Twin earthquakes on June 24 in Venezuela left a graphic trail of destruction. Government-built housing was torn apart, leaving thousands of families homeless. Evacuated high-rise buildings became uninhabitable. Families risked their lives to retrieve what they could from the rubble.
Please pray for a team of four out of Calvary Chapel Trujillo, Peru, as they are ministering to victims of the devastating earthquakes in Venezuela on June 24. Two earthquakes hit back-to-back, a 7.2 and a 7.5, 39 seconds apart. Sources report that as of July 6, the death toll has risen to more than 3,300 people, with more than 16,000 people injured. Possibly 41,000 are missing.
Cory Kilgus, senior pastor of CC Trujillo and founder of Calvary Bible Institute Peru, shared an update Sunday at CC Shreveport, LA. “Our ministry is intimately intertwined with the Venezuelan people,” he emphasized. Learning of the disaster, his team left to assist as soon as possible—it wasn’t an easy journey.
“They bused and they flew and they taxied and they bused and they got stopped by the cops seven times on the way, and they got harassed. But they’re there. They’ve been in Ground Zero, in the most dangerous [area]—La Guaira. On Friday alone, they helped dig out seven dead bodies. So it’s been this brutal, brutal thing,” Cory confirmed.
Cory described speaking to his staff late last week from the U.S., reminding them: “We’re there. … We’re not leaving, we’re going to have a presence in Venezuela. … We’ve been praying for six years, minimum, to go to Venezuela, and now God has opened the door for us to be there and to minister to these people who are there suffering. If we say we can’t go because it’s inconvenient or difficult or uncomfortable, then God’s going to find somebody else.”
He continued, “As tragic as it is, … we believe it’s the beginning of a move of God’s Spirit, that it’s going to lead to the Gospel being preached, and to the Word of God being taught, and churches being planted, and to many people being reached for Christ.”
Pray for perseverance and strength for the small team—two men and two women—as they sacrificially serve a heartbroken, suffering people. Pray that survivors may still be discovered and for comfort for the families who lost loved ones. And finally, pray that doors will be fully opened for the Gospel in Venezuela.
