Displaying items by tag: earthquake

Many earthquakes hit Indonesia: The most recent, of 6.2 magnitude, struck Sulawesi island early on 15 January, killing at least 46, destroying houses, flattening a hospital, setting off landslides, and injuring hundreds. Then the next day Mount Semeru, the highest volcano on Indonesia’s most densely populated island of Java, spewed hot clouds up to three miles away. The National Disaster Mitigation Agency warned people living in the villages on the slopes of the 12,060-foot mountain to be vigilant in looking for danger signs. People around the river basin on the slopes of the mountain should beware of high rainfall intensity that can trigger lava floods. Semeru’s alert status had been at the third-highest level since it began erupting in May. In December it sent hot ash 9,800 feet, triggering panic among villagers.

An earthquake in the Aegean Sea on 30 October has so far killed 107 people in Turkey and Samos. It is not yet clear on how many people are still under the rubble of 20 Turkish buildings; 144 survivors are still in hospital and over 1,000 people were injured in Turkey. A ‘mini tsunami’ flooded streets in Turkey and Samos. Four days after being buried alive a young girl called Ayda was pulled from the rubble. As she was being taken to an ambulance, wrapped in a thermal blanket, everyone clapped and chanted ‘God is great’. Her rescue came a day after a three-year-old girl and a 14-year-old girl were also pulled out alive from collapsed buildings. Pray for those still waiting for news of lost relatives - and for any more still alive to be found.

On 22 March a 5.3-magnitude quake, the largest in 140 years, brought panicked residents out into the streets at 6am. The interior minister told people, ‘Keep your distance. Don't gather together. We are facing two serious crises, the earthquake and the epidemic’. Many buildings cracked, with walls and rooftops damaged. Zagreb cathedral and parliament buildings were among the damaged structures. The earthquake prompted residents to flee to holiday homes on the coast: the police closed motorways and set up control points to prevent coronavirus spreading.

Social media videos show patients in overcrowded hospitals, as over 1,600 people have been hospitalised in eastern Turkey after a 6.7 magnitude earthquake. At least 36 people have died. Most of the injured were in Elazig province, the epicentre of the earthquake. 3,699 search and rescue personnel have been deployed. Fifteen aftershocks have been felt in the wake, with the strongest registering at 5.4. ‘All relevant departments are taking measures to ensure the safety of citizens following the earthquake’, said President Erdoğan.

On 7 December Puerto Rico was hit by the worst earthquake to hit the island in 102 years. By 9 December two-thirds of the island was still without power. The earthquake knocked out the main generating facility and damaged other infrastructure. Six months after Hurricane Maria in 2017, many Puerto Ricans still had no electricity: even now, a quarter of the island has no running water. The 6.4 magnitude quake and 6.0 aftershock destroyed 300 homes. A 73-year-old man is the only confirmed death to date. Thousands are still sleeping outside or in their cars, fearful of being indoors during another quake. Governor Wanda Vazquez declared a state of emergency, activating the island's National Guard to help with recovery efforts. Pray for the hospitals, the vulnerable, the elderly, families and businesses among the three million people without power. Pray for the islanders, still recovering from Hurricane Maria (which killed nearly 3,000), and now coping with destruction and further disruption of their lives.

Illegal construction is rife in Albania: many buildings lack permits and don’t adhere to safety codes. The earthquake on 26 November killed 51 people, injured 900, and left 5,000 homeless. Nine people were suspected for homicide and abuse of power. Seventeen builders, engineers and officials are suspected of breaching building regulations, causing the collapse of buildings during the 6.4-magnitude quake. Eight of the suspects are still being sought by police. Preliminary investigations have established that irregularities had been the cause of buildings collapsing. Albania lies near a tectonic fault line; pray that the vulnerability of the land will be a major consideration when further construction work commences. Pray for a strict review of building regulations, and for the homeless to be rehoused in appropriate accommodation speedily and to be fairly compensated.

Air traffic controller Anthonius Agung died after waving out the last flight from Palu airport on 28 September (see). He was one of the first casualties of a disaster that has taken at least 1,407 lives, injured many thousands more, and left most of the 350,000 residents homeless when a 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck the island of Sulawesi. It triggered a ten- metre, 400mph tsunami that dragged cars, trees, houses, boulders, logs and mud inland. Three days later, Mount Soputan erupted, spewing ash clouds that make air flights hazardous. Clinics have no power and low medical supplies. Many communities have received no aid at all; other areas are experiencing looting. The tension is palpable with fights breaking out for food. Unless the government and agencies can deliver aid, there is a risk that tensions could spill over. Bridges must be repaired and roads restored before essential aid can reach points of need. Boats from other islands are delivering food, water and medicine.

Four leading Christian humanitarian organisations are joining forces in a fundraising campaign to try and help survivors of the Indonesia earthquake and tsunami, as authorities fear the number of fatalities, casualties and people displaced will rise in the coming days. See Tearfund is also working with Indonesian churches still looking for whole families and congregations and burying their dead. Rev Krise Gosal said, ‘Survivors are hungry, babies are crying for milk. We asked church networks to share the burden by donating food, tents and funds and they are uniting with one heart to express their solidarity with Palu, Donggala, and Sigi.’ Christian agencies have deployed emergency doctors, nurses, an orthopaedic surgeon, and a team with a midwife to affected areas. A possible 1.5 million people could have been affected. The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) has also opened an Indonesia appeal.

On 22 August Venezuela’s northern coast was rocked by a 7.3 magnitude earthquake felt across the Caribbean and hundreds of kilometres away in Caracas where political leaders were celebrating their new economic plan to rescue the crumbling economy from rampant hyperinflation. They drastically removed five zeros from the bolivar and pegged it to a cryptocurrency (digital currency operating independently of a central bank) while raising the minimum wage by 3,000%. Economists fear this will worsen the financial crisis that has driven over 500,000 Venezuelans overseas this year, and warn that inflation rates could go even higher. The financial crunch and earthquake are symbolised by social media photographs showing ‘the Tower of David’, a notorious and symbolic abandoned skyscraper, now a horizontal slum, that was severely damaged by the quake. The proven oil reserves in Venezuela, recognised as the largest in the world (297 billion barrels), have been corruptly mismanaged. See also

As we write, reports are still coming in of a large earthquake (7.3 on the Richter scale) which struck during the night on the border between Iraqi Kurdistan and Iran. The quake, centered just southwest of the Kurdish town of Halabja, was felt throughout the Middle East, including Israel. News reports are predicting a large number of casualties, especially across the border in the heavily populated Iranian province of Kermanshah. This comes in the wake of other shakings which have been afflicting the Kurds in the region during the past few months.

The Kurds are an ancient people of Indo-European race, thought to be descended from the Biblical Medes. For thousands of years they have occupied an area centered in a crescent of land arching from eastern Turkey, around northern Syria, northeastern Iraq and northwestern Iran. An oft-persecuted race, they are the largest people group not to have held, for over 2000 years, personal sovereignty over the lands in which they have lived.

And they are the one large people-group in this part of the world who have a long history of friendliness towards the Jews. This dates back to the conquest of the Northern Kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians in 722 BC, when Hebrew captives were dispersed as far away as “the cities of the Medes” (II Kings 17:6). Others were added following the Captivity of the Southern Kingdom by Babylon a century later. In the early 1950’s, most of the Jews in Iraq immigrated to the newly established nation of Israel; but warm relations have continued between these two peoples. During the 1980’s, the Iraqi government under Sadaam Hussein sought to exterminate the Kurds. In fact, on March 16, 1988, Hussein ordered a poison gas attack, releasing mustard gas and sarin on the Kurds living in Halabja (the epicenter of last night’s earthquake), killing more than 5,000 of them. At the end of the First Gulf War, the United States established a safe-zone in northeastern Iraq, to protect the Kurds from reprisals by the Iraqis. Since that time, with the death of Hussein following the Second Gulf War the region has flourished. Erbil the capital of this now “autonimous zone”, has become a modern city. The dream of the Kurds there to eventually become an independent nation has been seen as well on the way to reality.

They hold an ancient reputation for being a warlike people. In 2014, as ISIS began spreading its “Caliphate” through northwestern Iraq and headed behind retreating Iraqi soldiers towards Baghdad, it was the Kurds who stood firm along a 1000 kilometre front. And two years later it was their Peshmerga soldiers who were the vanguard for the US and Iraqi forces in taking back key areas, such as Mosul which had fallen to the Caliphate. Late last September, things took a different turn. The Kurdish leadership decided the time had come to hold a non-binding referendum to see if the Kurdish people of northern Iraq were ready for independence. Suddenly, the Kurds’ friends—including those with whom they had been battling a common enemy—began to distance themselves.

Dark threats came from Turkey and the Iraqi government about holding the referendum. The United States and other western nations strongly urged them to put it off. In fact, only Israel encouraged them to go forward with it. The referendum was overwhelmingly passed by the joyous Kurds. Unlike what happened in Israel in 1948, this was not a declaration of independence, just a vote towards a direction. Yet, just as happened with Israel in that year, enemies began to mobilize.

Turkey’s Erdogan began moving troops towards the northern border; issuing a sneering taunt, “See, no other nation is recognizing your referendum, only Israel. Will Israel save you?” The Iraqi government closed the Erbil airport, and mobilized troops—Shia militias led by Iranian Revolutionary Guards and backed up by Iraq’s 9th Armored Division.

In a short time, the Kurds had been driven out of the areas they had taken and held during the war with ISIS, including the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. At present this little nation (which could not become a nation) is in disarray—her dreams of independence once again dashed, feeling abandoned by her friends for and with whom she fought. For the moment there is a shaky truce…but for how long? And who will stand with her, if the circling armies began to again advance?

Presently Iraq and Iran, Syria and Turkey (abetted by Russia) appear to be resuming their old dream of a ‘crescent’ of Islamic power north of Israel. Saudi Arabia is aware of this, and is seeking to strengthen its alliance with the US, and perhaps even (in a hidden way) with Israel as it sees its ancient enemy Iran spreading westward. Wars and rumours of wars are roiling over the Middle East—and in the center are the Kurds.

Salvation and blessing are coming to Kurdistan. And an “independence” much deeper even than that which they have so desperately sought. Two years ago, the Lord released and repeatedly confirmed a prophetic word over this people—Springtime for the Kurds! There is a redemption at work in Kurdistan! God has promised that all nations (Genesis 22:18) will find blessing in the seed of Abraham; and that there will be a special blessing for all who show blessing to that seed! And Kurdistan, a land not under a curse for despising Israel, lies right in the middle of the region covered by the ancient kingdom of Assyria—a people and area which God promised would one day be called “the work of My hands”—bound together with Israel “My inheritance”—and Egypt “My people.” (Isaiah 19:24-25).

In recent years, seeds for the awakening of that holy blessing have been sown into Iraqi Kurdistan, and they are beginning to sprout.   Shortly after the end of the First Gulf War, the Lord sent believers into land—aiding the decimated Kurds, digging wells which had been destroyed, helping with education, and in the process sharing the life-giving truth of the Good News of Issa—Yeshua—Jesus.

Perhaps it is because of the ancient teaching about a coming Messiah by the Jews who had lived among them for so long—but the veneer of Islam forcibly imposed upon the Kurds 1300 years ago seems much thinner today than that in other Islamic countries. They have begun coming to faith in the Saviour and being filled with the Spirit much more rapidly than has been the case in other Islamic societies.

Today there are Kurdish evangelists working among their own people; there are Kurdish songs of praise and worship being sung. It is a small light—but it has kept shining and is growing brighter. And as it comes into flame, it will shine out into the darkness of the surrounding nations.

We believe that the Kurds will have a crucial and holy role in the salvation of the Islamic nations surrounding them! Meanwhile, believers from the nations continue coming into the land to serve and to pray. Today there are is a strong House of Worship in Erbil, with visitors from abroad (including Jerusalem) visiting it often.

Borders

The present international turbulence is related to the borders of Kurdistan—its western and southern borders with Iraq, its northern borders with Syria and Turkey. The shakings last night were along the north-eastern border with Iran. It is the God of Heaven who “sets up the boundaries for peoples” (Deuteronomy 32:8-9). It is He who “makes peace in the borders of Jerusalem” (Psalm 147:14)—and in the borders of those who love her. We are reminded of several years ago, when, at the height of the advance of ISIS across Syria and north-western Iraq, our friend Rick Ridings received a vision regarding God’s “Re-drawing” of the maps of the region. Within that vision was the following regarding the Kurds—part of which has been fulfilled, and part of which we see continuing to be:

In the vision I received, I saw these “border angels” going forth in a focused way to the Kurdish autonomous area of present-day Iraq. They started pulling on and protecting borders. I saw an altar of prayer and worship to the Lord in the heart of this Kurdish region, where more and more stones were being added to it, causing the altar to be raised up higher and higher.

Next, I saw bulldozers and cranes carving a deep pool in this Kurdish region. I felt this was a reservoir being created to hold waters of the Holy Spirit…As things went from worse to worse in the ISIS-controlled areas of present-day Iraq and Syria, I saw in the vision that the Kurdish region was protected and that the rains of the Holy Spirit began to fall upon their area and started filling their “pool” with the water of Life.

PLEASE PRAY:

• That God’s blessing of life, prosperity and hope would be renewed upon the Kurds in Northern Iraq; that He sustain them during a time of disappointment and loss; that the Father’s Kingdom Come! there.
• That God protect their borders, and at the right time establish them as a nation. Pray that He raise the Kurdish people up to the redemptive purposes He has reserved for them to walk in in the last days!
• That God raise up leadership there which will be led in His purposes and bring the people into unity. There are ancient party-divisions, which satan uses to awaken division whenever they find themselves no longer facing a common enemy.
• That Israel remain a strong friend of her only ally in that part of the world—among whom she herself was a sojourner for so many centuries. That this friendship will be strengthened in faithfulness, protection and provision. That our leaders will know how to act righteously and decisively in regard to Kurdistan during the coming days.
• That God remember the many other oppressed peoples whom the Kurds protect and succour within their midst such as the Yazidis, the Assyrian Christians.
• That President Trump become aware of the crucial importance of his nation maintaining faith—and protection with the Kurds in northern Iraq. That other nations who stand with Israel will also stand with the Kurds.
• That the seeds of Truth planted for centuries, and during the past few decades, come to fruition—that Believers from Israel and Egypt will be used of God to form a spiritual bond between their countries and Kurdistan in Assyria. Pray blessing, refreshing, insight and power over the House of Prayer in Irbil, Kurdistan.
• That the Kurdish people throughout the world would be drawn to the light of Salvation, and come as a people into their heritage.

Martin and Norma Sarvis