Southern Baptist leaders urge prayer, support as Category 5 Hurricane Melissa threatens Jamaica

NASHVILLE (BP) – Southern Baptist leaders are encouraging churches to pray for and consider how to contribute financially to help those in the path of Hurricane Melissa.

Melissa is a Category 5 storm with maximum sustained winds of 165 mph and is expected to turn northward later Monday, bringing “catastrophic and life-threatening winds, flooding, and storm surge for Jamaica,” the National Hurricane Center in Miami reported on Monday, Oct. 27.

A Hurricane Warning is also in effect for the Cuban provinces of Granma, Santiago de Cuba, Guantánamo, and Holguin.

Send Relief posted a video across numerous social media channels with International Mission Board President Paul Chitwood and North American Mission Board President Kevin Ezell encouraging Southern Baptists to pray.

“Even those not directly in [the hurricane’s] path may lose access to basic services like power and water,” said Ezell.

“We ask you to pray for search and rescue teams,” Chitwood said. “Those first responders [like] firefighters – those who are quickly mobilizing to find survivors in the damage. Ask God to grant them safety, strength, and resilience as they work tirelessly.”

Both followed by asking for prayer for survivors who will be left behind and grieving, those who will be displaced, local churches and ministries’ response, disaster response teams, and emotional and spiritual healing for those impacted. 

Cuban churches have received 50 Send Relief generators, with more supplies and volunteers being prepped.

That news accompanied a video in another post by Send Relief featuring Jose Hiroo, a translator in Cuba who works with teams from the U.S.

“We are asking you [to] please keep us in your prayers as we go through this horrible Hurricane Melissa, that is threatening us in our country, in our area in the eastern parts of Cuba,” he said. “Please pray for us that we are kept [safe] during the path of this hurricane, and please pray for us, for the Lord to provide resources for our convention to go and help our brothers and sisters and friends in the different areas that would be hit by this hurricane. God bless everyone.”

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This story appeared in Baptist Press.