Earthquake aftermath 2018 - My Missionary On-Line

Greetings all,

I want to thank all of you who have been praying for those of us involved in the massive earthquake that hit the city of Palu nearly two weeks ago. Thank you too for your prayers for me as I traveled back to the USA this week. Besides those of us who went through the earthquake, this was also a very traumatic situation for our loved ones who were concerned for our safety. I arrived home on Tuesday evening. Jeanne is doing fine but very happy to have me home safe, and I too am glad to be back with her. We feel tremendously blessed as so many lost loved ones in this tragic event and unable to have the privilege to reunite with them.

The aftershocks continue but are getting further apart now. In all there were hundreds of aftershocks and probably dozens of them over 5.0 on the Richter scale. Now that it is over, we have sent in a team who are working together with others on giving relief to the affected areas. Not only was Palu proper affected, but also all the villages which line the coast line. Around 2,000 have now been declared deceased but the actual number could be three times that amount as so many were either swept away by the tsunami or buried in the “liquified soil.” The liquified soil and tsunami were responsible for more deaths than the hundreds of collapsed buildings.

Below a few pictures to show you some of the devastation and relief efforts. Thank you for your continued prayers for the ongoing efforts. It will take years to bring this city back to normal again.