Rebuilding Barbuda

October 23, 2017

Levi Velasco, author

Background. As hurricanes Irma, Maria and Jose were pummeling different areas, Diane, my wife, and I started praying as to how we could be involved in disaster response. The call of God was to the Caribbean, specifically in Antigua where we ministered October 15-21. While there, we met with government officials and received an overview of their response on Barbuda, visited a shelter and talked to survivors, conducted a two-day training seminar on disaster response and consulted with leaders of the Antigua Barbuda Evangelical Association (ABEA). I’ve outlined specific prayer request below so you can pray alongside our brothers and sisters who are in great need. The article below was written on Saturday, October 21, 2017 at 12:00pm.

What a whirlwind of a mission trip! Our last meeting was a couple of hours ago, where we discussed next steps after the disaster response training seminar and workshop with delegates from the Antigua Barbuda Evangelical Alliance, #ABEA. Here’s how you can specifically pray, and feel free to share these concerns:

1) Pray for all those who completed the training, that they will bring what they’ve learned to their individual churches.

2) Pray for the leaders of ABEA, that God will give them wisdom as they plan to be involved in disaster recovery now by providing emotional care to 300 #Barbudans (who are in two separate shelters) and forming teams to help in the clean up efforts in Barbuda.

3) Pray for the 1,600 (not 16,000 as the media had quoted) Barbudans who were evacuated to #Antigua, especially those who live in shelters. Pray that they will remain hopeful and that they will be able to return to Barbuda before Christmas.

4) Pray most especially for the children who are segregated from their parents most of the time in the shelters. Pray for protection of marriage bonds even though males and females have separate quarters in the shelters.

5) Pray that emotional health professionals will give of their time to be available to provide free #counseling to the Barbudans.

6) Pray for the Church in Antigua, that they will be united in being the hands and feet of Jesus in these difficult times. Pray also that believers in Antigua will cast aside cultural barriers and show the love of Jesus to the Barbudans.

7) Pray that the world will not forget that there is still much suffering in the #Caribbean, specifically that funds would be raised to help in the #rebuilding_of_Barbuda.


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