SAN VICENTE, El Salvador (ABP) -- A Baptist church in El Salvador held memorial services Nov. 12 for seven children and two adults lost in flash floods spawned by Hurricane Ida Nov. 9.

A woman (center) comforts an injured man whose mother died in a flood that ravaged the town of San Vicente El Salvador. Members of First Baptist Church of San Vicente held a memorial service on Nov. 12 for seven children and two adults who perished in the flood. (Photo submitted by Mauricio Vargas)

Subsequent reports, however, said the church building survived, but a mission congregation had been meeting at one of several homes that were destroyed throughout the entire San Vicente region.

According to news reports in El Salvador, the death toll had climbed to at least 200, with an estimated 14,000 people displaced. Reports indicate that part of the Chinchontepec volcano in the San Vicente region collapsed, burying the town of Verapaz in mud.

A nearby river rose to within two blocks of the First Baptist Church, according to Mauricio Vargas, multicultural specialist for Concord Baptist Association in Jefferson City, Mo. He is a native of the Central American country.

A swath of rocks and boulders rests where the home that housed a mission of the First Baptist Church of San Vicente, El Salvador, established once stood. (Mauricio Vargas photo)

Washed-out roads, mud and rock delayed them from getting into the San Vicente region and town until Nov. 12. Vargas translated for Tolliver, who spoke at the memorial service held on the home's foundation.

Church families have opened their homes to other families whose houses were destroyed. First Baptist has been providing food, water, mattresses and other supplies, Vargas said.

Concord association and Concord Baptist Church in Jefferson City assisted in establishing the mission. The association has worked with Salvadorean Baptists since 2003. The state convention is in the second year of a partnership that was recently extended through 2011.

Several churches and associations that have ministered in the Central American country have sent funds for needed supplies. The MBC has not yet determined its response to the devastation in El Salvador. MBC partnership specialist Rick Hedger was to return from a mission trip to Senegal, West Africa, on Monday.

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