Christians Risk Everything to Save Neighbors After Venezuela Tragedy

Faith Facts

• Devastating back-to-back earthquakes killed at least 4,490 people in Venezuela, with thousands more homeless, injured or missing
• Christian relief workers are digging through rubble with bare hands, praying with survivors, and risking their own lives to serve earthquake victims
• Despite devastating losses in their own communities, Venezuelan churches have baptized eight new believers while serving in disaster zones

Digging through the remains of collapsed buildings, Christians in Venezuela searched for survivors after back-to-back devastating earthquakes shook the troubled South American nation. What they found tested their faith—but also revealed God’s power to bring hope from tragedy.

José Antonio Quinones, who ministers for a Church of Christ in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, described the heroic efforts of his fellow believers. His sons and other church members traveled north to La Guaira, a city on the coast of the Caribbean Sea, where the damage is severe.

“Many of them, including my two sons, are working with their bare hands moving stones and debris,” Quinones said.

“The pharmacies in La Guaira were looted, so supplies aren’t readily available,” Quinones said.

The late-June earthquakes followed more than a decade of economic and political turmoil in Venezuela. More than 7 million Venezuelans have left the country since 2014, and those who remain struggle with unemployment and rising crime rates. Now, on top of these ongoing trials, the nation faces one of its darkest hours.

The quakes killed at least 4,490 people, according to numbers from Venezuela’s government at press time. Thousands more are homeless, injured or missing.

Members of Churches of Christ are among the dead, including six of 12 Christians who recently planted a new church in the La Llanada neighborhood of La Guaira, Carlos León told ministry partners. León, a minister in San Antonio de los Altos, Venezuela, is working on relief efforts in La Guaira and its neighboring state, Miranda.

As the tremors and aftershocks subsided, the disaster continued to claim lives—even among relief workers. Joaquín Rodríguez, a minister and one of the leaders of the La Guaira Church of Christ, suffered a heart attack and died after working for three straight days.

“He was helping others and looking for survivors,” said Germán Chirinos, a minister in Falcón state in northwest Venezuela. “Some brothers told me that they prayed together with him, and while he was driving, he died.”

Rodríguez “was a humble man with a big heart,” Chirinos said, adding that the minister was “very concerned and committed to the church in La Guaira.”

At least four other members of the La Guaira church are among the dead, Chirinos said. The loss has been devastating, but believers are pressing forward with the work of the Gospel.

Casualties weren’t confined to the coast. In San Antonio de los Altos, about 30 minutes south of Caracas, church members were meeting for a Wednesday night Bible study when the quakes began, León said. They prayed quickly before taking the stairs out of the building and helping others.

Church member Adela Maqueda and her granddaughter perished when a wall collapsed on top of them, León said. Another church member suffered a skull fracture. Friends carried him on a bicycle to the nearest hospital.

In Caracas, at least two church members died, minister H. Jose Silencio said. The losses continue to mount, yet the Christian community refuses to surrender to despair.

“The situation is critical,” Silencio said. “There are many dead, many injured and many missing. Many people have died in the rubble, and many survivors are left without hope.”

Helping with ‘the Lord’s loving hands’

León and other church members, including fellow ministers Diego Orea and José Bello, are coordinating relief shipments and serving quake victims in Miranda state, La Guaira state and the city of La Guaira. Silencio and others are serving quake victims in Caracas.

Nonprofits associated with Churches of Christ, including Healing Hands International and One Kingdom, are collecting funds and organizing relief shipments for Venezuela. Great Cities Missions, a ministry that plants Churches of Christ across the Latin world, also is collecting for Venezuela aid.

Congregations across Venezuela are collecting funds and supplies for relief efforts, despite their own needs. Chirinos applauded church members who work tirelessly to help the earthquake victims.

“They are doing an amazing job,” Chirinos said. “They just travel every day carrying supplies and food, connecting with the people in tents, praying and preaching to them—and they’ve even baptized some of them, too. I consider them as our Lord’s loving hands spreading not only his Word but his love.”

In La Guaira, relief efforts have resulted in two new mission points, León said.

“One is in Los Corales, where six people have already been baptized, and another in Naiguatá, where two have been baptized.”

‘There’s mourning, but there’s hope of something beyond’

As they begin the long task of rebuilding their lives, earthquake victims take comfort in the divine promise of peace amid suffering, León said. The Christian response to this disaster demonstrates what faith looks like when everything else has been shaken.

He sees God “in the peace that we have. … In spite of the difficult situation that we’re living through, we have a peace that passes all understanding. There’s sadness because of the pain people are suffering, that our brothers and sisters are suffering, and for the loss. There’s mourning, but there’s hope of something beyond.”

For León, the earthquakes in Venezuela call to mind the earthquake Elijah experienced in the Old Testament book of 1 Kings, Chapter 19. When the prophet was overcome with grief, God told him to get out of the cave where he had sought refuge.

“An earthquake appeared, but God wasn’t there in either the earthquake or the hurricane-force winds,” León said, “but rather God was in the peaceful and gentle whisper that gives us peace, that gives us confidence.”

For the Venezuelan minister, Christians are called in a time of suffering not to offer easy answers but comfort. This is the ministry of presence—being the hands and feet of Christ in the darkest hours.

León believes that God wants us to “listen to victims and pray with them … cry with them and be there … be there serving them, so they feel our love and our empathy.”

Chirinos thanked his fellow Christians around the globe for their prayers. The body of Christ is proving once again that borders and distance cannot separate believers united in faith.

“The whole congregation, nationally and worldwide, are together in this trying to help any way they can,” the minister said. “So thanks to God and to all of you.”

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