Solidarity in disaster

What do you do when people around you are in need?

Recently there have been huge needs in CARIFES following the volcano eruption in St. Vincent. This disaster follows a long history of hurricanes, tropical storms, and earthquakes that leave many in unstable situations. Yet each time, the IFES movements in the Caribbean come together to care for their neighbors. Marcelle Mapp, Board Chair of ISIVCF Trinidad and Tobago, tells more.

“Luke 9:10-17 gives us an account [of meeting other’s needs]. You certainly don’t send people away to fend for themselves. So, when Hurricane Maria devasted Dominica in 2018, the Trinidad and Tobago movement sprang into action and raised funds to send 100 mattresses to the movement there.

Now recently with the explosion of the volcano Soufriere in St Vincent, we sprang into action again. On the morning of our recent launch of the 65th Anniversary celebrations of ISIVCF in Trinidad and Tobago, a few of us attended an emergency meeting called by CARIFES where we heard the board chair of St. Vincent and the Grenadines report on the state of the island, the evacuees, the devastation.

We asked ourselves, how could we join our faith with works?

The next day a former Trinidad and Tobago board member called me for the go ahead to raise funds to send 100 cots to the SVG St. Vincent movement. A flyer was done that same day and sent out on the ISIVTT network. One member responded immediately, and two cots were bought. We sent out a countdown every day for how many more there were to go. The response was overwhelming. In five days, we had met our target, but people kept sending money for cots. We raised enough funds for 126 cots. Like Moses we said, ‘Stop we have enough! (Exodus 36:6-7).’ The SVG movement is very grateful.”

Marcelle says that there are still so many more needs to be met in the region. Recently there have been heavy rains and flooding in the city and countryside of St. Vincent. People who were already evacuees are again displaced because of landslides. One of these evacuees is an ISCCF staff worker with his wife and baby. Please continue to pray for St. Vincent and the region.

Pray for the safety of those affected by recent natural disasters like the volcano and flooding.

Pray that non-Christians will be touched by the efforts made by the movements in CARIFES to help each other. Pray that it will open a door to conversations about the gospel.

Praise God that he has given us a spiritual family that carries each other’s burdens.