Special update on the 3 Caribbean French Islands
(Martinique, Guadeloupe, St. Martin)
Dear prayer partners, brothers & sisters and families,
Warm greetings in Christ from Martinique!
We were serving at St Martin since Aug 25, our original plan was to stay till Sept 5. We then were advised of a hurricane warning, and therefore changed our flight to Sept 4. We are extremely grateful for God’s protection and we were able to escape from this historical category 5 hurricane Irma just in time. We thank God that the wind was not too strong yet when we left, otherwise, our return flight with a capacity for 50 passengers would have been quite eventful.
When we left St Martin, the local utility company already announced a temporary termination in water supply in the island. The sea level began to rise. As a hurricane protocol, the local government would implement martial law to prevent robbery and crime. In 1995 when St Martin was struck by a category 4 hurricane, most public infrastructure were damaged, they lacked water and electricity for over a month. Trusting if we were not able to change our flight, we would be trapped in St. Martin on September 5 by the hurricane. Our God indeed is a God of protection.
In these few days, we all learn from the news of the disastrous state St Martin is in — there’s power outage, lack of water supply, heavy flooding, communication system is down. 95% of the buildings have been damaged, while 30% are completely destroyed. So far, we are only able to connect one sister-Nicole there. She told us that her home roof had been completely destroyed by Irma. And the front door of her supermarket had been hit by a car purposely and most of the food and stuff of the store have been robbed. Robberies have been happening in many areas of the island. Even policemen did not care or able to stop such crime. Please pray for the people of St Martin and the Caribbean islands. May God grant them strength and peace during such difficult time.
We thank God that Guadeloupe and Martinique have not been affected by hurricane Irma.
Thank you for your ongoing prayers support.
With love and prayers
Edmond & Anne