Church planting missionaries who lost everything in hurricane blessed by Southern Baptists
Family Matters
It’s pink and purple, it has a Bible verse on it, and it’s understandably a little rough around the edges. It is, after all, one of the only items Send Network church planter Ronnie Rentz managed to rescue from his girls’ bedroom. “Back in September when Hurricane Helene came through, we got hit with three feet of water,” Ronnie says. “And the first time I came back to the house after the storm, everything we owned was floating.”
That’s when he found the picture—the pink and purple one with Romans 8:28 written on it. Ronnie, who planted Covenant Hope Church in St. Petersburg, Florida in 2022, attached it to the dashboard of his car, because for someone who’d been through what he’d just been through, a Romans 8:28-kind-of reminder seemed like a good thing to keep nearby. “We lost about 90% of everything we owned,” he says. “Even now, our 2-year-old says, ‘I want to go home,’ about ten times a day. It rips your heart out. But I know God is going to work all this together for good. And I know that because I’ve already seen it.”
An Eternal Optimist
Ronnie Rentz is a self-described “eternal optimist.” Maybe that’s why when Hurricane Helene hit St. Petersburg on September 26, 2024, he was nervous, but not frantically so—at least, not at first. “We lived on a canal and it flooded all the time,” he says. “My wife and kids were out of town that week, but when it looked like the storm was headed this way, we spoke and I told my wife, ‘I secured all the doors. We’ll be ok. It won’t be that bad.’”
That was September 26. But then came September 27. “When I went back to the house the next day, I couldn’t even get in at first because all the water had picked up our furniture and jammed it against the door. And then when I finally got in, it was sobering. The fridge was flipped over, baby dolls were floating by—I just sat there for a while before I called my wife. And all I could say was, ‘It’s bad. What do we do now?’”
Even an “eternal optimist” like Ronnie Rentz could’ve never guessed how quickly the answer to that question would present itself.
Send In the Cavalry
On Thursday, Helene hit. On Friday, Ronnie waded thru what was left of his home. And then on Saturday, the cavalry arrived. “Small armies of people from our Sending Church, from our church plant started showing up,” Ronnie says. “They started grabbing clothes, toys, anything they could save. We had a crew in the backyard cleaning Legos. We had a lady who owns a jewelry shop take what she could salvage of my wife’s jewelry to get it professionally cleaned. They worked in shifts—morning, afternoon, and evening—it was amazing to see. Our church has always operated as a family and to see that in a real way was just a beautiful thing.”
News travels fast when you’re a Send Network church planter, and as Ronnie’s church family was in his backyard salvaging what they could of the Rentz’s possessions, a call for financial help went out to a much more widespread family. “Our Sending Church reached out to NAMB and Send Network to see what could be possible,” Ronnie says. “And before we even knew what was happening, they took care of us. They supported us with half our rent for the home we’re staying in now. I really don’t know how we could’ve survived without that.”
Part of the Family
Send Network, the church planting arm of the North American Mission Board, says they’re “a family united by a mission.” Ronnie Rentz never had any reason to doubt that was true. But now, he and his family have experienced “family” in an unforgettable, Romans 8:28 kind of way. “With Send Network there’s always been constant encouragement and a real feeling of, ‘You’re not alone,’” Ronnie says. “And there’s always been financial support that we couldn’t survive without. But now I know for certain that I can pick up the phone and call brothers out there who will do anything they can to help us. It’s so amazing to be connected at every level with something greater than yourself. I mean, I’ve seen those NAMB luncheons every year where somebody gets blessed and it’s awesome. But now to be one of those people, it’s just a beautiful thing. We’re eternally grateful.”