Earthquake

You may or may not have heard, that last Thursday (Jan 8th), an 6.1 earthquake rocked Costa Rica just northwest of San Jose. In fact it was very near one of the churches (CCS) we will be visiting on our trip. As we have been discerning how best to utilize our time down there over the last couple of weeks, Glenn our trip leader felt that our time should have a humanitarian aspect to it. Serving in a shelter, feeding the homeless, building houses. As the events of this past week have unfolded, it is becoming clear that these promptings have somewhat prepared us to turn our efforts to helping in earthquake relief.


Here is a snippet of an email from Pastor Roy who is the main person we will be getting direction from as where to serve.

The situation in Fraijanes, Poasito and the other small communities near
the base of the volcano are very affected. In Fraijanes 16 people died.
From CCS alone 14 families lost their homes completely. The
majority of the others have damage of 60 to 70% including Roy 's home.
The Community Center is being used to house families that have lost their homes
(the gym was not that affected but the vocational center has some cracked walls
and the computers are all on the ground many broken). The quake lasted
22seconds. The last quake of significance in Fraijanes was in 1988.
CCS is being sought out by all the authorities and surrounding
communities to lead as people search for the next steps. Roads and
bridges have been affected so normal communication with San Jose is broken (one
long route is available). Continue to Pray for CCS and the network
churches and the communities of the region.