Christopher Fong was 12 years old when Hurricane Gilbert made landfall in his native Jamaica in 1988. The Category 3 storm claimed 49 lives and devastated the nation’s capital, Kingston.

“I remember I felt hopeless,” Fong told The Christian Chronicle. “I didn’t know what to do until someone came and lent us a helping hand. 

“I know what it is to need assistance.”

Now Fong, a preacher earning his master’s in education at Harding University, wants to provide victims of another Category 5 storm, Beryl, with the same hope he received 36 years ago.

Before the storm plowed into Texas, Hurricane Beryl hit the island of Carriacou then skirted the southern coast of Jamaica, bringing damaging winds and flooding to the parishes of Saint Clarendon, Saint Catherine, Manchester, Saint Elizabeth and Westmoreland. The storm tore roofs from buildings, destroyed mango orchards, flooded farmland and knocked out power.

“We have never seen winds of 165 mph in our history in this time of year — never,” said Gladwyn Kiddoe, director of the Jamaica School of Preaching and Biblical Studies International in Kingston. “We have to be ready. It’s the new normal.”

The Bull Savanna Church of Christ in Saint Elizabeth was hit particularly hard, Kiddoe said. The homes of several church members were severely damaged. 

Later this week, Fong will travel from Harding in Searcy, Ark., to Jamaica to work alongside Robert Darby and other church members in recovery efforts.

In the past, Jamaicans have disregarded hurricane warnings, joking that “God is a Jamaican, so he will allow the storm to pass,” Yorke said. But people took Beryl seriously, loading up on food and gas before the storm hit and boarding up their homes and businesses.

“This one was very emotionally and mentally taxing,” Yorke said.

The relief trip to Bull Savanna will be a homecoming of sorts for Fong, who was baptized in 1991 and graduated from the Jamaica School of Preaching in 2000. During his time at the school, he served on a mission team that planted the Bull Savanna congregation in 1996. The church’s first member was a blind man, Delgado Francis, who Jamaican Christians met at a funeral.

“Although he was blind, he could see he needed Christ,” Kiddoe said. Francis’ home was among those damaged by Hurricane Beryl. The relief team plans to repair it.

The Bull Savanna church met in a small, wooden building until 2004, when Hurricane Ivan flattened the facility. Church members built in its place a three-story cement building, which sustained only minor damage from Hurricane Beryl.

As hurricanes intensify and become more frequent, Churches of Christ should be ready to respond rapidly, to build back stronger and to show “the church at its best,” Fong said.

“We should be there,” he said. “The first thing they should see is us.”

This story originally appeared in The Christian Chronicle and has been reprinted with permission.

Erik Tryggestad is president and CEO of The Christian Chronicle. He has filed stories for the Chronicle from more than 65 nations.