(First of a two-part series on the aftermath of the earthquake in Chile)
A New Castle woman who is a missionary to Chile e-mailed home to say she’s OK.
Lou Ann Woerner and her husband, G. David, are field directors for the Christian & Missionary Alliance missions in Chile. They are based out of First Alliance Church on Mission Meade Drive.
“Nothing in my house works, no water, no lights, no phone, nothing!” Lou Ann Woerner wrote. “Thank God I can work! That’s what the gas attendant told me as I got a bit of gas this morning.”
According to the Web site of the Christian & Missionary Alliance Church, the Woerners returned to Chile in July after a year on home assignment, traveling around the country to speak to various congregations and groups.
They are based in Santiago and have been looking forward to starting an Alliance church in the Chicureo section of the country’s capital city.
That, of course, was prior to Saturday’s devastating 8.8 earthquake that killed more than 700 people. Santiago is about 200 miles northeast of the quake’s epicenter.
Woerner, in her e-mail that the New Castle church received at 7:43 a.m. Monday, went on say that most of the C&MA; missionaries in Chile are “faring well.”
“Some have water, lights, Internet, everything. We don’t,” she wrote. “This is the first access of the Internet we have had in over 50 hours.
“Thank the Lord for my BlackBerry, that somehow only a few hours after the earthquake, got a signal and I was able to send out short messages.”
Meanwhile, she said, the epicenter area of Concepción, Curicó and Talca still does not have the basic necessities.
“All the dozens and dozens of little inlets and artisan fishermen towns were hosting thousands and thousands of tourists,” Woerner wrote. ”And this is where the tsunami caught so many.
“The stories that are now surfacing are incredibly tragic. Quietly, reporters whisper of more than a thousand that were washed away. The police (are) trying to confirm those that have disappeared. Not an easy task.”
As for C&MA;’s churches in Chile, Woerner said assessing the damage has been difficult. Not only are phones and electricity out, but bridges also are unusable on many of the roads that lead to the churches.
“The national church president has intimated need among many of our church people in the area,” she said. “We do know, for example, that one of our pastors, Ivan Werth and his congregation, had to flee to the hills, with just what they had on! They fear they lost everything.”
Woerner said that the C&MA; has set up a disaster relief fund on its Web site, and anyone who would like to help may log on to www.cmalliance.org/give/relief.
Meanwhile, she is encouraged to see how people are in Chile are rallying around each other.
“You have seen the pictures, videos and articles on the news,” she said. “Hopefully, you will see the hundreds and thousands of people that are helping one another, giving what they have to others.
“One family came and offered their home to anyone in need! They would feed them and sleep them. Those are the Chileans that we know and love so much.”
(Tomorrow: Paulina Montaldo-Stader spearheads local relief efforts for her native Chile and recalls the early morning phone call from her sister informing her of the devastating earthquake.)
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