Yesterday I got the opportunity to go and help out at a ladies house who has to move house because hers had been so badly damaged from the earthquake. When we got there, from outside it didn't look so bad, but I was still happy to help out, but when we got inside we could see the damage that it had caused. The woman's son was there who told us her amazing story of how God protected her. She was lying in Bed and about 10 minutes before the earthquake she got up out of bed and went to another room, which was very not like her. Then during the earthquake the ceiling of two stories and the roof fell down in that room, we saw pictures of a huge pile of rubble and bricks on top of the bed, if she was there, there is no chance she could have survived. She was then in another room and felt she should move because she saw the ceiling was also not very secure and she stepped out the room and a few seconds later that ceiling also fell down. Everybody in the house was okay, even though there was so much damage. If it was slightly stronger here in Santiago, I am sure that the whole thing would have fallen down.

When we were helping we were just wrapping things up and packing it away in boxes. It was not too much hard work because we were with Chileans and so their priority is to just be with eachother and have a nice time and so there were pleantly of breaks for drinks and sandwhiches! haha. But it was good because the son of the woman who lives there was living there at the moment to protect her things, and I think he was very grateful of the company. I think I would go crazy just seeing the dammage every day and being reminded how different it could have been!

Yesterday Yerko and Carlos also returned from their trip. I was not in the house when they went but the others tell me that Yerko showed a video of the area, and that it was really quite shocking. They saw broken down houses, roads with huge gaps in them that had buckeled up, a big bridge that had fallen down, and other things like this. They really want us to go down to try and help, and we will go down probably with either the salvation army or with another christian volunteer company, or maybe just as our group. We are still not sure when we can go, it may be tomorrow or it may be in a month. It is just a time where we have to be flexible. Our leaders said that this week we will try to help out as much as we can here in Santiago, and so maybe will have a strange schedual this week, with more free time in the mornings, but going to help load lorrys of supplies to send down south, or things like that in the afternoon and evenings.

It feels good to be able to help in some way. Yesterday it all became a lot more real for me, seeing somebodys house and hearing first hand what had happened to them really affected me.I am really praying this is a time where we can show the love of Christ and help out in any way we can, small or large, all for God's glory and not for our own conscience.