We're all fine after the Earthquake in Peru

We wanted to give you an update on the 8.0-magnitude earthquake that hit Peru last night. As of this writing, some 337 have been confirmed dead and some 1,350 injured, mostly from the region south of Lima. The death toll is expected to rise.

We have just arrived back home from Lima where we spent a few days on vacation. We were in Lima last night on the 6th floor of an 8 story hotel when the earthquake struck. We were getting ready to go out to eat at Chili's (our favorite home away from home restaurant in Lima and a little taste of Texas!) and Heather had just entered the bathroom to freshen up. I was checking out the news on the TV when the bed started shaking. My first thought was that a couple of our kids had started started wrestling on the bed. That's when Kevin yelled, "It's an earthquake!"

It was pretty freaky. I gathered the kids to stand under a door frame. We probably should have made a run for it outside but the building was moving so much that I didn't think my five kids could have maneuvered the six flights of stairs (plus Heather had been sick throughout our vacation). Things were falling off shelves, lights were swaying, our legs felt like jelly--as if we were on a boat that was rising and falling, and we had sensations of being dizzy and disoriented. I can only imagine what the building looked like from outside.

The whole thing lasted about five minutes, maybe longer, maybe less. At one point it eased and I thought it was passing, but then a second more powerful wave hit. That's when I started getting scared not knowing how this was going to play out. As soon as it was over, we ran down the stairs. On the way down, we saw plaster that had fallen from the ceiling. Most buildings didn't suffer damage in Lima, but some lost some windows, some small concrete pieces & rubble had fallen, especially where buildings connect to each other.

FoxNews is reporting that this quake struck about 90 miles SE of Lima and 25 miles down. A couple little cities called Ica and Pisco took a severe hit where most of the casualties occurred. We had planned on visiting this Ica to see the famed sea lions that live on the coast there, but we never got around to making the arrangements for that leg of the trip so we ended our trip a day early.

For those who don't know, we live in Trujillo which is about an hour flight north of Lima (or a nine hour bus ride which we took last night), so most of the tragedy is occurring on the opposite side of the country from us.

For more info, check out these news reports: FoxNews Photo Essay, Breitbart, 24 Dash & CNN.

Thanks for the emails & voice messages! Please pray for Peru, & especially for the Church of the Lord Jesus in central and southern Peru.