United Methodists Help Puerto Rico Rise

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March 16, 2018 | HATILLO, Puerto Rico (UMNS)

Driving through San Juan and into the mountains of northern Puerto Rico, it’s hard to tell what is hurricane damage versus storm-exposed poverty.

Two-story concrete houses and mural-painted businesses stand strong alongside half-tattered rubble and buildings covered with blue tarps. Still others are just a crumpled shell of iron bars and decay. Litter-strewn patches of grass share space with grazing cows, horses and goats; a giant crushed-metal structure fills the next field over.

And everywhere, amid the wreckage and the rebuild, Puerto Rican flags wave proudly. Almost six months after the island was hit by a double-whammy of storms — Hurricane Irma Sept. 6-7, then Hurricane Maria Sept. 20 — the flags represent a symbol of strength, like a Phoenix rising from the ashes. Even as many are still without electricity. Even as stores stay shuttered and jobs remain scarce.

“Puerto Rico Se Levanta,” the bumper stickers read — Puerto Rico Rises Up.

Ten United Methodists from South Carolina spent one week recently as a rebuild and construction team using materials purchased by the Methodist Church of Puerto Rico with the support of the United Methodist Committee on Relief from The Home Depot. The South Carolina team — which comprised a pastor and nine laity including the South Carolina Conference’s disaster response and Early Response Team coordinators — spent time in Arecibo and Hatillo doing construction on four houses and a Methodist camp Feb. 24 to March 3. Three of the four houses became livable again because of their efforts.

“This team represented the best of the South Carolina Annual Conference, not in terms of who we were, but in terms of how we worked and how we loved,” said team leader Nate Gibson, of Mount Horeb United Methodist Church in Lexington, South Carolina. “More than any roof we installed or house we painted, we represented hope and a reminder that God, and His people, are the foundation upon which Puerto Rico will rise again.” 

Theodore Warnock, UMCOR’s missionary of special projects, said he helped unload a truck of materials on a Saturday and, by Monday, the South Carolina team was using them to put a roof on a house.

“It warms your heart knowing what you’re doing is being able to move a family back in. Just — wow,” Warnock said.

Ruben Velez, director of logistics for the Methodist Church of Puerto Rico, said the island is finally transitioning from response to recovery and rebuild. The South Carolina team members were hard workers and are one of the 60 volunteer work teams in the queue that Velez and his team are working to match with appropriate home sites.

“We don’t see ourselves as people that know everything. We need everything, and we welcome everything,” Velez said, from materials to volunteers to money. To date, UMCOR has provided $5 million in grants and supplies, including eight cargo containers of supplies and more grants on the way. Velez said with 10-plus years or more of work ahead of them, every bit of help is essential.

Velez said as Maria came in from the southeast, it touched near a Methodist camp in Patillas, cut diagonally through the island near another Methodist camp, and exited in the northwest, near the Methodist camp in Arecibo. A strong Methodist presence runs throughout the path of the storm, something Velez hopes will guide their recovery.

The Methodist Church of Puerto Rico's recovery strategy follows much the same path, using local churches to help recognize the damage with case managers spiraling out from there, going house by house, place by place. They are starting near the two coastal camps and hope to head into the center of the island in a few weeks.

“I am privileged to be here,” Velez said, hugging one homeowner, then turning to talk shop with a construction team, switching from English to Spanish and back again. “You see that lady’s face? You see the neighbor’s smile? We don’t see this kind of support and love. This is God’s love making itself flesh and blood again. This is Emanuel — God with us.”

The Rev. Sergio Valentin, pastor of Iglesia Metodista El Calvario, the South Carolina team’s host church, has worked tirelessly to helped identify home sites. The congregation is focusing on helping the unchurched community first, putting church and congregation needs last. And as they and so many others have stepped up to help, Valentin says he’s seen God’s hands with Puerto Rico.

“The experience has been an inspiration. Even people who don’t know us have come here to help us, all part of God’s hands to help here on earth,” Valentin said, raising his eyes to the steeple standing high above his circa-1903 church. “Dios bendiga (God’s blessing).”

For the homeowners, the blessing — and the rising up — cannot happen soon enough. One Hatillo mother of two, Yenitza, lost everything she owned between Irma and Maria. Her house was the first place the South Carolina team worked when they arrived.

“Destroida,” she said, gesturing to the roofless second story above her head — destroyed. Only the bathroom and part of one wall are still standing, the rest of her belongings piled in a heap by the roadside. One of her daughter’s shoes pokes out beneath a rusted sheet of metal roofing and a rotted, waterlogged length of plywood. She’s getting government funds to rebuild her house once it’s cleared out; the South Carolina team gutted the structure in preparation.

Another Hatillo homeowner, Ada Villanueva Cadelaria, brought her two children to live next door with her mother since Maria hit. Thanks to the South Carolina team’s efforts, she not only has a new metal roof over her small house but also fresh paint and wood trim, and by the time they left was gathering furniture to move back home.

She can barely express how she feels about the assistance she received. “Es genial,” she says simply, staring at the brightly painted one-story structure, chickens and their chicks darting across the path at her feet as she gropes for the words — it feels great.

Gibson said he and his South Carolina team were honored to play a role in helping the island rebuild — and to help Puerto Rico se levanta. 

Angel de Jesus, 28, said between the shortage of food, water, gasoline, electricity and basic communication, everyone on the island has suffered, even those lucky enough not to experience damage at their own home. But de Jesus said the beautiful part has been watching how the people have come together to help each other — and now getting the opportunity to see people come from far away to help, too.

“It’s going to be a long, long time to rebuild — block by block, step by step, maybe many years, but the help is welcome,” de Jesus said. “We feel relieved you are here. God brings the help.”

Nicole Mendéz, 18, also said she is grateful for the teams beginning to travel to Puerto Rico to assist in the rebuild and recovery effort. Her family had some scary times throughout the past few months, particularly right after the storm. Her 22-year-old sister is diabetic, and without power, they had to rely on a generator to refrigerate her insulin — difficult given the scarcity of gasoline.

But Mendéz said she felt God’s presence throughout, and she still feels it now, watching and helping as others join in to help Puerto Rico rise again.

“People were desperate. You couldn’t find things you needed. My mom would just wake up and listen to the radio and cry, but I felt very calm. Then and now, I felt reassured by God. We are going to survive somehow. Somehow, there is life; there is hope.”

Like the Phoenix rising from the ashes, Mendéz said, “We will move forward.”

HOW TO HELP

Teams are needed now to help in Puerto Rico. At the request of the Methodist Church of Puerto Rico, the United Methodist Committee on Relief and United Methodist Volunteers in Mission are coordinating the registration process for those wishing to help on the island. To register intent to serve, please visithttp://www.umcor.org/UMCOR/puerto-rico-volunteers. To register a team to help on the island, or to learn more about supporting UMCOR and the Methodist Church of Puerto Rico, visit www.umcor.org.

Jessica Brodie is the editor of the South Carolina United Methodist Advocate. Matt Brodie is the production and disaster response coordinator for the South Carolina Conference. This article was distributed by United Methodist News Service.