On Thursday, July 15, 40 volunteers left El Monte, Chile to travel through the night to Lota, a small city of 45,000 devastated by the earthquake of late February and subsequent looting. Arriving at 6 AM the volunteers went to work immediately and worked tirelessly for three long days until climbing aboard the bus Sunday evening, they once again travelled through the night to their homes and to be back at work the next morning.

One of the primary tasks of that team of volunteers was to distribute the aid sent by GEMS in cooperation with the local Chilean community to the needy people in that region. Excerpts from the report filed by the team follow:

we left… by municipal bus, travelling about 10 hrs., but no matter, since the group had tremendous enthusiasm…. On arrival at the meeting place in Lota, at nearly 06:00 hrs., our contact brother was waiting with hot soup prepared by the sisters of the local church together with its Pastor, it was a blessing to be there, the low temperature didn’t matter, nor the strong wind that was blowing, nor even that the place awaiting us was social housing, the important thing was that we had arrived to fulfill the purpose of God for humanity; to bless them.

… One of the most moving visits we made that morning was to “las Cabañas” which consisted of a great many families who had been brought here after the earthquake. The houses were half-full of jars of water brought by the government to the affected families.

There we fulfilled our mission of aid, seeing the needs & how happy the children were to receive a toy, a doll or teddy bear, where children went door to door seeking articles of clothing for small brothers & sisters, never mind for themselves, where pregnant women did likewise to have clothes for their baby-to-be.