Update from our friends in Peru...

This was an email I received from our friends in Peru. thank you for all your prayers.
Michael

Dear friends and family...
We are fine!
As you may know, Lucas, Noah & I travelled to Lima on Wednesday night to spend the rest of the week and weekend car shopping. We left Pucallpa on a flight at 6:50 p.m. and arrived in Lima around 8 p.m. - an hour after the major earthquake hit. (which, by the way, also actually was felt in Pucallpa over 500-600 miles away - just not too strong). As we were waiting for our bags to come through, I started talking to this woman who had a son that Noah was chasing around. She mentioned something in passing about the earthquake, and I had no idea it had just happened - we had been in the air! Evidently our flight was one of the last allowed to land for awhile though because of the fear of "replicas" (aftershocks). All passengers were quickly ushered out of the airport as soon as bags had arrived and there was not a SOUL in the rest of the airport. As we came out of baggage claim, we noticed several ceiling tiles had fallen from various spots and there were already men there on a scissor lift taking down the remaining ones that were dangling. We walked outside to a mass of people either waiting for friends/family to arrive or waiting to be able to enter the airport to start their trip. It was chaos. And cell phone service was non-existent for several hours. We were being picked up by friends of ours - they got there late because of horrible traffic. We had planned on having dinner, but almost every place of business was closed so that people would not be caught in their building in case of another big one. Another effect seen in Lima was no electricity in some sectors, one of which happened to be where our friends live. So we were without electricity for about 24 hours. Interestingly enough though, we didn't see a whole lot of other effects in Lima - just the coastal highway was shut down for 2 days until rocks and dirt from the cliffs could be cleared.
Thank you for your prayers - we were not around Internet to be able to check/send messages while in Lima. Just got back home today, Sunday, to Pucallpa. But please continue to pray for the thousands of survivors who have been displaced from their homes and towns - and for family members who have lost loved ones and are still looking for loved ones. Last I heard there were over 500 dead.
Safely home,
the Bishops