Mennonite Weekly Review

NEWTON, Kan. — Expressions of concern began minutes after an 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck Chile Feb. 27.

Cristian Bustos, conference youth pastor, and Daniel Delgado, conference president, are among those from the Evangelical Mennonite Church of Chile responding to the earthquake. — Photo by Titus Guenther/MMN

Linda Shelly, Mennonite Mission Network’s director for Latin America, received e-mail messages from across the Americas.

To her, the messages showed how compassion and concern grow as church members get to know each other at regional events as well as larger events like the Mennonite World Conference assembly, held last July in Asunción, Paraguay.

At the same time messages began arriving from church partners in Chile. MMN relates with several distinct groups of Anabaptists and Mennonites in Chile: the Evangelical Mennonite Church, with 900 members in 12 congregations; the Puerta del Rebaño (Door of the Sheepfold) Anabaptist congregation in Concepción; the Union of Evangelical Baptist Churches in Chile, a denomination of 35,000 members across the country; and through the Patagonia Mission Program in Argentina, an Anabaptist congregation established in Valdivia.

Due to the breakdown of communication infrastructure in Chile it has been difficult for church partners to ascertain the extent of losses experienced by congregations in the hardest-hit zones. Initial reports suggest that the coastal town of Lota, where a Mennonite church is located, has been damaged by the quake and a resulting tsunami.

Cristian Bustos, conference youth pastor for the Evangelical Mennonite Church, wrote that there are shortages of water, food and fuel.

“We are collecting help in the form of food and money to take to our churches in Lota and Concepción,” he wrote.

Omar Cortés Gaibur, MMN International Partnership Associate who coordinates leadership training and congregational resourcing through the joint Baptist-Mennonite ministry of Cercapaz in Santiago, is working to assist his contacts.

Mónica Parada, a recipient of Mennonite Women USA theological education scholarships, and her husband, Carlos Gallardo, who together pastor the Puerta del Rebaño congregation in Concepción, survived the earthquake. They are well, although they don’t have electricity yet and are using water from a barrel.

This congregation and Mountain Community Mennonite Church in Palmer Lake, Colo., have exchanged visits.