The "The Eruption Of LaSoufriere On The Island Of St. Vincent" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading a very disturbing article on LancasterOnline which is the website of my local newspaper LNP.  My wife, Carol, and I have made numerous trips to the Caribbean to visit a variety of islands.  We have never traveled to St. Vincent, but assume it is very similar to many of the other islands we have visited.  In September of 2017, Hurricane Irma struck the island of Sint Maarten/St. Martin and created havoc throughout the island.  The island was one of our favorites!  Carol and I returned to the island in 2019 to visit and saw the devastation that still exists years after the hurricane struck.  

Can't imagine what the island of St. Vincent must look like today after the eruption of the volcano that stands on the island.  I have very little I can say, since I have not visited the island, but have found stories in many publications telling about the eruption of La Soufriere.  The following story was taken from Lancaster Online "People and Social Trends" reporter Aniya Thomas.  The story was written by Jes Tangert, a traveler to St. Vincent.  Other parts of the following story came from The Associated Press.  Carol and I hope that the residents of St. Vincent will be able to survive the aftermath that will most certainly create havoc on the island.  We certainly wouldn't want to have to live through an event as life-changing as a volcano eruption.

Jes and Ben Tangert

A Lancaster County mission worker and her husband are organizing a relief effort for a Caribbean island after a volcano erupted there late last week.  Jes Tangert, 29, and her 25-year-old husband, Ben, were packed and ready to go to St. Vincent before La Soufriere erupted Friday for the first time since 1979, sending ash and gas high into the air.  “The volcano throws up explosions of ash, rock and pyroclastic flow that is hundreds of degrees and destroys anything in its path,” Jes Tangert said. “There are many homes that have been destroyed.  At 11 a.m., after the explosion, it looked as if it was night because of the ash that covered the entire island.”  A bigger eruption occurred Monday that generated pyroclastic flows down the volcano’s south and southwest flanks, according to the Associated Press, which also reported about 16,000 people who live in communities near the volcano were evacuated under government orders April 8, but an unknown number remained behind and refused to move.  No casualties have been reported as of this past Thursday.  With no flights headed to the island nation of about 110,000 people located in the Lesser Antilles between St. Lucia and Grenada, the Leola couple were grounded.  In the meantime, they’ve been gathering supplies and raising money with the help of Hinkletown Mennonite Church in Earl Township, Jes Tangert’s home church, and are looking for others to help make a difference.  Clean water is in short supply on the island, with some communities going as long as 48 hours without it. Power outages across the island have lasted for days.  “St. Vincent wasn’t ready for this explosion,” Jes Tangert said. “It’s a mess.”  Jes Tangert lived in St. Vincent for the past seven years doing missionary work with Youth With A Mission (YWAM), a youth discipleship program, but returned to Lancaster County last April because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ben Tangert had an expiring contract with the Pennsylvania National Guard and was simultaneously growing a passion for mission work.  Their passion for mission work came together when the couple met in January 2020 at a small group session at Ben Tangert’s home church, Dove Westgate, in Clay Township.  “We fell in love quickly. We married in December. Now, he plans to move with me to St. Vincent and the Grenadines to work with Youth With A Mission,” Jes Tangert said.  An Akron, Pennsylvania  native, Jes Tangert was involved in her church from a young age. When she was 11 she went on a church-organized mission trip to St. Croix with her family, where she was introduced to YWAM and fell in love with its cause.  “The Lord spoke to me about being a missionary with Youth With A Mission,” the Ephrata High School graduate said. “I told my parents and they said maybe you should get through school first. So I did.  “After graduating from nursing school in 2012, the Lord said, ‘now’s the time to go,’” she said.  In January 2013, her parents traveled with a group to St. Vincent and saw a YWAM base there. About five weeks later, she went on a six-month trip to St. Vincent and led a discipleship training school, a prerequisite to work with YWAM full time.  After fundraising for her move to St. Vincent, Jes Tangert become a YWAM missionary in 2014. She is now the administration and kitchen manager for the St. Vincent YWAM program, based on the tiny island of Mayreau.  She teaches kids about Christianity, helps with building projects for community members, bonds with people in the village through cooking, fishing, workouts, devotions, children ministries and other duties on a daily basis.  Jes and Ben Tangert are eager to move to St. Vincent and continue her work with YWAM. In the meantime, they are targeting their charitable efforts for St.Vincent.  “St. Vincent is a tiny country that gets forgotten and a lot of people don’t even know it exists,” Jes Tangert said. “But there are 110,000 people there that need help and love, too.”

We wish Jess and Ben the best and pray that they can lend aid to those in need on the island of St. Vincent.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.