Every House in the Village Was Damaged. A Baptist Network Is Rebuilding Dominica One Roof at a Time

• Hurricane Maria damaged all of the roughly 400 homes in La Plaine, Dominica
• La Plaine Baptist Church lost 75 per cent of its roof; its pastor lost his home
• Tennessee Baptist teams were travelling out to reroof houses through 2018
• Six months on, many homes still had only tarpaulin overhead

More than six months after Hurricane Maria struck Dominica in September 2017, the village of La Plaine was still living under tarpaulin. According to the Baptist and Reflector, every one of the roughly 400 homes in the village had been damaged. Most had no electricity, and those that did relied on gas generators. Many houses still had no roof at all.

The local church was hit as hard as the homes around it. La Plaine Baptist Church lost 75 per cent of its roof, and its pastor, Asha Laronde, lost his house and belongings. He sheltered through the storm with his wife, daughter and more than 20 other people in his father’s home. “The less you have, the less you have to worry about. God owns it all. He gives. He takes,” he said.

Tennessee Baptist Disaster Relief began organising a response in late 2017, coordinated by Phillip Hardee of Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova. By April 2018, four teams had travelled to La Plaine, and in January they had put a temporary roof on the church. The effort then turned to reroofing homes, with relief materials, supplies and volunteer teams planned throughout 2018. Missionary Mike Coupe, a former pastor of the La Plaine church, and his wife Glenda were working alongside them through their Caribbean Partnership Mission.

Laronde said the help had come when people felt powerless. “God has poured out His blessings during a time in which we feel so helpless,” he said. The newspaper reported that one homeowner professed faith while a team from Tulip Grove Baptist Church in Old Hickory worked on his house.

The La Plaine model, a local church acting as the base while an overseas network brings roofs, materials and labour, is one Jamaica knows well after Hurricane Melissa. It also points to a quieter lesson for homeowners and returnees: a roof is the part of a Caribbean house that decides whether a family can stay after a storm. For Jamaican churches with partner congregations in the US, UK or Canada, a standing arrangement to supply materials and volunteers can turn months under tarpaulin into weeks.