Month: February 2023

Days run into each other and hours seem to not matter. The work is serious and daunting. I returned to Antakya ( modern day Antioch) today to go into the most heavily hit area in the middle of the city. This area is horrific. The devastation and lose of life incredible. There is a soup kitchen set up to help survivors with much needed meals. We were able to bring in supplies for the kitchen. I witnessed what I believed at the time, a survivor being pulled from the rubble. Twelve days, 288 hours after the quake. This was confirmed this morning on the news. It’s crazy that there are still finding life in this graveyard of rubble. We made our way back to the Ilk Umut field hospital and dropped off the rest med pacs. Once again they were very happy to receive them. We headed back to Adana to catch our breath.

Made it smoothly without incident on the med pacs. Got about 3 hours sleep and headed out at 6:00 AM. We hooked up with a German group called the Awakening. We hitched a ride with them to Kahramanmaras where the epicenter of the quake is. This area is very devastated. Tomorrow we head to Hatay to bring the med pacs. This area is a network of villages where much destruction and death is very high. Our partners have a great connection with hospitals and field clinics.

Yesterday was a day full of strategy meetings discussing the shelters and how to improve them. We also came up with a generic field survey to interview the refugees. This will help in the future as the shelter project moves forward. Today we went south to Antakya to where the damage is astronomical. We interviewed several refugee families and discussed the shelters with them. The field survey will help us to now how many shelters the families will need. We also hooked up with the in country non profit ilk umut
at a field hospital and handed off two boxes of meds. Needless to say they were very stoked. Today was a long and hard day.

Kenny is flying into Istanbul today and will be delivering medical packs to field hospitals in Adana this week. Kenny and GMSM has become a go-to source for multiple Christian organizations who need workers in the field in times of great disaster resulting from the Kahramanmaras earthquake. We thank you, our supporters, for all the years of contributions to make this happen.

If you would like to support this week’s mission trip, please prayerfully consider donating today specifically to the relief efforts in Turkey.

We do not know the conditions of cell towers in the area, but Kenny will send reports this week if possible. Otherwise we will post reports here next week.

Please share this with your church, friends, and family so others may contribute. The medical kits have antibiotics and other supplies that are urgently needed in Turkey. Your support for this trip will be helping survivors who are in a terrible situation, dealing with injury, loss, and fear of what’s to come. Please help us TODAY to be the hands and feet of Jesus in a land filled with darkness and pain.