Southern Baptists’ Send Relief partners were on the ground in Southern Turkey within hours of a devastating earthquake and multiple aftershocks Feb. 6 that left nearly 50,000 people dead and 250,000 homes destroyed there and in neighboring Syria. As rescue efforts passed the one-week mark, rescuers continued to pull survivors from the rubble long after the 72-hour rescue window had passed.
In the meantime, efforts turned to a growing humanitarian crisis—burying the dead and feeding the living.
Send Relief President Bryant Wright was on the ground amid the rubble. In a video released Feb. 11, he urged Southern Baptists to give and to pray.
Send Relief, a collaboration of the International Mission Board and the North American Mission Board, is Southern Baptists’ worldwide compassion ministry. Send Relief local partners began distributing water, food, and other emergency supplies within hours of the disaster. They’ve also been distributing much-needed blankets, as temperatures dip well below freezing at night.
Tens of thousands of survivors are sleeping in the streets, in their cars, or in parking lots to avoid being crushed by rubble if another building collapses. Families are spending excruciating nights exposed to the elements. Currently, there is no electricity, clean water, or food supplies in most of the cities in the region.
Send Relief is providing real-time coaching sessions for local partners in disaster response efforts and meeting needs in emergency situations. These personalized sessions teach partners how to look for the most vulnerable, the most underserved and those who can’t make it to the government’s food lines.
The church in this region is small—approximately 6,000 people in a country of 88 million. Many jumped in their cars at the first news of the fallout, taking the initiative to hand out bread and blankets, create mobile soup kitchens, and take up collections across the networks of small house churches.
“The Turkish body of believers, as small as they are, are doing their best to show up because this is their home and their country, and they are proud of their people,” said Scott, Send Relief’s Central Asia associate area director.
“One local church experienced severe loss, with their senior pastor and his wife being buried alive under the rubble, but they are still giving glory to God,” he said. “Their lives have literally been shaken, but their faith has not been shaken. They’re staying adamant that God is in control, despite the circumstances around them.”
Wright said Send Relief ministry partners are hoping to “share the love of Christ in very tangible ways as well as to share the Good News as God gives us those opportunities to do so.” Wright and his team were on the way to Antakya, which is the biblical city of Antioch.
“In Acts 11:29, we see that the church at Antioch set the example for the church all through the ages,” Wright said. “They took up on offering for the church in Jerusalem that was going through a tough time.
“Now we can respond to their example as Antioch has been devastated by this earthquake, by praying for them and by giving to help them in this time of recovery.”
More information is available at Send Relief.org.
– Baptist Press and IB staff