Earthquake in Bukavu and surrounding rural villages

Two earthquakes (magnitude 6.0 and 5.0) hit the Bukavu area yesterday. Read about it on BBC. Please pray for our staff in Bukavu as well as for the families of the children at our school.

Here is an email from Mudekereza, our Congo Director that came in this morning to Don Rogers (ELI Intl. Director):

Dear friends,

It was 9.30 am when we dropped the children at the church. As we alighted, the earth was shaking like we have never seen before; it was a strong earthquake.

We looked in the air and saw dust covering the sky above our heads; several building walls (including church buildings) were falling down around our church.

My wife, our newborn baby and some of our other children needed to be at home for various reasons. As I entered the church because I was to speak, I saw my nephew coming my way; he was scared. I asked what was going on. He said several building in our area had collapsed. I asked what happened to my wife and the children. He said the building was still all right. I drove back home and found that everyone including the little baby were outside far away from buildings.

Our two-year-old son was highly traumatized. He was just crying. He could not stand the shaking and up to this moment is crying and gets scared at every little noise.

My in-laws live in front of my house, in a school building, a very large and old building. They tried to run out of the building during the earthquake, my sister-in-law was trapped by falling walls and had a serious head wound.

Looking for her, we drove to the main hospitals and realized that many families have been affected by the unusual earthquake. She is in a critical condition.

The victims up to this moment has reached 5 people dead and about 200 wounded. As I am writing this email we have not been allowed to enter our homes, because even now there are buildings shaking. We are advised to spend the night outside which is difficult with little babies.

The government just said that the next 2 days there should be no office opening, or no-one should be near crowded buildings like in the market, because they say there are more aftershocks are to come. In neighboring Rwanda, 23 people are reported dead and more than 200 wounded. We need your prayers that God may be limiting the damages, console the affected families.

Thanks for praying!

Mudekereza