The night before, Monica loaned them hats and gloves to wear. It's cold down South!
We piled into the van, picked up Raquel (our guide for the day) and stopped for gas. Question: How many American men does it take to pump gas in Chile? Answer: Two American men and 1 Chilean lady. After Raquel helped my dad and Harry fill 'er up, we headed out of town to our first stop, Curico.
All 3 of them pumping gas!
The goal of our day was to visit Curico, Talca and Constitución, three cities devastated by the earthquake in February. My dad and Harry wanted to see the destruction and talk with the pastors firsthand in order to take their personal stories and situations of their churches back to the states.
Curico
Curico is located about 1.5 hours south of Santiago and is a farming community. We saw several typical Chilean farmers walking the streets with cowboy hats and panchos. First Baptist Curico is currently without a pastor, so we met with the leaders of the church. The church building is completely destroyed. The pictures can speak for themselves. They have already raised half of the money necessary to rebuild just from generous donations.
What used to be their sanctuary
Their Sunday School classrooms
The goal of the church is to rebuild a building that is open to the community. One of the men told us how they are actually grateful for the earthquake because it has been a spiritual earthquake to them as well. It has awakened their eyes to see that they need to reach out to the community. When they finish construction, they will open their church to the community all throughout the week as well has hold church services. They have lost everything, but give thanks for the ways it has affected their lives for the better and enhanced their opportunities to reach people.
Once we entered the small room they are currently using for a sanctuary, they served us breakfast. These people have been left with nothing, but yet they offered us everything they could possibly give us. Thanks to Raquel for translating their individual stories, dreams and goals into English for us during breakfast!
Talca
Our next stop was about another hour away. In the city of Talca, we found hope in the reconstruction already being done. The Talca church was not badly affected, but many of the buildings around town and homes were destroyed. A co-worker of Raquel's who lives in Talca guided us through the streets in order to see just how badly the earthquake affected this city. The Chilean Baptists have already built many temporary shelters here so we got to see all of the work that has already been done to begin recovery and take care of the immediate needs of the people! The goal of our stop in this city was to see the damage, but to also witness the hard work that has already been put into helping rebuild.
Church in good condition
Temporary housing
Damage around town
Lots of car time together
Constitucion
After a nice lunch at the mall, we headed to our last stop in the small fishing village of Constitución. This city was not only severely hit by the earthquake but also suffered massive loss from the tsunami that completely wiped out a significant portion of the coastline. After another two hours in the car, we met the pastor of the Fist Baptist Church of Constitución who has an unbelievable story to share about his life after the earthquake. We first stopped at his church to talk with him about the building and such. There are currently two families who lost their homes living in temporary shelters on the property of the church. Their plan is to construct the buildings over the top of these shelters so they are still able to live there during reconstruction.
Temporary housing on the church property. The new building will be built over these shelters. A family of 4 lives in a one room shelter. The mom was a lawyer. They went from wealth to a one room house.
The back of the 2 shelters. 8 people live here in total. (Notice the towel says Hola Katy. It's like they knew I was coming)
Now, for the story of this incredible man. He lost absolutely everything in the earthquake. He lost his house, everything in his house and his cars. The people of this city are trained to run up to the hills after an earthquake to avoid the giant tidal wave that will hit about 15 minutes later. This day was a little different. It hit during a large celebration consisting of people partying on a small island right off of the city. The island was right across the river from this man's house. When the earthquake hit, the people were so disoriented that they couldn't figure out how to run off of the island. This pastor witnessed 200 people swallowed alive by the wave of water. The pastor expected water rise about halfway up his house, but on his walk back to his house from the hill, he saw his car in a tree. Upon his arrival to the spot where his house once stood and all of his belongings resided, he found only a slab of cement. His family literally lost every single thing they had except for the clothes on their back.
The pastor
This cement slab is where his home used to stand. The wave of water rose over the tall building in the background.
The island right across from the pastor's home.
This used to be homes. Then the tsunami came. It is now dirt.
After Raquel heard his story for the first time back in March, she tried to give him $500 to help him restart. He started crying and said that he could not accept the money. He has not prayed for money and therefore there had to be people that needed it more than him. He told Raquel to give it to people who were in worse condition than him. His family is now living in a small apartment and he is trying to save enough money to buy a new truck to use for his vegetable business.
More damaged homes
The stories of these people are lesson teaching and life changing. They have been left with nothing yet give thanks for the spiritual awakening that has occurred in their lives due to being left with nothing. They give thanks for losing everything they own. And they give what little they have left to help those who have less than them. They give everything they have to help rebuild their churches that will better serve their communities. I don't know why this earthquake hasn't received very much attention in the media. I've been told it is because this country suffers a major earthquake every fifty years or so, but that doesn't change the fact that lives have been lost, possessions are a thing of the past, and communities have been altered forever. Although the devastation was hard to handle, I left with confidence in the strength of the people we encountered. The people take care of each other. They are determined to rebuild not only their own houses and lives but also a better community and future for everybody. We left with heavy yet inspired hearts.
We drove four hours back to Santiago after waaaay too many hours in the car. We were gone for the entire day (7 a.m. - 11 p.m.) and maybe 4 hours were spent outside of the van. Thanks for driving Harry! Thanks for guiding Raquel!
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