A natural disaster in Puerto Rico inspired a Los Gatos business owner to travel there to offer aid not once but twice. And now she’s planning a public event to tell the community about it. “Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria hit on Aug. 20, 2017 was devastating,” says Olga Enciso Smith, founder and director Machu Picchu Gallery of the Americas in Los Gatos. “The winds sped at 160 miles per hour. … According to data by the U.S. Census Bureau, about 130, 000 people—almost 4 percent of the population—fled the island for New York City and Florida for the most part. The ones that remained had to manage mostly on their own.” Wanting to help out, Enciso Smith suggested to the Mission Task Force of the San Jose Presbytery that the group travel to Puerto Rico to help rebuild. “It is a U.S. territory and it has just suffered a major disaster,” she recalls telling the group, whose members were swayed by her argument. A group of 26 task force members traveled there in June 2018.“When we arrived,” says Enciso Smith, “we fellowshipped with (the survivors) and heard their heartbreaking stories of how in the rain forest region, people were stranded down… Read full this story
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