Join us in prayer for every person whose life has been impacted in some way after two earthquakes with magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5, hit Venezuela at around 6pm local time on 24 June.

The number of people killed has already risen beyond 2,500, but tens of thousands more are still missing and the UN has warned that the death toll could reach 10,000.

Pray for search and rescue teams

Around 30,000 Venezuelan emergency workers and 2,700 members of international teams from 24 countries (including the UK) are believed to be involved in the search. More than 6,000 people have been rescued.

  • Pray that anyone who may still be alive and trapped will be found in time.
  • Pray for courage, strength and safety for all those working in the rubble, including the 86 search-dog teams, risking their own lives to find people trapped in collapsed buildings.
  • Ask God for protection for their hearts and minds as they face incredibly traumatic scenes and also witness the grief of families and friends of loved ones they cannot save.
  • Pray for medical personnel working to save lives and treat people with life-threatening injuries. Ask for calm heads, clear thoughts in spite of long hours of traumatic work, and the courage and strength to continue on.

Pray for those grieving the loss of loved ones

  • Pray for supernatural comfort and peace as people come to terms with the sudden and traumatic loss of their loved ones.
  • Pray for children who have lost parents. Ask God to be with them, holding them as they face confusion, fear and emotional pain. Pray that people will step in to care for them and show them love and kindness.
  • Lift up all those who are awaiting the news of missing people. Pray for comfort, strength and peace as they live through unbearable hours of not knowing, but fearing and hoping.

Pray for everyone dealing with extreme emotional distress

  • Pray for each person who endured the earthquakes and experienced or witnessed the devastation of buildings collapsing. Ask God to give them divine courage and peace, in spite of the circumstances.
  • Pray for an end to the aftershocks that continue to cause renewed distress and send people rushing back out into the streets, terrified that more buildings may collapse.
  • Pray for those afraid to return to their homes, even in some case to homes which have been assessed as structurally sound, because of the extreme fear this sudden horrific event has caused.

A man passes water to a rescue worker inside a collapsed building. Pray for those risking their lives to rescue people trapped under the rubble of buildings destroyed by the earthquakes in Venezuela. Credit: Alejandra Maria/ZOA

Pray for those who have been injured

  • Lift up all those who have been injured. Pray for healing and for provision of every medical supply needed.
  • The healthcare services are overwhelmed. Pray for all those, including our local partners, who are working to find solutions to fill the gaps.

Pray for provision of emergency aid and supplies

Before the earthquakes hit, Venezuela was already experiencing a complex humanitarian crisis which caused around eight million people to leave the country over the past few years – including a significant proportion of its medical, humanitarian and other skilled professionals. This inevitably affects the country’s capacity to respond. Socio-economic challenges have also left infrastructure fragile and the earthquakes have caused further major disruptions to electricity, water and gas supplies, and communications remain difficult.

Just under 8 million people in the country were already in need of humanitarian assistance before the earthquakes.

  • Pray for communications to be restored and for people to be able to contact those in places that have been cut off.
  • Pray for medical supplies and for doctors and trained responders to provide crucial, skilled support.
  • Pray for enough shelter, food, water and other essential supplies, such as blankets and cooking utensils for those who have lost everything.

Pray for local churches

The local churches and church organisations we work alongside are already putting response plans into action.

  • Pray for courage, resources and hope for local churches as they respond in practical ways to show Jesus’ love through support for their communities, even as they themselves are living through this trauma.
  • Pray for good communication and efficient, effective ways of working together.
  • Ask God to stretch and increase every effort so that it meets the needs of even more people than imagined.

Pray for those co-ordinating the response

  • Lift up those people at every level who are responsible for co-ordinating the emergency response – for the churches and partners responding on the ground, for national authorities, and also for Tearfund’s Latin American team. Ask God to give them wisdom, calm and for his presence to be tangible with them as they face this daunting crisis.

This is taken from the Tearfund website

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