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As evangelical relief organizations in El Salvador were aiding victims after the 7.6-magnitude quake January 13, deadly aftershocks hit, killing several hundred more people and injuring thousands of others. The United Nations warned in mid February that 200,000 could starve there without more aid to feed the victims.

At least 1,500 have been killed and as many as a quarter of the tiny Central American country’s homes were damaged or destroyed in the earthquakes and landslides the quakes triggered, in addition to 1,400 schools, 12 hospitals and more than 100 clinics. Some 1.5 million of El Salvador’s 6 million people are homeless. And, since seismologists don’t know if the shaking has stopped, El Salvador’s government hasn’t OKed rebuilding homes, churches and the nation’s infrastructure.

The second killer tremor on February 13 was a double whammy for the suffering country. “Adobe constructions that weakened in the first quake came down in the second,” said Samaritan’s Purse project administrator Barry Hall. But other disasters have replaced El Salvador in newspaper headlines. Donations haven’t met the need. Samaritan’s Purse has received only $400,000 to aid El Salvador’s recovery, Hall said.

Harrison Smith, CAM International’s relief coordinator, said CAM is helping the homeless by providing temporary housing, and by printing 10,000 tracts that address questions such as why God allows tragedies such as earthquakes. Christian teams from Honduras and Costa Rica have helped minister to the victims’ spiritual needs, he said. Later, CAM will send volunteer teams to help rebuild homes, churches and other buildings damaged or destroyed in the disasters.

Salvadorans are receptive to the gospel. “There have been lots and lots of decisions” for Christ, Hall said, adding that when some Honduran evangelicals showed the Jesus film in a shelter for the Salvadoran homeless, 150 accepted Christ.

In India, where some 30,000 people died in the 7.9-magnitude quake on January 26, Christian relief organizations face an even more challenging scenario. Some aid workers report that Christian victims have been denied supplies by Hindu aid workers, in some instances even denying Christian workers access to devastated towns. “However, these are occasional incidents,” said World Relief disaster response director Stephen Houston. “In fact, Christian groups are prominent among the agencies taking the lead in the shelter programs.”

Houston cited a case of deliverance when around 21 Christian leaders-including leaders of India’s Operation Mobilization-were meeting in Gandhidham when the quake struck. Though the building where they were meeting collapsed, all the leaders got out unharmed.

While many Christian relief groups rely on local churches’ help to carry out the work, that’s hard in India because of its tiny national Christian presence. Samaritan’s Purse, which is rushing to build temporary shelter before rainy season, is working through the Evangelical Church of India denomination, but Hall said that it had no church near Bhuj, the city hardest hit in hard-hit Gujarat state. Since much of the international relief effort is focused on Bhuj, Samaritan’s Purse is focusing on villages. World Relief’s Houston said that hundreds of villages had been leveled. “No reconstruction is expected to begin before the end of March, as the massive task of clearing away the rubble is still underway,” he said.

There’s been plenty of opportunity for sharing God’s love. “We’re finding as we go into these villages, they’re just thrilled to see us,” Hall said. “(The villagers ask) ‘Why’d you come halfway across the world?’ It gives us an opportunity to say, ‘We’re a Christian organization, and this is what we do.’ We leave evangelism to the indigenous church. We come in with resources and skills to make relief effort work. “The need is so tremendous and will exist for a long time after we’re gone,” Hall said. “There were tremendous needs there before we got there.”

April 6, 2001