Earthquake in Lima - UPDATE

If you have a television you probably saw or heard of the strong earthquake that hit Lima, Peru today. Here is an e-mail from our missionary friends, Jeff and Judy, who live in Lima. John and I didn't even know Peru had earthquakes. Please be praying for this city where God has called us to share His glory. Please pray that the current Lima missionaries will be able to use this unfortunate devastation to have a huge platform to present the Gospel with. I believe, so far, all of the IMB missionaries are okay. Here is the Hughes' update:

"We wanted to write and let you know that we are OK. You might have heard that there was a pretty strong earthquake here in Lima this evening. We were at a meeting at our church and everything started shaking. We went outside to the park across the street and everything continued to shake. We have small earthquakes pretty frequently here, but we've never experienced anything like this before. Many people in the area came out of their houses afraid. Here's a website that gives information about earthquakes around the world: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/

We came home so we could call our family to let them know we're OK and Jeff's Mom called on our internet phone before we could call her! She heard about the earthquake on the radio in her car going home from Wednesday night prayer service.

We have heard from some of the other missionaries by email, but our phone is out in the house and the cellphone system is overloaded and we haven't been able to make or receive local calls.

Please pray for peace and calm. Many people are really scared! As we were walking home from church, many people were running around and the traffic was terrible! Our neighbor upstairs came home a little bit ago and she was crying. We have been watching local TV broadcasts and people were crying also. They are reporting some damage in Lima. We have already felt one aftershock and imagine that there will be more over the next few hours. Many people here live without the hope that we have in Jesus Christ and this is terrifying to them. Pray that we will have more opportunities to share The Gospel and the Eternal Hope that comes through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ."

Thanks for your continued prayers.