On August 10 at 7:34 a.m., a 7.4 magnitude earthquake rocked Western Colombia, killing 331 and destroying 36,326 homes. It was the country’s strongest earthquake in a century, felt as far as Peru and Ecuador.
RUF Global has two sites in Colombia: one in the capital city of Bogota, and one in Rionegro, a suburb of Colombia’s second-largest city, Medellin. The earthquake was felt in both cities, although damage was minimal.
Since the earthquake, RUF (or CUR, as it’s called in Spanish) staff and students have been grappling with their own fears and experiences, as well as organizing to send aid to the most affected regions of the country.
Reaching Students
In Rionegro, some university students were awakened by the earthquake, while others were already on campus and had to be evacuated from their classrooms.
In the wake of this devastating natural disaster, RUF staff have had unique opportunities for spiritual conversations with students. This semester, Rionegro RUF is studying Ecclesiastes in their weekly Bible studies, which provided the groundwork to further discuss students’ feelings and concerns after seeing so much suffering in their own country, and for some students, in their own cities.
“We keep asking ourselves more questions about how, sometimes, we just don’t understand what’s happening in the world—especially with natural disasters and the suffering of all these people who lost their homes, their loved ones, and so much of what they’d been building up over many years, all of which came crashing down in less than two minutes,” Diana said. “We talked a lot about the transience of life.”
Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher,
vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
What does man gain by all the toil
at which he toils under the sun?
A generation goes, and a generation comes,
but the earth remains forever.
The sun rises, and the sun goes down,
and hastens to the place where it rises.
The wind blows to the south
and goes around to the north;
around and around goes the wind,
and on its circuits the wind returns.
Ecclesiastes 1:2-6
Diana also encouraged students that being sad or scared or upset is ok, and to bring those feelings to God in prayer.
Equipping Students
In Bogota, students had not yet begun their semester when the earthquake occurred, so Campus Assistant Will Schaufelberger said most of their contact was related to helping students figure out where to donate money and resources. He pointed them to a charity that supports recovery in El Choco, the site of the epicenter of the earthquake and the poorest region of Colombia. Many students also donated to initiatives through their churches.
Rionegro RUF Campus Director John McCall took a trip with a small group of church members to Pereira, one of the other affected cities, to participate in disaster relief. John has a background in rescue training for outdoor activities and was able to use his equipment and skills to aid teams still searching for missing people beneath the ruins. From that idea, God opened doors for the group to help in other ways as well, such as collecting and transporting donations from their church and helping complete a census and distribute donations in a rural community.
John described how many natural disasters happen in difficult-to-reach parts of the world, but since this was in his backyard and just a day’s drive away, it motivated him to drop everything, rearrange his plans, and go.
“This was an earthquake that we felt ourselves, and knowing that those places closer to the epicenter were far more impacted… and seeing that it was a place we could actually get to… made it more realistic to respond in person,” John said.
Partnering with Mission to the World (MTW)
Both RUF Global Colombia sites are closely connected to MTW church-planting efforts.
Nate Bonham, pastor of the MTW church plant in Rionegro and MTW International Director for the Americas, said MTW’s response is two-fold. Bonham requested money from the compassion fund to support a church from a sister denomination in Cali. They’re donating funds to 10 families who were affected by the earthquake, designating part of the donation for the families themselves and part for the families to use to help their neighbors.
“The people in Cali won’t know this is MTW. What I want them to see is they’re receiving help through the church in the hopes that as they’re reaching their neighbors, being salt and light, their neighbors can see that and hopefully be drawn to church,” Nate said.
MTW is also helping fund a trip for RUF Campus Assistant Johan Cabrera and his wife, Angela, to Cali, where their families live. There, they distributed food to about 80 families who lost apartments or homes in the earthquake and are living in a park.
Through all of this, John said he hopes their efforts will serve as an example of how to love your neighbor and live out the Gospel.
When students are being shaped by the Gospel, fellowship and service are among the fruits RUF hopes to see in maturing believers. “Serving others is something we want to model and pass on to students as we are trying to grow this ministry,” John said.
Hannah Herrera worked as an RUF International Intern for two years in Texas and now works with RUF Global in Rionegro, Colombia.