Answering the Call

When Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in the fall of 2017, the destruction across the island was devastating. Many areas of the island were without power for months, thousands of homes destroyed, and some areas were inaccessible for weeks. In addition to the physical damage incurred, the people endured social and emotional loss in the wake of the storm. Praying Pelican Missions built strong relationships with many churches that answered the needs in their communities following Maria, one of whom was Pastora Laura, the dynamic leader of Primera Iglesia Bautista de Rio Piedras in San Juan.

A year ago, as Pastora Laura saw Hurricane Dorian make landfall in the Bahamas, she and her church knew all too well what that storm would mean. Having just experienced a similarly catastrophic storm just two years prior, she knew the kinds of physical and emotional damage that the residents of Abaco and Grand Bahama would be enduring. As the storm passed over the Bahamas, she quickly reached out to PPM and asked what it would take to send a team.

Who better to minister to Bahamians in the wake of Dorian than their Puerto Rican brothers and sisters who knew better than anyone else what they had been through? In January 2020, only four months after Hurricane Dorian, a team from Pastora Laura’s church landed in Abaco and spent a week partnering with a local church to clean up damaged buildings and minister to those who had stayed on the island. “On Abaco, I saw how God can turn a disastrous situation around to bless everyone. How He can manifest in the hurt to bring joy,” said Christian Rivera, who was on the team from Pastora Laura’s church. Both the Puerto Rican team and the Bahamian host community left the trip feeling hope from the Lord and revitalized in their ministry.

At Praying Pelican Missions, it is a core value and desire of ours to see churches unite in unity across cultural barriers. We are excited that in the coming months and years, we are building PPM Global to mobilize more churches like Pastora Laura’s, who are equipped and called in amazing and specific ways to be the hands and feet of Jesus. To learn more about how you can enable more teams to serve, visit ppm.org/global-access-fund.