On Tuesday, September 19, a 7.1 magnitude earthquake hit Mexico City. Only a few days later on Saturday, September 23, two more earthquakes with magnitudes of 6.1 and 4.5 rattled Oaxaca, a few hundred miles southeast of the capital. 420 people have died, over 3,000 buildings are in danger of collapse, and more than $8 billion of damage has occurred so far as a result of these quakes.
According to a September 20, 2017, report from The Christian and Missionary Alliance in Canada, Betesda ACyM church in Juchitan, Oaxaca, was severely damaged by the most recent quake and condemned as a result. The church hopes to rebuild not only a new sanctuary but also a refuge center that can serve as a multipurpose space.
Bob and Cheryl Fugate, Alliance international workers serving in Guadalajara, Mexico, write:
“Reports from Mexican Alliance pastors and lay leadership indicate numerous church families in Ahuatitla, a town just a little north of Mexico City, lost their homes. In one family, a father and his nine-year-old daughter were killed. Mexican Alliance church members grieve their loss with the widow and surviving son, providing spiritual and emotional support. Three Canadian Alliance missionary families are in temporary housing in Mexico City and probably will not be able to return to live in their apartments which are in danger of imminent collapse. Our U.S. Alliance missionary in Mexico City (Norma S. Van Dalen) is in the center of the destruction, but her apartment building survived without major structural damage.”
Please pray for all who have lost family members and homes because of these earthquakes. Pray also that more will respond to the growing need for recovery in this area.