Puerto Rico: Community outreach keeps homeless warm and fed

A Seventh-day Adventist in East Puerto Rico, prays with a homeless couple on the streets of Rio Piedras after handing then a special “Blanket of Love” prepared by the Adventist Medial Cadet Corps in the region earlier this year. Images Courtesy of East Puerto Rico Conference.

April 19, 2013 – Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico…IAD Staff

One thought drove Cinthia Nuñez to make a difference: To collect blankets for more than 500 homeless people.

Dressed as a guardian angel Medical Cadet Claribel Barreto of East Puerto Rico hands a blanket and prays for a homeless during the church’s community outreach earlier this year.

A Seventh-day Adventist from Rio Piedras in East Pueto Rico and chaplain of the Adventist Medical Cadet Corps, Nuñez was distraught at the sight of two homeless people shivering at a bus stop very early one morning. Nuñez shared her concern with her fellow medical cadets. Soon after they enlisted other church members from Adventist churches throughout East Puerto Rico to collect blankets from the surrounding church communities and donate them. Along the way Nunez found out that other organizations provided blankets to homeless but decided to make the blankets unique.

Days later, with 515 blankets collected, Nuñez and fellow cadets named the new project “Blanket of Love” and began sewing patches with Bible verses onto the blankets.

Some 515 blankets bore the Scripture reading in Psalm 4:8 as well as the address of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Rio Piedras.

Dressed in angle-like costumes, medical cadets took to the streets on Saturdays and Sundays in Rio Piedras, San Juan, Carolina, Caguas, Humacao, Cayey and Comerio earlier this year to distribute the blankets and pray with the homeless they encountered. Some 125 church members joined in the distribution and provided warm meals as well.

Nuñez remembers that early morning and is thankful to have been part of love and warmth during the cool season on the island.

“This project has served to increase our sensitivity to this population that needs a palpable manifestacion of God’s love,” said Nunez.

Nuñez has not been the only one noticing the needs of the growing homeless population.

In 2012, the Rio Piedras Adventist Church distributed some 3,363 warm meals – an average of 280 meals each month, according to Manuel Martinez, director of the Homeless Ministry of the church there.

Church members from the Rio Piedras Adventist Church distribute blankets and meals during their homeless ministry activities every month.

“All of the church departments and ministries joined together to feed the homeless every Sabbath through the streets of the Rio Piedras Convalecencia Plaza,” said Martinez. There were scores of young people distributing blankets and assisting them.

The ministry has been an ongoing comprehensive project for church member volunteers every Saturday, explains Martinez.

National reports state that homelessness is a fast growing problem. A few years ago there were some 6,000 homeless in the capital city of San Juan alone, an online report stated.

Church leaders and members in East Puerto Rico will continue to reach out to the homeless every Sabbath during the year.

“We are very excited that our young people are not apathetic to the needs of the homeless,” said Pastor David Sebastian, communication director for the church in East Puerto Rico. “We will continue to bring out our young people and work with the medical cadets to assist in this important work for those in need.”