Donations being accepted this Sunday for Chilean Earthquake Disaster Relief

(see below for more details)

United Methodists jumped into action as soon as a massive earthquake reduced most of Haiti’s capital of Port-au-Prince to rubble Jan. 12.

The United Methodist Committee on Relief immediately pledged to send teams, material, resources and funding to Haiti as soon as possible. Special online-giving options went up, and church leaders throughout the world encouraged congregations to take up special offerings for earthquake victims.

“The situation is so dire,” said the Rev. Franck Aguilh, coordinating pastor of the Haitian United Methodist Church in Irvington, N.J. “There is no way internally for them to deal with it. The infrastructure is totally broken. I cannot even reach my family there. They don’t have the physical and financial means to deal with this disaster.”

Another Disaster Strikes  

CHILE: EARTHQUAKE UPDATE

Less than a week after a massive earthquake rocked Chile and amid continual after-shocks since, a local ecumenical relief team made a first foray to the hardest hit areas to assess damages and channel aid received from UMCOR and other agencies.

Juan Salazar, president of Methodist Social Ministries and a member of the Inter-ecclesiastic Emergency Committee, participated in the delegation that visited Talca, Concepción, Curicó and other parts of the Maule Region on Thursday.

He described the scene in the city of Talca, 186 miles south of Santiago, as “absolutely sad… everything desolate, most of the homes and commercial centers destroyed.”

Talca is the capital of Maule Region, which has suffered most of the as yet uncertain total number of deaths from the quake and remains under a state of emergency.