Campus Crusade for Christ provided miners with the t-shirts they were wearing as they came out. On the back of the shirt in Spanish is Psalm 95:4 "He holds in his hands the depths of the earth and the mightiest mountains." |
mp3 audio tapes sent down to the miners with the Jesus Film and portions of the Bible on it. |
Here is the full story.....
This all started on the August 5, when the San Jose mine collapsed because of the exploration in the mine. The news was not good as it was only 6 months after we had experience the very large earthquake and tsunami. With a population less than other countries in the world, problems like this seem much closer to you and much more like it is part of your own family.
After 2 weeks without news from the miners we could only think the worst. The government had made every effort, but it was reasonable to think that the miners were lost, above all considering the distance where they were located, some 700 meters (2,000 feet) deep with a difficult future to be rescued. But God had other plans and 2 days later (the 17th day), contact with them was made. Obviously we were all very happy and we celebrated the miracle that all were alive.
As Campus Crusade, God guided us to think about how we could help these men and this was how we took the initiative to contact some churches in the north, leaders and authorities about sending the JESUS audio into the mine. It wasn't easy in the beginning because of some apathy in the Christian leadership and a lack of a sense of urgency, together with the restrictive control of the rescue team but, God in His sovereignty provided that we were able to gain contact with the daughter and the brother of 1 of the 3 Christians that were trapped there.
During several weeks, I was in contact with them and I explored the possibility of sending them audio material. Finally, I traveled to the mine with 33 MP3's containing the JESUS audio version and an ample portion of the Bible. I was there for 2 days and we sent the MP3's through each family members that were there.
He sent me a letter that grabbed my attention for his incredible clarity of thought. For example, some parts of the letter are:
- "I want to express my appreciation for this great blessing for me and my co-workers, it will be very good our edification" (He is talking about the MP3's)
- "I am well because Christ lives in me"
- "We have prayer services at 12 a.m. and 6 p.m."
- "I ask all of you for pray not only for us here, but for all the lost people in the world"
- At the end of the letter he signed off with Psalm 95:4, "In his hand are the depths of the earth, and mountain peaks belong to him."
Update from Christian Maureira, Chile National Director and translated by Doug Barron