Hurricane Dorian largely left Georgia unscathed, but it devastated several islands of the Bahamas, where tens of thousands of residents lost their homes.
Luke Pinder can’t – and won’t – forget.
“I try to wake up with this mindset,” says the Gainesville, Ga. resident: “How can I add value to somebody else’s life today?”
Pinder applies this mindset to his work, as a sales rep and jack-of-all-trades for a coffee roaster that funds mission and volunteer work. Faith guides his job and his life.
And for two weeks, faith has kept him focused on a tragedy he can’t forget.
“Most Bahamians don’t even think I’m Bahamian,” Pinder jokes. “But having so much family in Abaco … literally imagine everyone in your hometown being homeless and jobless, instantly.”
Pinder grew up in the Bahamas. Two weeks since Hurricane Dorian, he watches videos from relatives forced to find new homes. He says he has “hundreds” of family members in Abaco alone.
As a kid, Pinder said, “we’d be walking down the street, and my dad – it almost seemed like he was just pointing at random people. He’d be like, ‘Yeah, that’s your family. That’s your family. That’s your family.’”
When Pinder was 12, his father’s health began failing. They moved to the States for his treatment. Years later, Pinder has decorated every room of his house with mementos of home. He even tattooed the Bahamian islands on his right arm.
On this morning, he reaches his cousin, Dianna Lowe. She’s at a hotel in the Carolinas. She recounts her scramble during Dorian. “When we got to the other end of the hallway,” she says, “we realized our house was completely gone. Pretty much everybody’s houses went, so it was just running to the next house, the next house, the next house … running for your life.”
Pinder takes in her story, most of which he hadn’t heard, and reflects on his faith. “I know that –“ he starts, then pauses. “Hmmm … I know that God does have a plan and a purpose, and I know he has an incredible way of turning things that are tragic into something triumphant. Now I don’t know how he’s gonna do that with this. I don’t know that.
“But I know that he can.”
It is faith that flickers Pinder’s hope. It is faith that drives his action.
At work, at home, he wears a button with a motto on the Bahamian coat of arms: ‘Forward. Upward. Onward. Together.’ The slogan splashes on a shirt Pinder and his partners designed for what he calls the FUOT Project. They want to raise money and re-raise awareness. They’ve sold nearly 100 shirts so far.
“Sometimes,” Pinder said, “I think, ‘If I do this, how much of a difference is this going to make?’ But I try not to think about things that way. I think about, ‘What can I do?’”
In his case, he chooses to act and lead with vibrant faith.
“I can do nothing,” he said. “And if I do nothing, nothing will always be the outcome."
To learn more about the FUOT Project, check out its web site.
Matt Pearl’s Untold Atlanta series tells the stories we don’t hear often enough: the stories of our communities and the people who make them special. If you know of a great untold story to share, follow Matt on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram or e-mail him at mpearl@11alive.com.
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