Chilean Earthquake Update from Missionary Shane Hayes

Today at 10:25am (Thursday 2.4.2010)

We are at ground zero of the 8.8 earthquake in Concepcion, Chile. My neighbor is a seismologist and says that it registered here a 8.9. I have never felt something so terrifying in my life. We literally couldn't walk or run to our children's rooms, so we crawled. We literally watched the walls and floor twist and turn... Everything was crashing around us, I thought we were dead.
 All of our dishes, glasses and appliances were flying around the house. The shaking was so bad, it threw my Jeep around like a Matchbox car and it CRACKED THE BATTERY! But God had us in His hands.

We have had tremors every 2-3 minutes, one Wednesday was a 6.3.

I have been into the various parts of the cities and seen the tragedies first hand. Here on Facebook, I have posted the pictures. I saw ships in the middle of the city from the tsunami that hit Talcahuano, sister city to Concepcion. I saw bodies being pulled out of buildings, fires, rubble, people homeless and without food. Lawlessness has reigned, people have been looting and rioting in the streets and carried it into the neighborhoods after they stole everything they could from the stores. Then to make it worse, after they would steal everything, they would then set the places on fire. Our neighborhood organized watches and I would stand guard with other men from 1am - 4am, with our street barricaded. We would hear the gunshots in nearby neighborhoods as they got closer and closer. Last night alone there were 13 gunshots fired in our neighborhood. But God had His hand on us and we feel at absolute peace.

The government here has been extremely slow to respond, if they would have put the military on the streets the first day like the mayor here requested, we wouldn't have had the problems with the aftermath. There is no food nor supplies. The trucks bringing in provisions are stuck on the sides of the road from Santiago to here waiting on authorization. The military finally arrived on the scene late Monday night and last night was my first time to sleep more than two hours.

Our neighborhood has really pulled together to help each other out. We have shared everything with everyone. Whatever one is lacking, someone has provided. We have had community meals and it has been a great opportunity for us to know our neighbors.

We have 5 days of food in our house and are trying to distribute food boxes to those in need.

Our electrical came on temporarily Monday night and then steadily Tuesday evening. The water came on Wednesday. I took the coldest shower in history, the first since Friday and was able to shave. It has also improved the sanitary conditions, as you can imagine. It's the little things that produce such joy. We are just waiting for our natural gas to be turned on so we can cook hot foods and take hot showers. But that is just a minor inconvenience. Many of the people in the city still have no services and we are doing what we can to assist them.

My fellow missionary, Dan Barkley has been a Godsend. He has made two trips from Santiago with provisions. His first trip on Monday was a blessing as we were down to our last liter of drinking water.

Tragically, we have lost at least one person in our local church. We are still looking for others that are missing. We have pastors and saints in this region who have lost everything, their homes, their church buildings, everything. They have been sleeping in tents and under tarps. We are trying to get to them to provide what little we can, but the 6pm - 12pm curfew makes traveling extremely difficult, although I know it is necessary. We spend 3+ hours in traffic alone just to get across the river into downtown. That’s not even including the return trip. We are organizing the ministers in unaffected areas to assist in this task as they have more freedom to travel.

These people need so much help, please consider giving, whether to Compassion Services International (www.compassionservices.com) or some other means. We are doing everything we can to help.

I was told that my family and I should be evacuated, to which I replied, "What kind of missionary would leave the people when they need them the most?" I tried to convince my wife to evacuate with our children, to which she replied, "We live together, we die together. God didn't call us here to let us die before we accomplished what we came to accomplish," to which I fully agree.

God has been so good to us. Please keep the nation of Chile in your prayers and the national board has asked me to convey their gratitude for the outpouring of support. God is in control!

Shane Hayes
Missionary - Chile