Stories tagged with: puerto rico

• Pastors, Send Relief serve survivors after Puerto Rico quake

  by Brandon Elrod, posted Wednesday, January 08, 2020 (4 years ago)

  

  Photo provided by NAMB

  YAUCO, Puerto Rico -- "People are still very scared," Jonathan Santiago said of residents in Puerto Rico who endured a 6.4 magnitude earthquake early Tuesday morning (Jan. 7). The ensuing aftershocks and tremors have been ongoing, and it is nearly impossible to predict when they will cease.

  Santiago, a North American Mission Board (NAMB) Send Relief missionary in Puerto Rico, has been traveling throughout the island to coordinate a response through local churches. Read More

• Puerto Rico: NAMB breaks ground on Send Relief center

  by Brandon Elrod, posted Tuesday, August 20, 2019 (5 years ago)

  

  NAMB photo

  GUAYNABO, Puerto Rico (BP) -- Send Relief celebrated the start of construction of a new ministry center in Puerto Rico with a ceremonial groundbreaking on Monday, Aug. 19. As the compassion ministry arm of the North American Mission Board (NAMB), Send Relief expects the new facility will be a major boon to outreach efforts on the island.

  "It's not so much about the building, but it is about our testimony here on the island as to why we're here," said Send Relief President David Melber. "We're here because God commands us and gives us the privilege to be here to be able to meet needs, to see lives change, to be able to share the hope of the Gospel and see a movement all across this island." Read More

• N.C. mission volunteer dies in Puerto Rico

  by David Roach, posted Friday, March 01, 2019 (5 years ago)

  

  Submitted photo

  SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (BP) -- Paul Fisher, the leader of a North Carolina Baptist mission team repairing roofs in Puerto Rico, died Feb. 28 in a swimming accident near San Juan. He was 36.

  Fisher and his wife Carrie were heading up a team assembled by North Carolina Baptists on Mission to fix homes damaged by Hurricane Maria in 2017. ... Read More

• WEEK OF PRAYER: Planting Gospel hope in Puerto Rico

  by Brandon Elrod, posted Friday, March 01, 2019 (5 years ago)

  

  NAMB photo by Casey Jones

  COMERIO, Puerto Rico -- When he left Puerto Rico as a young man, Jorge Santiago's family sent him to the U.S. mainland in a last-ditch effort to shake him loose from doing and dealing drugs.

  "I never thought that I was going to come back to Comerío," Santiago recalled of his hometown, "and I didn't want to come back." Read More

• 'After Maria': Puerto Rico remains changed by storm

  by Diana Chandler, posted Thursday, September 20, 2018 (6 years ago)

  

  Send Relief photo

  GUAYNABO, Puerto Rico (BP) -- "Before Maria and after Maria" is the word on the streets of Puerto Rico. "That's how life changed," native Puerto Rican and Southern Baptist minister Jonathan Santiago told Baptist Press a year after the hurricane.

  In Santiago's observation, churches including Southern Baptist congregations lost about 35 percent of their attendance. Congregational financial giving is down because many members still on the island lost their jobs. Several schools remain closed. Homes still need repairs from storm damage. Many people are hopeless, resorting to suicide in greater numbers and affecting an official death toll already near 3,000. Read More

• Puerto Rico hurricane toll 'a miracle' at 2,975

  by Diana Chandler, posted Wednesday, August 29, 2018 (6 years ago)

  

  Screen capture from MSNBC files

  PUERTO RICO (BP) -- It's "a miracle" Hurricane Maria's death toll in Puerto Rico is not even higher than the new official total of 2,975, a massive jump from the long purported 64, a Southern Baptist disaster relief leader told Baptist Press.

  The new count, based on an independent study that the territory commissioned from George Washington University (GWU), makes the hurricane one of the deadliest in U.S. history.

  David Melber, president of North American Mission Board's Send Relief arm, is in the territory today (Aug. 29) and sent BP a comment. Read More

• New planters, resources energize Puerto Rico ministry

  by Brandon Elrod, posted Monday, August 06, 2018 (6 years ago)

  

  Photo by Sam Porter

  SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (BP) -- Two weeks after Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, Félix Cabrera and his wife Denisse arrived to visit the island where he was born and deliver aid in the storm's aftermath. Cabrera thought he was just there to help in a time of need, but God was working on something more.

  "God convinced us that He wanted us to return to the island to help in this new church planting movement," Cabrera said.

  "I confess that the feeling is bittersweet," Cabrera, pastor of Iglesia Bautista ... Read More

• In Puerto Rico, Baptists gear up for hurricane season

  by Brandon Elrod, posted Friday, June 01, 2018 (6 years ago)

  

  Photo by Casey Jones

  PUERTO RICO -- With the beginning of the 2018 hurricane season, Puerto Rico is bracing for what could be more rough weather while in the midst of a recovery from last year's devastating storms. The North American Mission Board (NAMB) and its Send Relief outreach are expanding their mission work on the island, including disaster response readiness and church planting.

  "Since Hurricane Maria hit last fall, Send Relief has been active in Puerto Rico with recovery efforts and seeking to create new church-to-church partnerships between Puerto Rico and the mainland," said David Melber, president of Send Relief. Read More

• Puerto Rico missionary anticipates NAMB initiative

  by Tobin Perry, posted Friday, February 09, 2018 (6 years ago)

  

  Photo courtesy of Andrew Laracuente

  ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP) -- Despite the devastation across Puerto Rico in Hurricane Maria's aftermath, Puerto Rican church planter Andres Laracuente has seen God at work.

  Thanks in part to his participation in the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief network's efforts, Laracuente has gained new opportunities "to get to know my community better, to get to know the surrounding neighborhoods."

  "I've seen many kids that I didn't see before Maria. I'm preaching the Gospel with different people than I was before. My family has also grown more focused on the Gospel and the Word of God," Laracuente said. Read More

• Puerto Rican evacuees aided by Fla. Baptists

  by Keila Diaz/Florida Baptist Witness, posted Tuesday, January 16, 2018 (6 years ago)

  

  Screen capture from the Orlando Sentinel

  ORLANDO, Fla. (BP) -- More than 200,000 hurricane survivors from Puerto Rico have trekked to Florida for refuge, with several Baptist churches in central Florida at the forefront of ministering to their needs.

  "The Florida Baptist Convention is excited to partner with the churches in the central Florida region as they respond to the needs of the Puerto Rican community moving into the area," said Tommy Green, the convention's executive director.

  Another 100,000 Puerto Ricans are projected to arrive in Florida in the coming months as a result of catastrophic damage from Hurricanes Maria and Irma last September across the U.S. territory. Read More