They didn’t die, and they’re relieved over it.
“It was a terrifying experience,” said Phil Brown, a Southern Baptist missionary who lives in Santiago. “We were awakened by our bed shaking so hard it almost threw us out. We live in a second floor apartment but ran to our outdoor terrace, ready to jump if the building started coming apart, which we feared it would.
“After the longest 90 seconds of my life, the shaking stopped. We got outside as quickly as we could to huddle in the street with the other people in our building,” Brown added. “God was gracious in protecting all of our missionary family here. Hours have passed now but we are still jumpy. Each tremor now gets our full attention.”
They’re also asking everyone to pray for the
thousands of people in Chile whose lives have been upturned by a massive earthquake that struck in the early morning hours of Feb. 27, says an International Mission Board strategist closely tied to the area.
“We want to ask Christians everywhere to lift up people in need after this huge disaster,” said Terry Lassiter, strategist for the American Peoples affinity group. “We thank the Lord that all of our missionaries are well but there has been a very significant loss of life that is going to affect both our church community and the non-Christian community in Chile.”
Maybe I’m cynical but it sounds like they’re bummed over losing parishioners. Never mind a country in shambles, who’s still around to tithe on Sunday? Of course, they say they care about getting everyone adequate food and shelter in the wake of this disaster, but a little further down the page is this:
The ultimate concern is that God will be glorified and hearts will be turned to Christ, Lassiter said.
“Please pray God will be glorified in a way that people will see their need for Him, if they don’t know Him,” Lassiter said. “We don’t know yet how big of a disaster this is, but we want to see God glorified among the Chilean people in any case.”
They don’t really care about who survives unless they can be turned into Baptists in the process. It sounds a lot like what’s still going on in Haiti. Convoy of Hope is delivering 600 Proclaimer solar audio bibles there.
“It’s important that we meet people’s physical needs first. We believe in earning the right to be heard. We feed them first, then we provide them the message. That’s what these Audio Bibles do; they provide a good, solid Christian message. That is important to people in despair,” said Jeff Nene, Convoy of Hope’s director of communications.
Convoy of Hope has provided over 3 million meals since the quake.
And you just know they hope readers will think they’ve created 3 million more Christians in the process, too. Hooray! More Christians! All it seems to me is 3 million meals with forced participation in the after-dinner entertainment. Meals on strings.
“The expression on his face was priceless. I could feel his excitement radiate from him. As a desperate, but faithful pastor of a devastated, now overcrowded community, he now had a way to communicate to the masses who were not only thirsty for clean water, but thirsty for God’s Word.”
I still think the water is far more important.
To wrap this up, a World Day of Prayer is set for March 5th. Instead of bothering with that nonsense, consider donating to Doctors without Borders or the Red Cross that day instead. People need what they offer far more than they need anonymous prayers.
One Minion's Opinion 