See Puerto Rico at Night & Learn Something New

People often ask me about the population and economy of Puerto Rico. I answer, but it is hard to visualize the statistics. This map of the North America at night might help. Puerto Rico is the third island to the right, starting from the tip of Florida. Notice how bright it is. Electricity is very expensive in the Caribbean, because it is almost all made by gas engines. Having so many lights on at night shows how dense the population is (4 million in a 35x113 mile rectangle) and how relatively better they are off than their neighbors.  While the average Puerto Rican makes half the income of the poorest US state, it is still higher than the other islands in the region.

On the one hand, it is a bad thing, because it means it cost us more to live here, and we do struggle with that. But on the other hand, the good economy comes from the fact that Puerto Ricans are US citizens and migrate back and forth frequently. That means that the ministry here is more productive, because evangelism done here then reaches directly into communities on the US mainland and makes an impact on the immigrants residing in our country.