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In the full trust in Jesus Christ, our Master and Redeemer, we stand. We know that although the road to recovery will be longer for some of our communities that were hit so hard by Hurricane Ian, we still have hope.
We have hope because of the solidarity and unity we feel in times such as these. The love of Christ and God’s people is above any adversity.
We mourn the lives lost this week. The phone call saying "goodbye" was not what we wanted to hear right when Ian was blowing through this father's house.
We cry with a pastor suddenly losing his young wife to cancer, and the next day rolling up his sleeves because his congregation was impacted by this storm.
We work together with a congregation opening its doors to shelter those less fortunate that lost even more due to flooding.
We felt powerless when a pastor received a call from parishioners trapped in their flooded home asking to be rescued, when the rescuers were not allowed in yet, or speechless when a pastor answers not knowing if the congregation still has a church building standing.
This bishop's heart is sunk, crying with the people of God in Lee County, Kissimmee, Daytona and more.
But I know that we are very fortunate to have one another. As soon as the rescue and recovery teams manage to stabilize some intensely damaged areas, we will go in for the long run with our Synod Disaster Response, with our ELCA Disaster Response, and with all our hearts.
This is our turn to be brave. Thank you God for this wonderful church, this great network, the Florida-Bahamas Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America!
Peace,
+ Bishop Pedro Suarez
Florida-Bahamas Synod, ELCA
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