Texas Baptists give $25,000 to Chilean earthquake relief

DALLAS—The Baptist General Convention of Texas provided $25,000 to the Baptist Union of Chile to help meet needs following a report that half of the 500 churches in the convention reported major damage following a massive earthquake.

Raquel Contreras, president of the Baptist Union of Chile, met recently with the Texas Baptist disaster relief team to discuss ways Texas churches can aid Chileans affected by the earthquake.

“We just wanted to provide some immediate assistance to the Chile convention in order to be able to help them with the immediate needs of the pastors and churches that came after the quake,” said Bill Arnold, director of BGCT disaster relief efforts.

“We want to help Baptist in Chile to do an even better job of reaching Chile for Christ by strengthening their pastors and by strengthening the churches to help them bring glory to God.”

The $25,000 will allow the Chilean convention to purchase water, diapers, food, mattresses, blankets and sleeping bags to help with immediate needs, as well as buy cement to begin making repairs to the church buildings, Contreras said. Her hope is that from the gift, church-to-church partnerships will form.

“My dream is to see a church in Texas or the United States partner with a church in Chile,” Contreras said. “Their youth will become friends. Their pastors will become friends. Their women will become friends. They will help each other not only because the North Americans will go to Chile to help us rebuild, but that Chileans can help them to see the world in a different way.”

Partnerships will be crucial to rebuilding efforts because more than half of the churches in the convention have been affected by the earthquake and tsunami that came directly afterwards.

“In these 500-plus churches, more than 250 church buildings have been damaged,” Contreras said. “There are large cracks in the buildings, and then the tsunami came and destroyed what was inside. Some churches will have to be rebuilt completely because the codes do not allow people to go in the buildings now. … The Bibles are not there anymore. The hymnals are not there. The sound system is not working. The instruments are not there. It is a big loss.”

Because of this, Marla Bearden, director of Texas Baptists Church2Church partnerships, is going to work with Contreras after disaster assessment is completed to identify ways Texas congregations can work directly with Chilean churches in need, possibly adopting pastors and their families and providing support for rebuilding efforts and anything else needed.

“Our hope is that we can assist the churches and pastors whose churches were destroyed,” Bearden said. “Just like in Hurricane Ike when those churches didn’t meet, the pastor’s salary stopped, and we want to assist pastors (in Chile) that don’t have that salary coming in. Second is that we want to assist in the rebuilding of the churches so that they can continue their work.”

Though many structures were damaged or destroyed, no one from the Baptist family lost their lives in the disaster.

“The Lord has protected us,” Contreras said. “We do not know of anyone in the Baptist family who has lost lives, but we know a lot of them who have lost things.”

Many have lost their belongings and homes, but the spirit of the Chilean believers is still strong, Contreras said.

“People are telling me about how they are meeting in their backyards because they can’t meet in the church buildings,” Contreras said. “But everyone says in their e-mail or conversation that God is good and that he works things for good. Even the ones who had been hit, even the little they have left, they are giving. They have prepared open dining rooms so people can come eat with them. They have prepared entertainment for others so they will be happy in the midst of all this.”

As the Chilean convention begins relief efforts, Contreras asked Texas Baptists to pray for wisdom, stating that prayer is the greatest need at this point.

“There are so many ways” to get involved, Contreras said. “First, pray for us. When you pray here, the Lord will answer over there. You may never know the people in Chile, but you will know the Lord will answer your prayers over there.”

In addition to prayer, resources for survival and rebuilding are needed.

“We need resources,” she said. “As a convention, we are very limited in our resources. Our churches give every month to the Cooperative Program and that covers our payroll, our ministry, our nursing home and children’s home. And now the churches will not be able to give to the Cooperative Program as they did before. They have to pay the pastor, rebuild and take care of their own needs.”

As aid and prayers are offered to Chile, Contreras hopes to see her country embrace relationships with God and understand that he still is in control in the midst of the disaster.

“I hope that a revival comes to Chile,” she said. “I really hope that the people, not only the Christian people but everyone, will see the need of God in their lives. I think in Chile, we were so content. We had a stable economy and a stable government. Most everyone had a job and we were living easy lives. In those conditions, it is very easy to forget that there is a God who is in control. For so long we have been praying for a revival, and I think that this is part of the answer.”