The back-to-back earthquakes that devastated Venezuela last week keep claiming lives — even among those rendering aid to victims.
Joaquín Rodríguez, a minister and one of the leaders of the La Guaira Church of Christ in coastal Venezuela, suffered a heart attack and died after working for three days straight in the aftermath of the June 24 disasters.
Joaquín Rodríguez, left, takes a photo with fellow Christians before the June 24 earthquakes in Venezuela.
“He was helping others and looking for survivors,” Germán Chirinos, a minister in Falcón state in northwest Venezuela, said in a message to The Christian Chronicle. “Some brothers told me that they prayed together with him, and while he was driving, he died.”
La Guaira, a state in northern Venezuela, sustained massive damage from the twin 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude quakes, which killed at least 1,700 people and injured thousands more, The Associated Press reports. At least four members of the La Guaira church are among the dead, Chirinos said.
Joaquín Rodríguez
Rodríguez “was a humble man with a big heart,” Chirinos said, adding that the minister was “very concerned and committed to the church in La Guaira.”
In Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, at least two church members died, minister H. Jose Silencio said.
“The situation is critical,” Silencio said in a WhatsApp message to the Chronicle. “There are many dead, many injured and many missing. Many people have died in the rubble, and many survivors are left without hope.”
Nonprofits associated with Churches of Christ, including Healing Hands International and One Kingdom, are collecting funds and organizing relief shipments for the troubled South American nation, which has endured economic and political crises in the past decade. Great Cities Missions, a ministry that plants Churches of Christ across the Latin world, also is collecting funds for Venezuela relief.
Meanwhile, Christians across Venezuela mourn the losses and look to God’s Word for messages of hope.
Carlos León, a minister in San Antonio de los Altos, told the Chronicle that he and his countrymen take comfort in the divine promise of peace amid suffering.
He sees God’s presence “in the peace that we have, that, in spite of the situation so difficult that we’re living through, we have a peace that passes all understanding. … There’s sadness because of the pain people are suffering, that our brothers and sisters are suffering, and for the loss. There’s mourning, but there’s hope of something beyond.”
@christianchronicle CARABALLEDA, VENEZUELA — Ministers from Churches of Christ view earthquake damage in Caraballeda, a coastal town in La Guaria state. The ministers traveled with relief supplies from San Antonio de los Altos, south of the capital, Caracas. #venezuela #venezuelaearthquake #churchofchrist ♬ original sound – The Christian Chronicle
For León, the earthquakes in Venezuela call to mind the earthquake Elijah experienced in the Old Testament book of 1 Kings, Chapter 19. When the prophet was overcome with grief, God told him to get out of the cave where he had sought refuge.
“An earthquake appeared, but God wasn’t there in either the earthquake or the hurricane-force winds, but rather God was in the peaceful and gentle whisper that gives us peace, that gives us confidence,” León said.
For the Venezuelan minister, Christians are called in a time of suffering not to offer easy answers but comfort.
León believes that God wants us to “listen to victims and pray with them, pray or listen to them, cry with them and be there … be there serving them, so they feel our love and our empathy.”
Chirinos thanked his fellow Christians around the world for their prayers.
“The whole congregation, nationally and worldwide, are together in this trying to help any way they can,” the minister said. “So thanks to God and to all of you.”
Additional reporting: Ted Parks
