text: "An affectionate greeting from Santiago. We are well into the midst of a major disaster, the Lord has saved our family. We already celebrated Divine Liturgy in our Community of St. Nectarios, it was very intimate and beautiful and we felt a strong spiritual communion.
  The Lord's words, human and spiritual closeness has been a great comfort to us and has brought to my feelings of relief and gratitude. I felt very strong love for my dear church.
  First came the earthquake, then every day for 15 to 20 aftershocks, then looting and robbery, now a health emergency. I need to be close to the sick in hospitals, Concepcion looks like a city after a war ... We just got electricity, water and the first steps to open trade and public offices. A great area has been devastated ... need to wait in line several hours to buy anything. Fortunately we haven't heard of any deaths of our faithful.
  The most difficult situation that we face is lack of financial resources for the coming months as our source of work was destroyed.
  Fr. Alexei Aedo"
  According to deacon Roberto Leon from Santiago, the parish of St. Nektarios in Santiago held an emergency session to decide on how best to help Fr. Alexei, who seems to have suffered the most damage in the quake, having lost his posessions and his job.
  "Father Alex's place of work, the "Valle Central Institute" is almost completely destroyed. It is almost sure that he won't have any work for a while, hopefully not very long time, but, in the current situation nothing can be predicted", wrote Fr. Roberto in an email.
  "Because of that, we feel that the optimal way for helping is sending to Father Alex a monthly fee, just an amount for subsistence of a 6 members family (Fr. Alex, Matushka, and four children) considering rent of house, feeding and eventual urgent medical expenses."
  The small parish, however, may not be able to raise a substantial sum for repairs and Fr. Alexei's living expenses.