2011 – Chile

The  Republic of Chile stretches between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes Mountain Range in the extreme southwest of South America. It borders to the north with Peru, Bolivia and Argentina to the east, with Antarctica to the south and the Pacific Ocean to the west.

Chile has an area of 756,950 square kilometres. Its most western possession is Easter Island, 3,780 kilometres from the coast. Chile has jurisdiction in Antarctica for a stretch of 1,250 square kilometres, and for this reason it is known as a tri-continental country – South America, Pacific Islands, and Antarctica.

Eighty  percent of the country is mountainous, and there are three distinguishable sections: the Andes Range in the east, with altitudes of more than 6,000 metres; a depression in the middle, from the north to Puerto Montt; and the Coastal Range, with altitudes of 1,500 metres. Thus Chile includes desert areas in the north, mountains with perpetual snow the whole length of the country, prairie grasslands or steppes in the southern region, and polar landscapes in the extreme south.

Culture

In  Chile, there are several artifacts of pre-Columbian culture. In the north (Atacama), there are galitic constructions, fortified villages (pucarás), and cave paintings. From the north to the furthest south, there are petroglyphs (drawings made on stone); figures called geoglyphs which are painted in open places in the desert; and also ceramics, dance, and music according to the climate and the local people. The Diaguita culture left a great legacy in the area; representative ceramics are black spherical pots and jugs decorated with geometric designs in red and white. From the north to the River Bío-Bío in the south, there is evidence of Inca influence: brightly-coloured ponchos (mantas) are still hand-woven by women on the Altiplano from vicuña or llama wool. Others in the south are woven from sheep’s wool coloured with natural dyes made from the roots of plants and trees.

World Day of Prayer 2011 Resources

A number of resources are available as free downloads these include: the Bible studies, recipes, the WDP graphic and WDP poster. To order WDP worship materials such as: WDP worship booklets, Leadership Guides, DVD, CD or display poster, pleae contact us.

If you have any questions about this year’s service, or would like additional materials, please contact the WICC office.

Pray for Chile

The motto of the World Day of Prayer is “Informed Prayer, Prayerful Action”. One way to keep  the people of Chile in your prayers as you prepare for the upcoming World Day of Prayer on March 4th is to use the Google Alerts system. Visit Google Alerts and fill in the simple search terms.

October 13, 2010: Chilean Miners Rescued– After 69 days an heroic rescue mission was performed to unearth 33 trapped miners who were essentially buried alive.  The workers were discovered in late August after nearly two weeks in the San Jose mine.  During that time they were remarkably able to survive by sharing tuna, cookies and milk.  The cylindrical steel cage, dubbed “The Phoenix” was tested just days before rescuing the first of the trapped miners.  Painted with Chile’s national colours: white, blue and red, the narrow cage, measuring just 21 inches in diameter, has the capacity to remove one man at a time from the collapsed mine, a journey that takes about 20 minutes to cover the more than two thousand foot decent.    Another 25-30 minutes is needed to drop the cage down the shaft again, and a little time required to strap each miner into the contraption, a total of one hour was estimated for each man’s rescue.

Equipped with a helmet and gloves, each miner was given water, food, oxygen and a constant line of communication to rescue workers.  Medical experts monitored each man’s heart rate and breathing constantly.

The new group of 33 Chileans buried in the depths of a mine by their own making, have started a hunger strike, refusing liquids and urging bishop Ricardo Ezzati to represent the church in mediating talks with the government.

Here’s the letter the women sent to government authorities:

“We’re a group of 33 women from Lota and the Bio-Bio region, we represent the 12,600 men and mostly women, mothers, heads of household, who during several months following the earthquake, became workers of the Military Work Corps, and took jobs related to dealing with the aftermath of the disaster, like cleaning debris, installing emergency housing, and such.

Today, after the government terminated the employment program, we have filed paperwork with diverse authorities, we have marched to Concepción, Santiago and Valparaíso and we have not been heard.

The termination of our contracts not only affects the economy of our homes, but also the affects the economy of our communes and our region already shaken by the earthquake.

Today, in view of this situation and the desperate circumstances we find ourselves in, we have decided from this moment on to stay inside the mine called “El Chiflón del Diablo” in the commune of Lota, with the objective of sensitizing the government and parliament officials into approving the necessary resources to reinstate these 12,600 jobs.

Not too long ago, every Chilean cheered when the government, the president Sebastián Piñera, made available all resources of the estate to save the lives of the 33 miners in the north of the country. Today we want to ask the government and parliament officials to, with the same drive, use the country’s economic resources to keep these jobs.”

Hopefully president Piñera will make as big a deal out of this letter, as he did out of the now famous and copyright protected “The 33 of us are fine in the shelter” note. The new group of 33 Chileans buried in the depths of a mine by their own making, have started a hunger strike, refusing liquids and urging bishop Ricardo Ezzati to represent the church in mediating talks with the government.

Here’s the letter the women sent to government authorities:

“We’re a group of 33 women from Lota and the Bio-Bio region, we represent the 12,600 men and mostly women, mothers, heads of household, who during several months following the earthquake, became workers of the Military Work Corps, and took jobs related to dealing with the aftermath of the disaster, like cleaning debris, installing emergency housing, and such.

Today, after the government terminated the employment program, we have filed paperwork with diverse authorities, we have marched to Concepción, Santiago and Valparaíso and we have not been heard.

The termination of our contracts not only affects the economy of our homes, but also the affects the economy of our communes and our region already shaken by the earthquake.

Today, in view of this situation and the desperate circumstances we find ourselves in, we have decided from this moment on to stay inside the mine called “El Chiflón del Diablo” in the commune of Lota, with the objective of sensitizing the government and parliament officials into approving the necessary resources to reinstate these 12,600 jobs.

Not too long ago, every Chilean cheered when the government, the president Sebastián Piñera, made available all resources of the estate to save the lives of the 33 miners in the north of the country. Today we want to ask the government and parliament officials to, with the same drive, use the country’s economic resources to keep these jobs.”

Hopefully president Piñera will make as big a deal out of this letter, as he did out of the now famous and copyright protected “The 33 of us are fine in the shelter” note.

November 17, 2010: 33 Chilean Women start hunger strike– A new group of 33 Chileans are burried in a mine in an effort to urge Bishop Ricardo Ezzati to represent the church in mediating talks with the Chilean government concerning working conditions for miners. Read more…

About the 2011 WDP graphic

On request from the WDP Committee of Chile, embroiderer Norma Ulloa from Copiulemu faithfully created a colorful tapestry to depict the theme “How Many Loaves Have You?” The original piece is made of wool woven on sackcloth. It measures 60 x 40 centimeters and took over a month to be completed. In the tapestry we see images from Mark’s Gospel presented in the context of rural Chilean life in a way that honors Christ’s presence in our daily lives everywhere.