(RNS) — The day after twin earthquakes rocked northern Venezuela, Presbyterian Pastor Ricardo Corzo Moreno was doing two jobs at once: calming his family through the aftershocks and helping launch a 24-hour prayer and collection center for survivors. For days after the June 24 quakes, as aftershocks rocked Caracas, his family took turns staying awake in case they needed to flee their building. Eight-year-old Miranda didn’t sleep through the night until Tuesday (June 30), when the family brought the children to relatives in Barquisimeto, more than 200 miles away.
“Not even in my worst nightmares did I imagine a situation as apocalyptic as the current one,” Corzo Moreno said in Spanish.
The official death toll is 2,295, likely an underestimate — more than 46,000 people have been reported missing on a website where families can share details, and it’s unclear how many have been found. Across Venezuela, faith leaders who are themselves impacted by the disaster have become its first responders. Corzo Moreno is working with Bishop Keison Carrillo of the Emanuel federation — some 300 evangelical churches with roughly 20,000 congregants in Venezuela — whose collection effort has so far run entirely on donations from Venezuelans themselves.
“There’s been an impressive internal solidarity, like nothing we’ve seen before,” said Carrillo, who spoke in Spanish. They’ve learned that the most necessary items are medications, diapers, drinking water, food, tents, mattresses and bedding. They’ve also worked to respond to specific needs, like preparing breakfast and lunches for sixty doctors working in emergency response.
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