Marie’s team with some of the care packages we packed – ready to be distributed.
“Even though Hurricane Maria cost the life of my wife of 43 years, I have no regrets that we chose to stay to help our community.” These were the words of a pastor we worked with in Puerto Rico. He and his wife could have been airlifted from Puerto Rico the day before the storm hit the island. They decided to stay and be the hands and feet of Jesus in their community.
Stories like this and seeing how the church stepped into the mess to serve their communities has been my highlight of our visit. We worked in conjunction with GAiN (Campus Crusade’s humanitarian arm). This was GAiN’s first trip of five humanitarian groups being sent to Puerto Rico. We partnered with Campus Crusade Puerto Rico and churches to come alongside schools and individuals who need help to recover from the devastating Hurricane Maria that hit in late September 2017.
The impact of the hurricane was everywhere, but what was most striking was the people’s resilience. Despite the hardship, people are not defeated. Especially Christians are making a huge impact by their service and help to their communities. One of the churches is a hub for receiving donated food and supplies, and we sorted through the mountains of tinned food and toiletries to create care packages for families. I became an expert in checking expiry dates on the tins!
Packing care packages.
My team’s principle work was at a school of 235 students that lost use of three classrooms due to the metal roof being blown off. We worked for two days to put tarps on the remaining plywood roof and drying out the classrooms and, of course, building rapport with students and staff.
Getting ready to tarp the school roof.
Thank you for your prayers for our safety and for us to make a difference. We were thrilled to receive a compliment from one of the hurricane relief coordinators. He told us that at times when they receive volunteer groups it is like herding cats, but our team was like having pit bulls – they couldn’t keep up with our hard work.
Prayer requests:
- Praise the Lord for the work the church is doing in Puerto Rico and pray that they will not grow weary as the relief phase now moves into the re-building phase.
- We met many people who experienced major trauma during the hurricane. Pray for continued healing and comfort.
- Praise the Lord for the successful meeting held for our Global Church Movement leaders in Manila. There were 229 leaders from 89 countries. Stefan had a wonderful time connecting with the church planters from all around the world.
- Kenneth and Monica will start their end of the year exams soon. Pray for diligent preparations.