Hold still earth!

The house we helped clear the debris out of last Saturday. We prayed with the family and sang with them, brought them clothes and toiletries and blankets... its so sad because they have to demolish their house their father built out of mud bricks and rebuild completely. With the cold winter season coming soon, they only have until the end of May before the rain sets in so they need all the help they can get.

Hanging out one of the many bonfire nights (if there's no electricity and nothing to do but wait for the next earthquake, might as well have a bonfire party!)

YWAM team helping a work crew pulling things out the the rubble

My friend Marta in front of what used to be all the shops along the beach... the wave just washed all the kiosks up, carried them about 300 meters and smashed them against the restaraunts and shops on the other side of the street. It's sad to see these all destroyed, we knew some of the shop owners, and most of them had all their lives' work in their little shops.

The night of the BIG one - waiting in the dark while the people ran past yelling tsunami... but we were praying and singing and hanging out... even the dogs took refuge with us!

Hold still, earth! That is the thought that keeps running through our minds these last two weeks – the ground seems to be constantly moving and rolling and shifting, and we are definitely tired of it. We had another BIG earthquake Thursday morning, a 7.8 with an epicenter only 20 minutes away, so it actually felt bigger than the first one (which was 8.8 with an epicenter 8 hours away). It happened in the morning when we were in class on the second floor of the DTS building, which is not the most stable building in the world, and let me tell you IT MOVED. Like seriously shifted back and forth and up and down, for about a minute. We all stood up and freaked out, some girls running down the stair screaming (and falling – running down stairs while the whole building is lurching back and forth is generally not the best idea, just for future reference), some people hit the floor. I mostly just froze where I was (in front translating – whenever a tremor comes I freeze and wait for it to pass and so they all watch my face to see if it lasts longer and if I freak out, they freak out… so I try to just pause and smile then keep going so no one panics. But this time, it was genuinely scary, I remember thinking the building was going to fall and crash in. But it eventually ended, we went outside and everyone was ok. So it was like take two of earthquake: power went out again for a couple days, it keeps cutting in and out, we set up camp again, people took refuge in the hills and on the base again, baking bread every meal in a brick oven we have from the 80s on the base.. it feels like a creepy, eirie replay of last week. But this time we are more stressed and more on edge, waiting for the next aftershock. They happen every 20 minutes, sometimes up to 7.5… which is technically an earthquake. Apparently we had 15 full-fledged earthquakes (above 5.0 I think qualifies as an earthquake, not just a tremor) Thursday, with about 100+ tremors, and our region is officially a "catastrophe zone". We’re still feeling seasick, dizzy and stressed from always being tense and waiting for the next tremor, sleeping very lightly, some people sleeping in clothes and shoes, waiting to see if its just a tremor that stops after a few seconds, or if it keeps going. Then there is the question of the electricity, feeding 200+ people, if there is a tsunami alert or not, getting in touch with family (especially family members here in Chile when cell service goes out after a quake it’s stressful for everyone trying to see if their family is ok), not to mention all the emotional stress of planning on leaving for outreaches, teams traveling, etc… basically we need a lot of prayer for peace, tranquility, trust in the Lord and in His plan, and wisdom for administering the resources God is providing here. God has a purpose for all of this, and we are trusting in Him for His plan and what He wants to reveal through these circumstances. But God is working to raise up resources to help His people here…

The good news is, teams have been coming in from other YWAM bases, from Home with Hope, from churches, from Operation Mobilization, and individuals wanting to help, and we are currently getting things ready to start a Homes of Hope project here on the base, complete with a mass-production home construction workshop where we can create more homes in less time and transport them to areas in need of shelter. The guys have been chainsawing down trees and clearing out their beloved soccer field (sad day! but worth it) to create an area to start to create this mini house-building-factory, investors from the States were helicoptered in Thursday right after the earthquake to talk about backing up this project, and churches are already asking how they send teams and begin supporting the relief efforts. I will be in contact with the project leaders when I am home again, so if there are people who want to come down to Chile and help Homes of Hope, let me know – they will be accepting teams starting Easter week. God is giving us all a peace from His hand, even when there is a lot of fear and tension an stress from everything that’s been going on the 2 weeks, and we know He is bigger. This whole experience has given us a new sense of how awesome and mighty our God is, how helpless we are without Him, how much we depend on Him, how even His creation is so powerful and awe-inspiring, how fleeting life really is, how we can work our whole lives for something and lose it in an instant, how the Lord gives and takes away, how he calls us as leaders in times of crisis to bring others hope…. But mostly just how our God is so HUGE!

Please pray for continued peace, for safety, for administration of resources, for wisdom, for travel mercies, for electricity to come back and stay on for good, for clear communications, for Homes of Hope to get up and running, for the government of Chile to be prudent and effective in this time of crisis…. For God’s purpose for all of this to be revealed and people would come to know Him through all of this.