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Chilean Miners say "Gracias Senor"
Thursday 14 October 2010
 Apparently, one billion people around the world have been watching the unfolding drama taking place in Chile over the past couple of days and two months.
They will have witnessed each miner wearing T-shirts with the slogan Gracias Senor - Thank you Lord - on them. A couple of the miners carried Bibles and openly prayed upon their release from captivity. One of the released miners talked about being fought over by the devil and God - and God won. They called the make-shift tent city at the top of the San Jose mine Camp Hope.
 Today's papers carry headlines like Salvation, Reborn, Resurrection. Chilean President Pinera talked of each rescued miner experiencing a 'kind of rebirth'. He told his nation and the world that 'we faced this united', and that faith was a major player. And the President said of the first miner in - the shift foreman - who was the last one out, that he was a 'good captain'.
Long-lost, dirty and weary fathers emerged from the Phoenix 2 rescue capsule and hugged wives, girlfriends, relatives, sons and daughters. It was a touching picture of reunion and fatherhood. "The earth has given birth to 33 sons," it was said.
And then, once the rescue team had returned to the surface, the 2000ft deep shaft was symbolically sealed, forever. It was mision complida, 'mission accomplished' - 'it is finished'.
This whole story has been a fantastic metaphor for the salvation of Jesus, the battle over each human soul, a kind of parable of the Kingdom played out before the eyes of the world. Consider these scriptures:
 O LORD, you brought me up from the grave;
you spared me from going down into the pit.
Psalm 30:3
He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.
Psalm 40:2
We have escaped like a bird out of the fowler's snare;
t he snare has been broken, and we have escaped.
Psalm 124:7
In your love you kept me from the pit of destruction;
you have put all my sins behind your back.
Isaiah 38:17
I called on your name, O LORD, from the depths of the pit.
You heard my plea: "Do not close your ears to my cry for relief."
 You came near when I called you, and you said, "Do not fear."
O Lord, you took up my case; you redeemed my life.
Lamentations 3:55-58
Jesus said to them, "If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out?
Matthew 12:11
Jesus the Liberator said:
 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."
John 3:16-17
2 Chilean miners accept Christ while trapped underground, says the Christian Telegraph website.
José Henríquez leads a small group of men in prayer every evening in northern Chile -- 2,300 feet below the surface of the earth, reports Baptist Press.
 For more than two months, 33 Chilean miners have been trapped beneath the desert floor in a chamber the size of a living room. A partial collapse blocked the mine exit Aug. 5.
Chilean Mining Minister Laurence Golborne confirmed Oct. 11 that a trial run of a rescue capsule was successful. The miners' rescue is scheduled to begin at midnight, Oct. 12.
When the mine collapsed, three of the miners -- including Henríquez -- were Christians. Since then, two more of them have made professions of faith.
"It was José who made the request that an evangelical pastor come to minister to the miners and their families," said Bryan Wolf, an International Mission Board (IMB) missionary serving in Vallenar, Chile.
 Rescue engineer Igor Bravo, a member of First Baptist Church of Santiago, was one of the first to hear of Henríquez's request for a pastor and contacted the Chilean Baptist Union.
Bernardino Morales, director of the Baptist union's Social Testimony Network, searched for a pastor who lived near the mine in Copiapó but no one was available. Two weeks ago he called Marcelo Leiva, pastor of Vallenar Baptist Church in Vallenar, Chile, located about two hours away.
"Pastor," Morales said to Leiva, "it's either you, or it's you."
Leiva's response: "Amen."
 The miners had been on the pastor's heart before Bernardino called. He said Bravo contacting the Chilean Baptist Union was the "channel of blessing" that brought him to Camp Esperanza (Hope), where the miners' families are staying.
When Leiva arrived at the camp, he didn't know anyone. But Henríquez's family quickly connected him with other families.
"That [connection] allowed a lot of other people to hear the Word," Leiva says, "and to know that in the midst of this catastrophe, God is in control, and it is the Lord who has kept their family members alive."
The wife of one of the miners who became a Christian since being trapped in the mine met with Leiva over the past two weeks and also accepted Christ.
 Miners' families have been staying at Camp Hope for weeks in what Leiva describes as rudimentary conditions. They receive three meals a day and sleep on mats inside government-provided military tents. Despite the simple accommodations, being close to their loved ones brings them comfort.
After the frenzy of activity during the day subsides, Leiva finds the families are more available to talk with him in the evenings. He has noticed the difference between the families who know Christ and the families who do not.
"This has been a testimony to what the Lord can do in a person's life," Leiva said. "Those that are the children of the Lord have been those that have shown, even in the midst of the storm, a testimony of peace, tranquility and trust in the Lord."
 At Henríquez's request, Leiva was recently given 10 minutes to speak through a telephone that connects the trapped miners with the rescue crew. Leiva used that time to pray for Henríquez and encourage him.
Henríquez sent a letter to Leiva on behalf of the trapped miners, calling him a blessing and thanking him for being there with their families. Leiva also has been sending down letters of encouragement to the trapped miners.
Besides Leiva, a Pentecostal pastor is the only other evangelical preacher allowed in the camp. The two have been working together when they can and have made a "good team," Leiva said.
Leiva has had the opportunity to witness to family members, Chilean policemen and foreign press -- including a Japanese reporter, Wolfe said. Leiva also wrote down a Scripture portion from Psalms and gave it to Mining Minister Laurence Golborne.
 As the rescue draws near, the families in Camp Hope are anxious. Leiva realizes that this unique opportunity to share the Gospel is a fleeting one.
"Let's do our job and fulfill the purpose for which God brought us here," Leiva said. "Not to just have a protagonist role without sharing the Gospel. Because this camp, in a few more days, is going to close and the people will return home.
"Pray that we, the children of God, will do our job," Leiva said.
http://christiantelegraph.com/issue11063.html
Apparently, the number 33 is symbolic of the Star of David, as well as being the age of Jesus when he was crucified. The Hebrew word for 'Amen' has the numeric value of 33...
Pictures, top to bottom:
- image of trapped miner after they were discovered alive 17 days after the original collapse of walls
- note written on scrap of paper sent up by miners telling rescuers all 33 are ok
- the rescue capsule Phoenix 2 enters the cave where the miners were trapped
- the view looking upwards as the capsule makes its way to the surface
- the capsule emerges at the surface
- one of the miners hugs a relative
- Luiz Urzua, the shift foreman, is the last rescued miner to emerge
- Chile's President Pinera
- another miner is greeted by relatives at the top of the shaft
- the remaining rescuers display the banner saying 'mission completed'
- the capsule takes one of the miners up
- read the shirt - Gracias Senor!
Just in, from Premier Christian Media...
The President of Chile is praising the faith of the miners who have now all been brought to the surface after being trapped underground for 69 days.
Speaking to the nation at the mine's entrance, President Sebastian Pinera said: "The miners are not the same people who got trapped on the 5th August. They have come out stronger, and they taught us a lesson. But Chile is not the same either.
"What ended up as a real blessing from God started as a possible tragedy. But the unity, the faith, the compromise, the honesty, the solidarity of the Chileans in those 69 days makes us very proud," he added.
The operation to free the miners took 22 hours and saw each man being winched up in a narrow capsule.
Many have developed health problems as a result of living in the dirt and darkness of the mine. One has been diagnosed with pneumonia but his condition is not thought to be serious
Premier's been speaking to the President's chaplain, Revd Alfredo Cooper. He says it's clear that faith has been a big part of this whole drama, with many miners "finding God":
"They're all wanting to testify to the Lord Jesus Christ. All 33 of them are saying that they found God in the mine. Five or six were already Christians and held services down in the mine. Many went down with no faith at all but they all say this: 'We were not 33 we were 34 because Jesus Christ was with us down there.'"
Revd Cooper has asked Premier supporters to rejoice and praise God that "out of the depths came this wonderful testimony for Christ" and to pray for a true revival to rise up in Chile and spill out across the world.
The rescued miners are now being treated in two wards at the hospital in nearby Copiapo. The rooms have been darkened to allow the men to adjust to the light.
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Tim Harrold, Christian Telegraph and Premier, 13/10/2010 |
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