One Year After Melissa: St. Elizabeth Is Rising, and We Are Rising With It
One year ago today, on October 28, 2025, Hurricane Melissa made landfall on Jamaica's south coast as a Category 5 storm. Black River became the image the world saw, and every district in St. Elizabeth felt the blow.
But this is not a story about what the storm took. It is a story about what came after: the hands that reached in, the neighbours who showed up, and a parish that refused to stay down.
Help came from everywhere
In the weeks after Melissa, help arrived from across the island and around the world. Churches opened their doors. Neighbours shared roofs, food and generators. Jamaicans in Toronto, London and New York organised telethons, fundraisers and barrels of supplies for home.
The response for our children was just as determined. Of 1,010 public schools, 721 were damaged, yet every school was back to teaching within 90 days. UNICEF trained 600 teachers in its Return to Happiness approach to support some 18,000 students through the emotional side of recovery. A Sandals Foundation-led effort restored schools across western and northern parishes with new roofs, solar power and water security. The National Education Trust has stood with damaged schools so students can learn in safe spaces again.
Here at home, health services in St. Elizabeth moved back into their buildings after months of serving the public from tents. Farmers in the breadbasket parish went back to the soil. Shops reopened, roofs went back on, and life in Junction found its rhythm again.
A parish that rises
Last week, Black River Mayor Richard Solomon commended residents for their patience and resilience as the rebuilding continues. Anyone who lives here knows that word fits. St. Elizabeth people do not wait to be rescued. They sweep, they plant, they rebuild, and they check on the neighbour next door while they do it.
Nehemiah faced a broken city and said to the people, "Let us rise up and build." Scripture records what happened next: "So they strengthened their hands for this good work" (Nehemiah 2:18). That is the picture of St. Elizabeth this year. Not one hero, but a whole people with strengthened hands.
Let There Be Light is here to build alongside you
Let There Be Light Christian Residential Academy is here because God sent us. Long before there was a space in Junction, there was a calling and a name given in obedience: Let There Be Light. We did not land in this parish by chance. The Lord placed us here, in this season, to stand with the people He loves.
Everything you see in these photos is His gift. The space, the tables, the laptops, the partners who said yes and the students who will soon fill these seats all came from His hand, not ours. "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights" (James 1:17). We are not here to replace what the community has done. We are here to add our hands to it, and to point every bit of it back to Christ.
Upstairs, beside Ro's Cakehouse in Junction, a space is coming together for the Let There Be Light CSEC Intensive: free tutoring and mentorship for St. Elizabeth students whose schooling was interrupted by Melissa. The tables are in, the floors are gleaming, and the walls already speak to the students who will sit there: Lock In. Level Up. Excellence is the standard. Christ is the foundation. Jamaica to the World.
Classes begin this November. Here is what students will find:
Completely free. No fees for students or families.
Small groups. Every student is seen and known.
Gaps found and closed. Each student is assessed first, so teaching starts where they really are.
Mentorship. Encouragement and confidence for the road to CSEC.
Laptops secured. The first laptops for our students are already in place.
Endorsed by MOEY, Jamaica's national education authority.
And every Sunday in Junction, love has a parking spot. At Love Parked Here, anyone can pull up, get fed and feel loved: free food and water at The Fuel Station, a listening ear and prayer at The Recharge, and a little extra love from The Kindness Basket. In a world where people are overlooked, we have reserved a space for them.
Join the rebuild
The help that carried St. Elizabeth this year came from ordinary people who decided to give what they had. There is still room for you in this good work.
Parents and students: apply for the CSEC Intensive. Call 876-471-2779 or email info@ltblacademy.org. Places are limited so groups can stay small.
Friends at home and across the diaspora: sponsor a student or help us put a laptop in another young person's hands.
Teachers and retired educators: if you can tutor a CSEC subject, we would be honoured to hear from you.
Everyone: share this post with someone who loves St. Elizabeth.
One year on, St. Elizabeth is still standing, still building and still giving thanks. We are grateful to everyone who carried this parish through, and we are ready to strengthen our hands alongside you. Whatever good grows from this place, the glory belongs to Him.
Restoring Lives. Raising Leaders. Revealing Christ.
About us: Let There Be Light Christian Residential Academy is a Christ-centered Pre-K to 12 academy being established in St. Elizabeth, Jamaica, alongside its US affiliate, Let There Be Light Kingdom Commission Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
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