'Our country is in great shock'
 

Baptists in Turkey requested prayer and practical help following the worst earthquake in their country since 1939, while the Hungarian Baptist Aid Rescue24 team helped save lives from under the rubble

The Turkish Baptist Alliance sent this update to the European Baptist Federation in the wake of the devastating earthquake which struck the Turkey/Syria border on Monday, 6 February.  

'We had the worst earthquake in Turkey since 1939. The first big earthquake was 7.7 and it happened at 4 am in the morning.

'The centre of the earthquake was the southeastern city of Kahramanmaras and 9 cities around were all affected.

'The second big earthquake was 7.4 and 145 earthquakes aftershock happened. 10 cities in southeast Turkey were seriously affected.

'More than 1,500 people died and sadly it will highly increase. We can not foresee how many people will die.  9,700 people were injured. 3,500 buildings have collapsed.

'Our country is in great shock. Many buildings are damaged. People left their homes and their cities. There are a lot of traffic jams and it is very cold, it is snowing in most of the cities. This week the weather will be below 0 Celsius. The roads are also seriously damaged. This makes the search and rescue more difficult. The next 72 hours only professional search and rescue teams are allowed to go to the earthquake area. 

'Thanks to the Lord, our Baptist churches and the members are all well. Adana is among the affected cities. 15 buildings collapsed and many were damaged. It is not clear if the building where the church is meeting is damaged or not.  

'Two neighbouring buildings collapsed to where the pastor of the Adana Baptist Church and General Secretary of our Union and his family is living. The church members of Adana Baptist Church are all fine. They are waiting in cars and parks.

'The hometown of Abdullah Ergüven, Pastor of Istanbul Baptist Church is Kahramanmaras. He has relatives and friends who are affected. He wants to go there but the roads and airports are closed at the moment.

'We once again are blessed to have you as our family. Thank you for your messages, prayers and support.

'Please pray for our country and for the ones who lost their dear ones. The supplies needed and how you can help will be clear in the following days.'


There were further updates from other partners in the region. 

Samir Yacco, the president of the Baptist Convention of Syria said, 'Thanks be unto God, only a 5,5 earthquake struck Damascus, while in Aleppo, it was so damaging. It's said that some aftershocks will take place within few days. The Lord is supervising our lives.'

Nabil Costa, CEO of The Lebanese Society for Educational and Social Development and member of EBF Executive Committee, noted, 'The most affected areas in Syria are Aleppo and the cities on the coast. Aleppo, where we have also one of our Baptist churches is badly damaged.

'People have left their homes and are looking for shelter in safer areas. We need to see how to help all these people. We will be making an assessment in the next few days and inform you of the potential needs.'  

On Tuesday 7 February, LSESD issued this update:

'Our hearts grieve over the loss of life and the destruction of entire cities as a result of the devastating earthquake that hit Turkey, Syria and other neighboring countries early Monday morning. The official death toll continues to rise, but so far several thousands are already dead, injured, missing or still trapped under the rubble. 

'In Syria, this tragic event further increases the plight of a population that is already traumatized and exhausted from 11 years of ongoing war, economic hardships, and precarious living conditions. 

'The harsh winter storm that befell on the region since last week is making difficult rescue operations even harder.

'Mazen Hamati, pastor of The Baptist Evangelical Church of the Redeemer in Safita and Tartous in Syria, exhorted the global church to pray not only for the hurting families to put their faith in God, but also to pray for the steadfastness of the local Church who is active on the ground responding to the many needs. In a situation where hope is scarce, the local church needs to be the refuge people need. 

'Our team at MERATH is already coordinating an emergency response with their Syrian partner churches in affected areas while also planning for the medium and long-term needs that will surely arise from this new catastrophe. 

'As we lament over the plight of our Syrian neighbours and while we seek to support them in practical ways we are reminded that “the LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” - Psalm 34:18.'


Hungarian Baptist Aid sent its Rescue24 team to Turkey on Monday, 6 February. HBA's Dàvid Gál said, 'Hungarian Baptist Aid’s Rescue24 International Special Search and Rescue Team combined with emergency medical staff took off from the Budapest Airport at 22:30PM local time last night (Monday the 6th).

'The team, consisting of 19 specialists with 7 rescue dogs was organised by HBAid rescue commander László Pavelcze after the Turkish authorities asked for international help.

'They are transporting over two metric tons of equipment and have made contact with the Turkish responders who have collaborated with them in the past.

'The Hungarian Baptist search and rescue team has helped in Turkey both in 1999 and in 2001 after devastating earthquakes similar to the one that struck earlier today.'

The team arrived in Antakya, a town by the Syrian border, on Tuesday afternoon where they set up their base and started searching the coordinates provided by the local authorities.

The team returned a week later, having saved eight lives. See the Hungarian Baptist Aid Facebook page for updates. 





'This is yet another disaster in our region,' the EBF continued, 'but we are ever so grateful for our leaders and churches in Turkey, Syria and Lebanon, and for the HBAid Rescue24 team who have already started helping people and planning for future actions. Please support them in your prayers and if you can, please support their response also financially.'

More details can be found on the EBF page here: ebf.org/turkey-syria

The EBF also issued a number of prayer points: 

• for the leadership of the Turkish Baptist Alliance, Ertan Cevik and his team
• for the leadership of the Baptist Convention of Syria, Samir Yacco
• for our partners at LSESD, Nabil Costa and his team
• for the Hungarian Baptist Aid Rescue24 Team, Bela Szilagy, László Pavelcze and David Gál
• for the rescue operations because very many people are still under the rubble
• for the families who have lost loved ones and /or their loved ones are currently missing
• for wisdom for those making decisions about the disaster response in both Turkey and Syria
• for the compounded pain of the millions of displaced people in Syria and Lebanon