Friends of Inca Link,

This has been a sad week and a half. The earthquake in Ecuador has affected our lives throughout the continent. This weeks Terrific Tuesdays is dedicated to all of those who have served tirelessly at rescuing, feeding and caring for those devastated in the quake. Thank to each of you who have served, given and prayed.

Here are some updates:

1. Earthquake stats as of today – It was a 7.8 on the Richter scale, 654 dead so far, 113 rescued, 58 missing still and 16,600 injured with 25,600 homeless. In the Portoviejo church we partner with we have 45 people sleeping on mattresses. Inca Link is providing food for them, with plans on helping rebuild our garbage dump day care center and after school programs. We have 75 at risk kids who have been affected from our ministries. Our missionaries and staff have done a good job of serving during this time.
2. We have raised $11,700 so far to help feed those who have been devastated – and we have raised another $10,000 to train 1,000 youth leaders (500 fully funded by this fund – as they were directly affected by the earthquake) – to our Youth Specialties summit. The goal is to train them in crisis management and “what do we do next”. We will then send them back to their communities to make a difference.
3. Our goal is to reach between 100,000 this year to help rebuild churches, day care centers, homes and the community. Our plan is to stick around years after everyone has forgotten about the earthquake.

I was interviewed on WRAL in Raleigh, NC last Friday about Inca Link’s response to the earthquake – you can see the video aquí.

Prayer requests:

1. Pray for our missionary and staff members – They are organizing everything and making sure we have enough food for all and making sure there are checks and balances with the money raised and spent.
2. Pray for the churches who are serving the communities. This has been a golden opportunity to serve all of the communities around our churches. People broke in to one of our churches in Portoviejo wanting to steal food and our team calmed them down and said – take all you can take with you in your hands – don´t steal, we will provide enough for all of you. They came back orderly two days later. See video on my FB page https://www.facebook.com/rich.brown.73
3. Pray for the Youth Specialties conference on May 13 & 14. My wife and I will go down for a week to lead that event. Pray that it will be a great training tool for all involved and that it truly impacts the nation.
4. Pray for funds to feed (give relief), restore (rehabilitate) and train (develop) those in need. We are all about helping without causing more damage than good. 
   

If you or anyone you know, or your church, college or school would like to come down this summer as an interino o equipo to help with the Earthquake – please don´t hesitate to contact us so we can facilitate that. You can also donate aquí.

Intensely Focused,
Rich and Elisa

P.S. We added some extra pictures as well. Let´s be praying.