Neuendorf (Puerto Rico) Update – May 2022

0% Self Powered

This month we had the incredible blessing of being able to use some of our last remaining disaster response funds to make some major investments in our future capacity to respond to future storms. Besides a host of repairs and renovations, we were able to have solar power installed at both campuses. I have to admit that my inner nerd checks the included Tesla app far more often than needed; I love seeing how much our solar production and consumption are shaping up under the different weather conditions. The system is working even better than our expectations, and a week-long power outage across the entire island also gave us a handy reminder of how important it will be in the event of another disaster. 

Besides all of that, there is something extra satisfying about seeing those words, “100% self-powered today.”

It’s a lie though.

It is the Lord who grants the sunshine that we need, and who could take it away with a thought. It is God’s gracious mercy that gave us the funding, the technological advancement to make this possible, and it is only by God’s mercy that the “hurricane-force-rated” panels will not simply be torn off in the next storm. We are, as always, 0% self-powered today. We depend 100% on God’s providence and love for every breath of this life. As I taught our current batch of catechism students this month, this is what it means to have the true God, to recognize Him as the only source of all we need in this life. 

What good news it is then that the Lord who makes His rain fall on the righteous and on the unrighteous, has declared us His beloved children! Everything that God does, is for the good of His church, His treasured possession. Even the faith that clings to His promises is a gracious gift from His hand! We may be 0% self-powered, but the Lord is the one who daily and richly provides for our every need in this body and life. As we gratefully use the gifts He has given to us through His church for the service to our neighbor, we rest in these promises and in God’s gracious and good will. 

Hurricane season is about to start again, but we enter into this time of national anxiety trusting in the promises that our Gracious God goes with us in the boat. We are 0% self-powered, but the Spirit’s power fills His dear children!

James took up his long neglected hobby and photographed the neighborhood a bit this month. A few weeks ago, Missionary Johanna Heidorn came to photograph and document the work here in PR and so James had a morning to walk around the neighborhood behind the church with her and capture some of our vecinos. Belgica (name of the neighborhood) is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Ponce. These images capture just a small piece of the beautiful people and places we see every day.