Chile
As communities struggle to rebuild lives and livelihoods shattered by the recent earthquake, we hold up before God the people of Chile, praying especially for those we know by name in the producer groups we work with.
We give thanks that the staff of Apicoop have escaped serious injury or loss and that the honey processing plant and offices have survived intact. However, we pray for the beekeepers in some of the outlying areas with whom contact has been lost.
We give thanks that the staff and growers at MiFruta have been uninjured and we ask for comfort and peace for them as they speak of the frightening nature of their experience.
We give thanks that there have been no casualties at Fundacion Solidaridad, in Santiago, although there has been damage to their building. We pray they will succeed in making contact with some of the village groups they work with to establish how badly they may have been affected.
And we pray especially for our friends at Vinos Lautaro, in the Curico Valley. One of the staff has lost eight members of his family when their home collapsed; he was the only survivor. The homes of four staff have been completely destroyed and others have been badly damaged. Although the picture is incomplete it looks as if Lautaro has lost 100,000 litres of wine from previous harvests. This year's harvest has also been badly disrupted by the earthquake.
And we pray for another of our wine suppliers at Covica. Here too it seems the level of destruction has been very high with more than half the town of Lomas de Cauquenes, where Covica is based, destroyed. We are still trying to obtain details about the safety of the staff and their families.
We ask for your prayers for two other countries where we have particular concerns:
In Peru, mudslides are preventing Allpa communicating with groups of producers in some of the remoter regions;
In Zimbabwe, Dezign Inc is struggling for survival in the face of the continuing unrest and lack of orders from domestic and international customers.
And, as the impact of the recession continues to affect both our trading activities and the level of donations to our charity, please pray for Traidcraft staff affected by the inevitable changes and re-organisation that must follow as a consequence.
Prayer:
Loving God, you are our strength and our refuge. When life is hard, when the world seems dark and bad times come upon us, take away our fear and our sense of helplessness as we face the world with all its trouble and despair.
Lord Jesus, our example and our pattern, give us your vision, endurance and courage and renew in us faith and hope so that we triumph over the circumstances and events which threaten to overwhelm us, as we serve the world in your name.
Holy Spirit of God, burn away our indifference and apathy so that we may share the burden and ease the pain of others. Fill us with your restless fire and equip us to change a world that is, into the world you want it to be.
