‘I escaped from Hell’: how God spoke to a survivor of the supermarket fire

PARAGUAY — The Christian apologist C S Lewis once said that God “whispers in our pleasures but shouts in our pain.”

Gloria Beatriz Morel Yegros has suffered great pain, yet what she has brought out of it is a clear message from God.

Gloria, 38, is one of the people who made it onto the list of survivors of the fire of August 1 (see story). After 22 days in intensive care and two months in a recovery ward, she is now back at home. Her life, she says, will never be the same again.

Chemical pneumonia

Her injuries from the fire were horrendous: for two days she was in a coma, her inhalation of poisonous gases gave her chemical pneumonia, and, with third degree burns over 30 per cent of her body, she had to undergo four skin graft operations.

“I escaped from Hell,” she says. A teacher with 18 years’ experience in various Christian colleges in Asunción, barely six weeks before the tragedy she had undertaken a fire training course. Consequently, she knew how to manage in an extreme situation like the one she was caught in on August 1.

Remembering that, in a fire, such oxygen as there is lies close to the floor, she lay down and began to pray. “Lord, if I have to die here,” she said, “I ask you to forgive me. I want to clear everything up and straighten it all out with you.”

Fear not

“When I said that prayer, God comforted my heart with the words of the prophet Isaiah: ‘Fear not for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.’ [Isaiah 43:1-2 NIV]. It couldn’t have been clearer for me.”

From the experience she went through, Gloria has drawn two conclusions: first, God has a plan for her life and, second, it is a privilege to be part of the family of God.

God’s plan

Asked what she thinks God’s plan might be, she answers, “That I have to tell of the wonders of God and of his great love by which he is with us at our most difficult moments; and that I must speak of how beautiful it is to be part of God’s family and that the friendship and support you find there are real. Now I understand that we don’t own anything, either, and that my whole lifestyle could change overnight.

“I am seeing God’s hand in all this. I want to be used by God in whatever way he decides. I want to be an instrument in his hands.” (WR 394/7 - 07.05)

Gloria Morel still has to take care so that her skin can heal completely but continues to be active in church today.

 

Volunteer training made large-scale distribution possible According to information from the churches that united to help the Paraguayan Bible Society distribute Scriptures following the fire, volunteers reached 30,000 people and gave them at least a Scripture Selection. The main aim of the emergency project, called The Word that Lasts Forever (see Latest News #289), was to give a message of consolation and hope to injured and traumatised adults, children, family, friends, emergency workers and volunteers. The resources distributed included 8,000 copies of the Portion called Advice for Those Who Are Suffering, 5,000 copies of the bilingual New Testament Good News for Paraguay, 100,000 Selections and 30,000 New Reader Portions. The large-scale distribution was made possible by the co-operation of a number of groups of volunteers organised to meet the huge demand. They included Mennonites, the Good News Group and a group called Young Evangelicals Together. Moreover, Asunción’s Baptist Medical Center made it possible to train 300 church volunteers who took the materials to homes in the districts affected, to hospitals and to the many fire crews involved. “This strategy proved very positive,” said Pedro Escobar, General Secretary of the Bible Society. “The relatives were very open emotionally and spiritually.” He added that co-operation on the project with churches and Christian organisations such as the Mennonites, the Christian Communities, the Baptists and TransWorld Radio was likely to lead to further joint projects in the future. The costs of the project were met in part by a pledge of US$10,000 from the Finnish Bible Society.