mike & Dodey
Phone: 949-252-8400
Fax: 949-252-8435
Email: