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Chileans rebuild, witness in months after quake
By Byron Rempel-Burkholder Mennonite World ConferenceIn the five months since a devastating earthquake, Mennonite churches in Chile have engaged in mutual aid and witness.
One of the worst-hit congregations in the Feb. 27 earthquake was Lota Mennonite Church, near the city of Concepción in central Chile, where the earthquake struck the hardest. More than 400 people died in the 8.8-magnitude quake.
According to Roberto Saez, pastor, the Lota congregation is rebuilding the homes of four families of the congregation who lived on a hillside full of flimsy wooden houses. They are receiving some municipal help and possibly some aid from Mennonite Central Committee. The congregation is also repairing their meetinghouse, which suffered some damage. Some church buildings in the town were destroyed, Saez said.
In Concepción, many members of Puerta del Rebaño (Door of the Sheepfold) Anabaptist congregation were away on vacation at the time of the quake. Some returned and helped with local emergency medical care, while others facilitated aid efforts from where they were, unable to travel.
Reconstruction work for the Puerta del Rebaño church went beyond houses and church buildings. One member, Felipe Elgueta, reported that the church’s Spontaneous Theatre troupe performed in four communities devastated by the quake.
“The theatre became a place of encounter,” Elgueta said, “not in order to escape from what happened, but to share experiences in a place of trust. Besides drama, the troupe offered healing activities of drawing, storytelling and lament.”
In the weeks after the quake, new forms of aid developed, Elgueta said. One Puerta del Rebaño member worked with a local child advocacy organization to put young offenders to work, providing recreational activities for children affected by the quake.
“The one thing we ask from the global Anabaptist church is to pray for Chile,” wrote Samuel Tripainao, general secretary of the Iglesia Evangélica Menonita de Chile.
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