In October of last year, a massive mudslide buried much of El Cambray community, nine mile east from Guatemala City. Approximately 234 people died and hundreds remained missing. This disaster took place when heavy rains caused the slide of a towering hill to suddenly break loose and come crashing down on the village bellow. Villagers that survived the catastrophe, dug through the mud and debris with their own hands, trying to find their missing loved ones.
Our missionary, Karel Golcher, was traveling those days visiting radio stations to introduce our programs in radio stations in a region near to the disaster area. He was able to visit the area to pray and share words of encouragement from the Bible with those that were suffering the loss of some relative and with the rescue workers who were digging through the ruble, searching for survivors. Few days later, Karel came came back few days later with disaster assistance that the believers from Karel’s congregation collected. Karel expressed, “There is a deep sense of sadness when you see the bodies that were rescued by the emergency services, the sorrow in the faces of those that were desperately hoping that their relatives would be among the survivors. The saddest image was the face of the children that were brought to the provisional shelters because their parents did not survive the catastrophe. Many of them could not understand why they were not able to be their parents”. In the midst of this terrible situation, our missionary was able to distribute food, water, clothing, and most importantly, the Word of God. Approximately 200 New Testaments were given to families that were suffering the loss of relatives.
Tragic events like this mudslide are constant reminders about the importance of keep increasing the number of outlets airing the Gospel. Within the last four months of 2015 Karel visited 14 radio stations, and praise the Lord 11 stations accepted to air the programs, four of them are secular radios stations.