MARCH 2019Pastor Marlene Ciranowicz
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The Value of Hope
As most of you know by now the team to Puerto Rico has returned having experienced much while there. I would like to share just one impression to illustrate that our hope can indeed be found in the Lord. While the trip was amazing and, yes, to be in the tropics while it is winter here certainly had its advantages! But that was not what this trip was all about. I don’t think any of us realized as we prepared to go that we were bringing something we didn’t know we had and that was the gift of hope.
Abigail, the Puerto Rico volunteer coordinator that I worked with to organize the trip, told us in very graphic terms just how bad it was during and after the hurricane. As a Social Worker she barely made it to her home when the storm hit only to find her husband sitting on the bathroom floor sobbing in fear as the winds howled. Her father, who only lived 5 houses down from her, might as well have lived half way around the world because it was impossible with category 5 winds to walk the short distance. She was left wondering how he was doing because he had been in total denial before the storm that such a thing could happen. (He suffered a nervous breakdown after enduring the frightening storm that just didn’t seem to want to let up and then to see the awful results when he was finally able to come out from hiding. It was just too much for him.) During the storm, as she learned later, children witnessed people they knew and loved being swept away to their death and continue to have nightmares to this day. They witnessed dogs chained to keep them from being swept away only to see them die violently. Those are memories none of us would like to have!
When the storm was finally over, there was no communication, none, for two weeks. Roads were impassable and people felt trapped without electricity, without food, without any kind of help. Surely help was coming. But, for many, especially the poor, it did not come. Three months later, Abigail confessed as she looked at all the homes without roofs, windows, and doors and so much destruction all around her, she too began to lose hope. The electricity was still not on (many were 8 to 12 months without electricity; our team helped a man named Victor who was 69 who still to this day does not have electricity and only got a roof on his house last month. While we were there, he finally got a front door!)
There seemed to be no hope. And yet God did not abandon the people in Puerto Rico. What ended up happening was short of incredible. The churches woke up! Like us, they had enjoyed their church life within their four walls. After the hurricane they realized they had to get out into the community and they did! It was the churches that organized trash cleanup, found places for people to stay, and did food drives. Today, 18 months after the hurricane, the churches are stronger than ever and have changed the way they look at ministry. In fact, they have done such a good job, the government now looks to them for major assistance with disaster relief.
One source of hope the churches were able to provide was making it possible for volunteers to come and help. Each time a team came in, guess what they brought with them? Hope! Our own denomination has been a major force in the rebuilding of Puerto Rico. We were both humbled and honored to serve a week with our Latino brothers and sisters in Christ. They were so grateful and rejoiced that God had sent them hope in volunteers like us!
The American Baptist Churches of Puerto Rico have developed a five- year plan. Phase one has now been completed which focused on getting community centers up and running so that volunteers could be housed and large groups of people could be helped in one spot. The South Dakota team that was there the same time we were worked on getting the last community center repaired while we continued to improve the community center where we were staying in addition to helping Victor and participating in a soup kitchen.
Phase two begins this month. There are still 50,000 roofs that either need to be replaced or repaired along with replacing absent windows and doors. While we experienced a leaking roof at the community center, that was nothing compared to the inside of homes that are now almost uninhabitable because everything inside is being destroyed by the weather as a result of roofing issues and lack of doors and windows.
And yet, despite all the suffering they have endured, we witnessed a joy in the spirit of the people that is often lacking here on the mainland as we continue to live our lives in great luxury. They sang with so much heart-felt emotion and praised God with tremendous joy for the help HE has brought them through us.
Thank you to all who gave us supplies and money to go. We didn’t know and you probably didn’t either that with these things and our time, the greatest gift we brought them was hope!
Blessings,
Pastor Marlene
As most of you know by now the team to Puerto Rico has returned having experienced much while there. I would like to share just one impression to illustrate that our hope can indeed be found in the Lord. While the trip was amazing and, yes, to be in the tropics while it is winter here certainly had its advantages! But that was not what this trip was all about. I don’t think any of us realized as we prepared to go that we were bringing something we didn’t know we had and that was the gift of hope.
Abigail, the Puerto Rico volunteer coordinator that I worked with to organize the trip, told us in very graphic terms just how bad it was during and after the hurricane. As a Social Worker she barely made it to her home when the storm hit only to find her husband sitting on the bathroom floor sobbing in fear as the winds howled. Her father, who only lived 5 houses down from her, might as well have lived half way around the world because it was impossible with category 5 winds to walk the short distance. She was left wondering how he was doing because he had been in total denial before the storm that such a thing could happen. (He suffered a nervous breakdown after enduring the frightening storm that just didn’t seem to want to let up and then to see the awful results when he was finally able to come out from hiding. It was just too much for him.) During the storm, as she learned later, children witnessed people they knew and loved being swept away to their death and continue to have nightmares to this day. They witnessed dogs chained to keep them from being swept away only to see them die violently. Those are memories none of us would like to have!
When the storm was finally over, there was no communication, none, for two weeks. Roads were impassable and people felt trapped without electricity, without food, without any kind of help. Surely help was coming. But, for many, especially the poor, it did not come. Three months later, Abigail confessed as she looked at all the homes without roofs, windows, and doors and so much destruction all around her, she too began to lose hope. The electricity was still not on (many were 8 to 12 months without electricity; our team helped a man named Victor who was 69 who still to this day does not have electricity and only got a roof on his house last month. While we were there, he finally got a front door!)
There seemed to be no hope. And yet God did not abandon the people in Puerto Rico. What ended up happening was short of incredible. The churches woke up! Like us, they had enjoyed their church life within their four walls. After the hurricane they realized they had to get out into the community and they did! It was the churches that organized trash cleanup, found places for people to stay, and did food drives. Today, 18 months after the hurricane, the churches are stronger than ever and have changed the way they look at ministry. In fact, they have done such a good job, the government now looks to them for major assistance with disaster relief.
One source of hope the churches were able to provide was making it possible for volunteers to come and help. Each time a team came in, guess what they brought with them? Hope! Our own denomination has been a major force in the rebuilding of Puerto Rico. We were both humbled and honored to serve a week with our Latino brothers and sisters in Christ. They were so grateful and rejoiced that God had sent them hope in volunteers like us!
The American Baptist Churches of Puerto Rico have developed a five- year plan. Phase one has now been completed which focused on getting community centers up and running so that volunteers could be housed and large groups of people could be helped in one spot. The South Dakota team that was there the same time we were worked on getting the last community center repaired while we continued to improve the community center where we were staying in addition to helping Victor and participating in a soup kitchen.
Phase two begins this month. There are still 50,000 roofs that either need to be replaced or repaired along with replacing absent windows and doors. While we experienced a leaking roof at the community center, that was nothing compared to the inside of homes that are now almost uninhabitable because everything inside is being destroyed by the weather as a result of roofing issues and lack of doors and windows.
And yet, despite all the suffering they have endured, we witnessed a joy in the spirit of the people that is often lacking here on the mainland as we continue to live our lives in great luxury. They sang with so much heart-felt emotion and praised God with tremendous joy for the help HE has brought them through us.
Thank you to all who gave us supplies and money to go. We didn’t know and you probably didn’t either that with these things and our time, the greatest gift we brought them was hope!
Blessings,
Pastor Marlene