We’re very thankful for those of you who have been praying for us, and for so many believers who are trying to reach out during this time. We are thankful that things aren’t a lot worse for us.
Of course, we are directly affected in some ways. We won’t be getting our visas this week, probably not for a couple of weeks. We’re not sure where we’ll be meeting on Sunday – we’re waiting for the building to be inspected for possible structural damage. I was happy to be able to buy clean drinking water – it was a little hard to come by for a while there.
You may have been seeing on the news some of what I’ve been hearing – I’m not sure. From what I’ve heard yesterday and today, there are some towns that have been destroyed for the most part, with very little help up until now. So we continue to try to focus our efforts on areas with the most need. Landslide pulls down power lines. Through a contact with Operation Blessing, Rod and some people from our church went this morning to a municipality in the state of Puebla (just outside of our state). I haven’t heard a report from them yet, but from what our contact said the situation is pretty bad there.
Tomorrow I will likely be going with a group to the state of Morelos, where we will be giving out supplies and fresh food, as well as sharing the hope of Christ.
We’re taking it day by day here – or maybe hour by hour. We’ll have a better idea by the end of the day tomorrow what needs there are in these areas. We’re also trying to look ahead at the long term needs.
I’ve been in communication with other groups from the city. Some are trying to organize to go out next week. Some have been active in clearing rubble and getting supplies out on a daily basis.
It is difficult to enter some of these areas, so you can pray that we will be able to get in and will know how to do it. That’s one reason why there hasn’t been more aid to these areas.
One pastor from the city who went to Morelos reported today (translated and edited for brevity):
We are in a place 70km from the epicentre. We arrived yesterday with the idea of providing some food provisions and a nursing station, and in our inexperience to help remove debris. We are in a small town where food has come but not the manpower.
There are many damaged homes, people homeless and in poverty. The communication towers are down. We are overwhelmed, but God is with us.
Many families slept on the street last night outside their adobe houses because they are damaged – and then there was a rain storm. We were going last night to help a man who had broken his arm, and whose home had collapsed – but it was impossible. The roads were rivers…
He went on to say that they have seen almost no other help coming to this area.
We’re trying to get supplies – food, medicine, etc. to these areas. We’re also thinking about tents or something similar to help provide shelter. Any help you can provide is appreciated.
Again, pray for peace and strength and health for those who are helping with the relief effort. Check back here at the blog – I will try to post when I can but as you may imagine we have a lot to do and think about at the moment.
I just got back from a small town in the State of Mexico. Quite a few of us went from the churches here with supplies, including medications, clothes, water, food, diapers, toilet paper, and so on. I took some video for you.
It was hard to get many pictures to really show you the damage. You could see some walls that had crumbled a bit, but the real damage was inside the houses. Quite a few people in this town had homes that were more or less destroyed on the inside.
The first family I spoke to were sleeping in their car. Their home, which was also their business, was more or less unlivable. You’ll see the outside of one wall at the beginning of the video below, but I didn’t take any pictures of the inside to respect their privacy.
Even parts of the road as we drove in were collapsed, or badly cracked.
We were able to give out the supplies in a fairly organized way. The nice thing was that the people of the town were already gathered, and we actually had time to talk to many of them.
So we tried to give some encouragement, pray with people, share the gospel, give out some tracts and Bibles, along with the other items. People were very open to talking – which is a bit unusual when a bunch of strangers show up in a small town around here.
Pray for these people, and so many like them, who have lost so much. Towns like this are far from the resources that we have closer to us. It will take them a long time to rebuild.
If you would like to help, you can give through this link to help us directly. You can also keep praying. Thanks so much to those of have contacted us with your encouragement.
Quick Update on what we’re doing today and how you can help…
Hi everyone. *Phew* — after the relative quiet of yesterday (except for the radio), the beeps and buzzes of notifications are almost constant as we communicate with people about the earthquake and various relief efforts.
Later hopefully I’ll have some time to tell some of the stories of the past few hours. But for now, I will say that the churches here are trying to help wherever possible, and as wisely as possible. We’re trying to find places close to help. Many were already serving last night, and many more are heading out today.
This afternoon/evening, Lord willing, I’ll be going with people from the three churches here in Ixtapaluca to a town about an hour away. We’ll be bringing medicine, food, and other supplies, and bringing encouragement where we can.
People from our church are gathering supplies right now to donate.
There are many small towns around that have been hard hit that we’re not even aware of yet. Obviously there is a lot of news coverage – and rightly so – on Mexico City. But we need to get help to everyone.
Meanwhile, Shari will be getting together with people from our church for a prayer meeting. Not only do we need to pray for those in need, and for their salvation, we also need to gather to encourage one another and remind ourselves of the wonderful truths that we know from God’s Word.
Thanks to all of you who have been praying, and asking after us. We really appreciate it.
If you would like to help directly in another way, probably the quickest thing you could do would be to give to our community centre fund. You can give here: Ixtapaluca Community Centre.
Once you click “give now”, read the first part of the page and click again if you need to go to the Canada or US page.
The power just came on, about 16 hours after yesterday’s earthquake. So other than my quick post on Twitter and Facebook right afterwards, this is the first chance I’ve had to connect. In fact, most of you have probably seen more about the quake than we have, although we have been listening to the radio.
As I mentioned on Facebook, we had some damage, although not much. Furniture was moved around, and a few things broke. We haven’t had power until now, precious little cell service, and have very little water now. Without power, we weren’t sure we were able to clean up all the broken glass yesterday, but hopefully we can be more thorough today.
I can write more later, but let me just mention a couple important things.
First, we still haven’t heard about some people from our churches here. Most are accounted for, and fine. Just a few minutes ago I heard from someone from our church in Las Palmas – they were unable to locate their kids for a while, but they are all fine.
However, last I heard there were still some missing from one of the other churches. It’s not surprising, considering that phones have been down and traffic was a little crazy yesterday. But do keep praying.
As you’ve seen in the news, there is quite a bit of damage in the city and quite a few dead, although we are thankful the number is so low. But again, we will all be hearing more today.
Many of you will have the heart that we have on this matter – that it reminds us again of God’s power, and the fact that we will soon be face to face with Him. So you can also pray for the believers here, as they share with many who have either lost loved ones, or are again reminded of the brevity of life.
Thanks for all who have been praying.
The map below shows the big quake we just had, as well as aftershocks from the last week of the previous quake.
Greetings from Mexico! If you have a moment to pray, here are a few quick prayer requests for you…
1) Please pray for tomorrow’s service. I will be teaching Sunday School, and preaching. So your prayers are always appreciated for those things. We’re still going through Mark in our sermons (expecting to finish in January). And for Sunday school we’re working through our doctrinal statement (this week it’s about what we believe about the Bible).
Shari and Hannah will be teaching the kids. Shari was pretty sick this week. She’s starting to feel better, but tomorrow will still be a challenge for her.
2) Please pray for our coworker who had surgery this past week. She also is feeling better, but has been in a lot of pain. So do pray for her continued recovery. She’ll be in the hospital for a few more days.
3) Please pray for those attending our new Bible studies. We’re super-excited to be starting a new series of Bible studies this week. We’re encouraging everyone in the church to try to come. So we shall see how things go! Please pray for all the people who will be coming.
4) Permanent Residence Visas. This is a praise and a prayer! The visas have gone through the process, and it’s time for us to go do the last bit of paperwork. Lord willing we’ll be doing that next week. Almost there!
5) General craziness. The school year has started with lots of to do – as usual! Please pray that God would give us wisdom and strength.
It was hard to get many pictures to really show you the damage. You could see some walls that had crumbled a bit, but the real damage was inside the houses. Quite a few people in this town had homes that were more or less destroyed on the inside.
Hi everyone. *Phew* — after the relative quiet of yesterday (except for the radio), the beeps and buzzes of notifications are almost constant as we communicate with people about the earthquake and various relief efforts.