Probably most of us have watched with feelings alternating between tears and horror this week as Gaziantep, Turkey and the nearby border with Syria have been excavated, with the death toll from Monday's earthquake at 20,000 and rising.
I looked up our region of Kempsville and found it has about 80,000 residents. This would be like losing 1/4 of them in one event.
Gaziantep itself has about 2 million people, so is much like our overall metro area.
It is near the ancient city of Cilicia, which we know from Paul's journeys, and at one time was known as Antioch, but Google says not one of the Antiochs of Paul's missionary journeys, so I will take their word for it! :-)
There have been dozens of people applying to adopt baby Aya, who was dug from the rubble with her umbilical cord still attached. The new mama did not survive the quake.
As we pray, Pastor, is there one of our organizations going over to help? You may have mentioned this last night but we did not have the television in the nursery turned up loud enough to hear every individual prayer request. :-)
https://www.christianpost.com/news/church-in-biblical-antioch-prepares-to-rebuild-after-earthquake.html?uid=*%7CUNIQID%7C*&utm_source=The+Christian+Post+List&utm_campaign=CP-Newsletter&utm_medium=email
Apparently Google was wrong and the earthquake hit the very Antioch where the disciples were first called Christians!
As of noon today, Sky News reported a second earthquake of 6.4 magnitude has occurred, two weeks after the first, with all types of aftershocks in between.
Needless to say, the relief workers going in are in a special type of danger not often seen in humanitarian relief.
I am praying God will raise up an Army to provide practical relief and to reap a harvest for His kingdom there. It prods me to pray when I think the Apostle Paul probably walked some of that very soil torn up by these earthquakes, reaping a harvest there. Now, churches in that area of the world are few and far between.
Maybe God will use some of the kids on all those campuses experiencing something that might be actual Biblical revival (I pray it is. Cedarville U. is the latest and seems to have produced kids who are going out on evangelism efforts around their state).
My husband said the number of dead is now above 40,000. Half the population of Kempsville.
It seems when they give a total, it is not an estimate. It is the number of bodies they have actually recovered because it keeps going up.
I, have prayed for all the lost and dying, hurting people as well as the survivors and that new born rescue from the debris. 🙏
I will check and see if ORH will be going over to help. Pastor Baker
🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻