Some of the tsunami waves reached as far as 500 meters inland.

These photos show some of the huge landslides that occured at the time of the earthquake. They were in part responsible for the tsunami.

Earthquake and tsunami Puerto Aysen

Saturday April 21, 2:00 pm local time we suffered our largest earthquake ever. It registered over 6.2 on the Ricter scale and produced some damage in town, large landslides, a 6 to 15 meter tsunami, and at least 10 deaths.

Rhonda and I are fine as are most of the folks we know. We have power restored but our water is still not potabale.

Everything points to the cause being volcanic as eyewitnesses say they saw large rocks shoot out of the water along with smoke and steam. We also smelled a lot of sulphur after.

I'll try to keep you posted as I can.

Earthquakes

In the last 7 years we have had no tremblors, earthquakes, shaking, nothing. Then, without warning, we began to experience small to moderate earthquakes. Lots of them. In the last month they say we have expierienced over 2000! Most are real small and some have caused some damage.

Now they are saying the cause is due to a new volcano trying to emerge near our town. (possibly some 15 miles away) The depth (epocenter) of the quakes is steadily decreasing and is now about 2 miles deep.

Needless to say everyone is quite concerned and some people are now sending their children to live in Coyhaique some 40 miles away. I'll try to keep you posted and we solicit your prayers for our protection and wisdom as we face this new challenge.

In Puerto Cisnes 80 people attended the closing service!

In January we received a team of young people from the central part of Chile. They came down for several weeks to minister to the churches and towns in Patagonia.

The team consisted of 7 of us in all. We travelled quite a bit in the region visiting a number if towns. 7 people with luggage in a car built for 5 at most was kind of challenging!

To get to Cochrane we had to travel many hours of sometimes beautiful and sometimes dangerous roads.

The town of Cochrane sits near the end of the Austral highway.

For a full week we had colder temperatures in our area then they had in Antartica. Brrrr!

Well, it's August. And on this end of the planet that means winter! The airport (our principal means out of the region) has been closed a lot, roads are slick, and LOTS of firewood is being burned. In other words, things are kinda normal.

We recently found a fishing camp near here. A number of fishermen live in very rustic and hazardous conditions for many days at a time as they try to earn a living for their families.

Latest photo!

Latest boat photo!

The cabin roof has been installed by our intrepid crew: Dennis Gross, Bahamas (John Cash), Jovanny Vargas, Wesly colson, Cory Armstrong and Alan Adams.

Charlie Smith owner of Smith A/C lent us his high lift.

Latest boat photos!

New boat update from Alan.

Here's the latest shot of our new boat. Note the progress on the superstructure! Keep up the good work guys!

On the 16th I was invited to be the speaker for the citys "Tedeum". A thanksgiving service commemorating Chile's independence. I'm thankful for the opportunity to share the message of true freedom with the town and much of our leadership. Among the hundreds present were our mayor, military base commander, police chief, entire city council, govenor, and congressman.

Update

Hi everyone!
We're back! We took some time off to celebrate our 25th anniversary. Thanks for all the kind words!
We also went to the David Wilkerson meetings in Santiago. It was very good and right on target for the needs here in Chile. Many left encouraged.
While we were gone pastor Hectors' son (Aziel) almost died of pnuemonia. We're still helping out the family as he's just out of the hospital. Please remember them in prayer.
Although it snowed just 3 days ago today is very springlike. Temps are already in the 50's!
Cattle like the weather too. This morning I had to jump out of bed to run some 7 or 8 out of the yard before they finished "pruning" our fruit trees and roses. Oh well.