Preparing for the worst, praying for the best

Hurricane Issac is coming. We are in the cone of probability for a strike this coming Friday. Although for now, it looks like the northern edge of Issac will scrape the underbelly of our island. If it misses us, it might seem that all the time, materials, and expense of being totally prepared was wasted. Well, not really. It serves as a good drill for weathering future storms. Preparing for Irma last year left in a better position to survive Maria that devastated the island a year ago.

Please remember us in prayer here in the Caribbean, especially during the hurricane season.

A Recovery and a Wedding

We are in hurricane season again and people are nervous about it down here, after having lost so much and endured so much from hurricanes Irma and Maria last year.

Recently, a storm passed us to the south and panic gripped our area causing many store shelves to be quickly emptied of key supplies.

It feels like paranoia, but it is understandable. People suffered much more during and after the hurricanes than early reports indicated. Those experiences have not been forgotten. It was a false alarm, but alarms like these take their toll.

We suffered the loss of the church building we were renting near the city center.  Church members lost roofs and were forced to move away to live with relatives in other towns. Our numbers decreased, but we kept our congregation together.  Our people wanted to continue as a church and continue an outreach and church planting ministry to our devastated town of Comerio.

We began meeting again, first in a home for a while, and then in a small concrete building that was a video rental store that was operated by a church member who died of cancer last year.

The good in all of this is that our remaining members are encouraged to have survived and been extremely supportive of continuing the work of missions in our town and elsewhere. We have remodeled the building, and are putting up a sign on it this week. We have ordered and received hundreds of gospel tracts and are planning a tract distribution day soon.

It is like beginning again, but with a good dedicated core group as a team that has a lot of good will and experience. Our church has saved twenty thousand dollars toward getting a building of our own, so we have that to draw on in emergencies. Friends and supporters sent us financial gifts to help. It was a blessing to be in a position to distribute food, tarps to cover damaged homes, and to help repair storm and tree damage to our Bible college. The resilience of our people and the positive progress we are seeing is very encouraging.

Sarah & Mario Fragela

This August, the last of our unmarried daughters, Sarah, got married. She married a Puerto Rican young man, Mario Fragela, that had been a student of mine.

We had the wedding here and had quite a few people in our home. I preformed the ceremony and was able to give a simple and clear gospel message along with the vows. From all accounts, it went well.

Kristin & Danny Becerra

Two years ago, Kristin married the son of a Puerto Rican pastor I work with. Before, we were outsiders working as missionaries here. Now, we are united by marriage to two different extended Puerto Rican families. I notice I get a lot more smiles and positive nods from people as we go about our work here.

We are happy survived the storm. We are enjoying the smiles and help of new people. We are thankful for a core of faithful and dedicated church members who have sacrificed to continue the work of church planting in the rural mountain areas of Puerto Rico. We are thankful also for your help and encouragement.

It has made a big difference. Please continue your prayer and support for our  missionary work here in Puerto Rico.