My son-in-law, Jonathan, along with a group of believers from the churches in Santiago went south to help those devastated by the earthquake. Here is his eyewitness report of their encounters.
Marcos smiled, he smiled and applauded. He applauded as he moved closer to me. He was in the arms of his mother and father as he talked with me. Marcos was like an infant, a twenty-something year old infant. He suffers from cerebral palsy. His house was very near the sea and the means, that which came in as a great tide, took them to a tiny hill far away from the sea. Their home is now four sticks with a blanket as a roof. There are no walls, everything in their lives can now be seen by anyone. They had not received help for an entire week. The group I went with gave them water, but they were the last people to receive it. It was what was left of a 20 liter container that we had already given out to their new neighbors, people who, like them, were forced by fear to the height of a hill. The only things we had left had already been given out, and I was left with nothing but a tiny water bottle I had filled in the morning to drink throughout the day. I had forgotten that I had it. I remembered it when the others in my group told me this family received only leftovers. When I gave the bottle to them, this adult child smiled. He smiled and applauded. The water was put in a cup and the child drank it. I spoke with the family and Marcos smiled while I talked to him. The day before, another group of people, in another place, applauded when they found out we had arrived from Santiago. When they received their food, they laughed with relief, for it was another day they would be able to nourish themselves in those places which, because being dangerous areas, no help was arriving without the accompaniment of the armed forces. We arrived to their area without any accompaniment to other places where no help had yet arrived, places where, one of the welcomes was given by a man who was sharpening his machete on the pavement. I explained to him that we had brought help to one of the local churches so that they could distribute it. I said goodbye to the man with the machete with a hug and smiles. People applauding and smiling when we gave water and food. Isn't this what people do when they receive good news--applaud and smile? These are the images I have in my mind. I don't want them to get erased. I hope they never disappear. I hope not to remember them as a type of monument to goodness, but I hope to recreate these actions again and again in my life. I hope that we can all do this. I hope that together we have the privilege of being received with smiles and applause when the good news--love--arrives in the form of water and food. This is the least we can do. With love,
Jonathan
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