NCM center becomes life-saving resource following Tropical Storm Erika in Dominica

Tropical Storm Erika brought torrential downpours to the island of Dominica August 27, creating massive flooding and mudslides. More than 20 people have been declared dead, and more than 50 people are still missing in the Caribbean nation. As many as 20,000 people have been affected in the country whose population is only 70,000, according to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Hundreds of families’ homes were destroyed, and the entire country is facing a shortage of safe water. There is also a shortage of food and milk for babies.

The Church of the Nazarene began responding immediately following the mudslides. One church’s basement was used as a storm shelter. A new Nazarene Compassionate Ministries center in Bataca, a community in the country’s Karibe territory, was able to meet needs by providing food for those in need.

The center, which was recently built by a Work & Witness team from South Salem, Oregon, Church of the Nazarene, had been stocked with dried food goods and medical supplies for disaster situations. When all roads to Bataca were destroyed by the deluge, the NCM center, which had just been finished August 22, became a life-saving resource.

Missionary Amanda Pettit reported, “We have six churches in six areas in Dominica, but they’re all cut off from each other. … The floods wiped out almost every bridge on the island.”

Amanda and Steve Pettit serve together as Nazarene missionaries focused on church development in Dominica and as Work & Witness coordinators for the entire Caribbean Field on the Mesoamerica Region.

The Church of the Nazarene has a total membership of about 700 people within six congregations.

“We have officially heard from all six of our churches,” Steve Pettit wrote in an update, “and praise the Lord, nobody was lost! However, the reality is that four of our churches have been cut off from any outside help due to dozens of bridges destroyed and roads overtaken by landslides. The churches tell us clean water and food will be the greatest need for them since they have no way of leaving their small communities to buy any.”

The airport in Dominica was badly damaged, so the only way to access the island is by ferry from neighboring Martinique.

“The need here is great, and the opportunity for the church to be the church is beyond comprehension,” Steve Pettit said.

Carlos Saenz, director of the Mesoamerica Region, said, “Please pray for us as a church, that we can answer