PVBC Disaster Relief Team Deploys to Louisiana

Four of our own from PVBC just returned from a Disaster Relief assignment where they spent a week helping the residents of Alexandria, Louisiana begin to rebuild their homes and lives after the devastation of Hurricane Laura. Randy and Janice Parent and Mike and Barb Bastin set out September 7 unsure of the extent of damages the hurricane had induced. Each of their six days of work was met with challenges including heat indexes that reached over 100 degress, downed power lines, and precarious weather conditions.

But God is faithful.

In the midst of these less-than-optimal working conditions, the team met together to clear away debris and restore order to the chaos. And each day God went ahead of them, clearing the skies and equipping the workers with skills and experience to accomplish the work He had prepared for them in advance.

Janice recounts, “ Little did we know that our jobs from the previous days would be honing our skills for the biggest job of all that took us most of our last two days. 2 huge trees had fallen at Mrs. Cumming’s house. One completely covering her backyard. The other on her house, penetrating into her living space. The roof and walls were unstable. At one point our crew leader told the homeowner that we weren’t sure we could remove the tree without further damage to her home. Since hiring a crane was not an option for her she told him to go ahead. This was a thing of beauty to watch as that tree came down piece by piece. Because of the expert rigging and cutting (and a whole lot of prayers) each piece cleared the home and surrounding structures.”

All in all, the Hurricane Laura Disaster Relief response was able to provide 270,000 meals, 946 chainsaw jobs, and 102 temporary roofing jobs. But the biggest work was what God did in the hearts of the people. Over 1000 people were able to hear the Gospel with 254 professions of faith!!

We are thankful for Randy, Janice, Mike, Barb and the other faithful servants of our church whose mission it is to be salt and light to the world around them.