Chile Earthquake: North Alabama Conference missionary and Methodist Bishop in Chile report on damage; UMCOR Sends Aid to Chile
John H. Elmore is a missionary with
the General Board of Global Ministries
of The United Methodist Church assigned
to the United Methodist Church of Chile
as Mission Volunteer Coordinator.
On March 2, 2010 North Alabama Conference Director of Mission and Advocacy Rev. Matt Lacey spoke with John Elmore, GBGM missionary to Chile affiliated with the North Alabama Conference by phone this morning. Here is Matt’s report of that conversation.
John and his wife are currently fine. However, the earthquake has caused a children's home in Angol to become uninhabitable and he believes that a new structure will have to be built. No children were hurt in the quake. Currently John is housing the children in his church. John said the biggest need right now was prayer and for churches to donate funds to help repair the damage. You can write a check either to the North Alabama Conference, or to The Advance using Advance number 3020485; please mark in the memo line "Angol, Chile - John Elmore". Or you can donate online using that same Advance number by clicking here (again, during checkout make sure you write "Angol, Chile". )
Below is a message from the Methodist Bishop in Chile:
METHODIST CHURCH OF CHILE REPORT ON SITUATION ORIGINATED BY EARTHQUAKE
A fraternal greeting in the grace and peace of our Lord. Jesus Christ, special way to the Methodist brotherhood in the districts " William Taylor”, Concepción and the South, that undergo the rigor of the recent earthquake that has affected these regions of our country. Our solidarity and pray by the congregations, like also by thousands of our compatriots who are living this reality. We also express our affection and gratitude to the foreigners that have made us feel their concern, pray and support in these circumstances
Just yesterday Sunday and today Monday, after unfruitful efforts to obtain some telephone communication, we subsequent to have a partial vision of the situation the earthquake. Luckyly, until the moment, one has not inquired into damages or injuries to the methodist brotherhood integrity of. Nevertheless, the infrastructure of temples, pastoral houses, institutions or houses of the members of our Church, like also its equipment and furniture of houses, have been awfully damaged, especially in the churches of the districts “William Taylor”, Concepción and the South (seventh, eighth and ninth region of our country).
In some places, like for example: Church of Camilo Olavarría, has been necessary to evacuate the pastoral house by severe damages in its infrastructure and in other cities also the damages to pastoral houses have been considerable. The temples of Angol, Second of Temuco, Chillán, Los Angeles, First of Santiago, have serious damages in their infrastructure, other cases the damages are little smaller, but also of taken care of much. (Concepción, Temuco, Temple, and, the agriculture boarding school of El Vergel) In several properties of the Church, as much in Santiago as in province, the peripheral walls with the neighbors have collapsed
There are churches of which we do not have information some until the moment: Talcahuano, Chiguayante, Coelemu, among others, by mainly not to have been possible to establish some kind of communication.
In most of the cases not yet there is provision of the basic services: potable water, electrical energy, cellular telephone or. The food shortage is let feel with severity, like also the lack of fuels. In the central offices of theMethodist Church in Santiago, street Sergeant 1041, has been stated significant damages in its infrastructure, in addition, the potable water provisions and electricity not yet have been restored.In the middle of this circunstance, we make a call express our brotherly solidarity throughg the prayers and helps by means of love offerings that allow us to accompany this difficult moment that many of our brotherhood are lived.
We express to each of them, next to its families, the love and communion of the Church, in the certainty that will receive the strength necessary to face this circunstance.
“But in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” Romans 8:37
Brotherly in Jesus Christ.
Mario Martinez Tapia
Bishop Methodist Church of Chile
UMCOR Sends Aid to Chile
The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) has sent an initial emergency grant to its relief partners in Chile to help them respond to the 8.8 magnitude earthquake that rocked the South American country last weekend.
The grant, in the amount of $10,000, will help the Methodist Church of Chile (IMECH) and its relief arm, the Methodist Humanitarian Action Team (EMAH), conduct needs assessments and bring food and clean water to survivors.
“At this time, the situation continues to be extremely urgent,” said Juan Salazar, president of Methodist Social Ministry, also of IMECH. “The need for food and water is provoking desperation in the people beyond the looting and disorder shown on TV.”
So far, the disaster, which struck in the early hours of Saturday morning, has taken more than 700 lives and wiped out more than half a million homes.
A Coordinated Response
EMAH is coordinating its response with the Chilean government’s emergency response agency, ONEMI, and with local ecumenical and nongovernmental partners. It has integrated a needs-assessment team that will conduct field visits tomorrow to some of the hardest hit areas around the city of Concepción, 320 miles south of the capital, Santiago.
This first team will be led by bishops Mario Martínez, of the Methodist Church of Chile, and Gloria Rojas, of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Chile.
In addition, Salazar said in an email to UMCOR, “Regional emergency teams are being created to plan, coordinate, monitor and evaluate distributions of food and other supplies and carry out further needs assessments.”
And, he warned, “Reports increasingly indicate that the effects [of the disaster] are greater than originally assessed.”
Fifth Strongest Quake on Record
The earthquake that struck Chile Saturday, with its ensuing, devastating tsunamis, was the strongest to hit the region in 50 years and the fifth strongest on record.
The government of Chile has readjusted its initial estimates of deaths and damages. It has put the official death toll at 723 and the number of homes destroyed or damaged at more than 500,000. As rescue teams search through the rubble, the number of casualties is expected to rise.
President Michelle Bachelet has decreed a 30-day state of emergency in the central Maule and Biobio regions, the hardest hit, including a 9:00 pm to 6:00 am curfew.
UMCOR Disaster Response Training
Last October, UMCOR dispatched an international disaster response team to Chile to help the Methodist Church there prepare for natural and human-made catastrophes.
UMCOR executives Melissa Crutchfield and Tom Hazelwood conducted a three-day preparedness and emergency response training for some 20 IMECH district coordinators that promoted networking opportunities with local authorities and relevant partners in the emergency response field.
A Call for Prayers and Solidarity
Crutchfield and Hazelwood responded to Salazar’s email message, promising that “We will continue to keep in touch and to keep you in our prayers. UMCOR and the people of the United Methodist Church stand with you and will help in any way we can.”
Bishop Joel Martínez, interim general secretary of the General Board of Global Ministries, launched a call for solidarity. “I call on our generous United Methodist constituents to join in the response to the Chile Emergency Advance to strengthen UMCOR’s ability to be fully present with resources,” he said.
It is not anticipated that relief supply kits will be needed. Financial support can be made to Chile Emergency Advane #3021178.
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