March 28 marked Texans on Mission's final day of service work in Montego Bay following Hurricane Melissa, capping five months of recovery work that brought rebuilding efforts and renewed hope to families and children’s homes.
Hurricane Melissa, a Category 5 storm, was the strongest to make landfall in Jamaica’s history, with 185 mile-per-hour winds and 95 total fatalities across the Caribbean. It is also the costliest recovery in Jamaican hurricane history.
Wendell Romans, TXM team leader in Jamaica, said the island was a picture of total destruction when he arrived in November. Flying in, he could see from above that the storm had completely blown roofs off houses and left debris littering the ground.
On the ground, conditions were dire. People were living in tents on beaches, in unsanitary conditions. Resort closures left thousands without work. As soon as the volunteer groups arrived, residents approached them on the street to ask for their help with various projects.
“A lot of them just broke my heart,” Romans said.
Volunteers came to Jamaica with intentions of doing chainsaw work and clearing trees off power lines, and the teams did what they could to help meet these requests, Romans said.
In some cases, it even felt like God was leading them to certain jobs, he said. Volunteers almost didn’t come across Debbie Rowe, a woman whose roof was missing from her home. The cardboard boxes she was using for walls were also lost in the storm, forcing her children to sleep in her car.
Upon hearing her story, TXM volunteers offered to help. She then revealed she had just prayed to God, asking Him for the very assistance they provided.
Rowe praised God for his goodness, saying that “God is truly who He claims to be.”
TXM spent five months — 17,640 hours — rebuilding in Jamaica, making the organization one of the most present following Hurricane Melissa, Romans said.
A total of 212 volunteers were able to help rebuild a total of 55 homes. They were also able to repair 43 roofs and build over 52 tiny homes.
As they closed out their time in Jamaica, teams were able to take on one last project series — repairs on children’s homes.
TXM Donor Relations Officer, Doug Hall, said they almost weren’t able to take on the first one — a girls’ home called Melody House — due to lack of funding. However, with the generous contributions of local Texas pastors and donors, they were able to accrue about $30,000 worth of donations to invest in the rebuild supplies.They even had overflow funds to invest in the two other children’s homes.
“God puts it on people's hearts and connects resources with needs,” Hall said. “This is on people's hearts most of the time when I call. God's already done the work.”
Romans said volunteers were able to repair the roof of Melody House through TXM’s partnership with the National Baptist Convention. They also repaired a security fence, brought in all new kitchen appliances, installed kitchen cabinets and redid two bathrooms and the electrical.
TXM Chief Strategy Officer, Rand Jenkins, who assisted with the project, said their work on the girls’ home, which houses trauma and abuse victims, meant so much more than the physical repairs. It will impact their lives for decades to come, he said.
“Having people that they don't know come in and spend time with them, show interest in the art that they've done, talk about the kind of music they're listening to — it's more than just coming in and delivering something,” Jenkins said. “It's coming in and spending time with them.”
He said they were able to assist the other two facilities — a home for boys with intellectual disabilities and an infants’ home — by rebuilding portions of their security fences, which had been taken down by fallen power lines. Around Christmas time, they even purchased gifts for the boys, bringing smiles to their faces.
Romans said most survivors couldn’t believe TXM was willing to come in and bless them without asking for anything in return. There were even some who tried to turn away help because they couldn’t comprehend the kindness.
It was a joy to be able to help them, he said.
“The impact that we had on their lives is phenomenal because they didn't have the resources to repair their homes,” Romans said. “Most of them that we helped were trying to find corners of their house that they could sleep in that were dry. They don't have insurance. They don't have any money. There’s thousands that we weren't able to touch, but it's just the fact that we're giving them hope again.”
There continue to be opportunities to serve in Jamaica. Jenkins said they will continue to encourage volunteers to go down to the Grange Hill area to work with longtime partners Adventures in Mission and New Testament Church of God.
