I was more than 5,000 miles away from St Albans when I heard about the sinkhole.

It was among the main headlines on the BBC’s website as I searched for UK news from Guatemala in Central America. We were there visiting friends from St Albans who are working with local church leaders in one of the continent’s poorest countries.

As I looked, astonished, at the pictures of the 33-foot deep sinkhole, I was relieved – like everyone else - that no one had been injured. I gave thanks for emergency services that respond fast and professionally when called into action.

Because during the previous two weeks, I had repeatedly seen volunteer paramedics and fire-fighters collecting money at busy road junctions in and around Guatemala City. Car drivers on the capital’s dangerous roads drop in small change to support the brave volunteers.

I thought of these men and women as, travelling back from Heathrow, I heard the news that a massive landslide just outside the Guatemalan capital had claimed the lives of hundreds of people under tons of earth, rock and trees. Later, I read reports that the area should have been evacuated long before the earth had started to slide.

When the earth moves, it can have a devastating effect anywhere in the world.

But inequality between nations can make a natural disaster in a poor country so much more deadly.

And challenge us all to give, and to work for a fairer, more just world.