# @plusjames on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/BfIQZm8HW5X
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/20819134-plusjames-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/ab2dfb6726.jpg
- **Posted:** 2018-02-13T07:46:42.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** James Ramos (@plusjames) — https://gondola.cc/plusjames

## Caption

Darwin, Northeast Houston.
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Inside the church, even with Houston’s first cold front of the year breezing through the sanctuary’s open windows, Darwin was still sweating.
He filled his wheelbarrow with drywall debris, and went outside through a door propped open with a chair stacked high with wrinkled, still-moist hymnals and Bibles damaged by #Harvey. He stopped and picked up a hymnal and showed it to me. "Look, this one isn't too wet. I could sing this one."
Himself a #Catholic, the 41-year-old Brazil native now living in Orlando, Florida but spent much of his youth in Catholic churches. Raised and taught by missionary Catholic sisters in his home city of São Paulo, Darwin found himself surrounded by a devastated, broken church. The neighborhood around us had debris piles taller than the both of us. “Coming here is a blessing,” he told me. “Some people come for money, but I come with my heart. I can work in hotels, houses, but a church? It's special. Even if I have to work for free, I will. When I saw what was happening (in Houston), I knew I had to come help.” I wonder if he knew he was answering God’s same call to St. Francis of Assisi to rebuild His church. He sliced more drywall inside the church while the Category 5 #HurricaneIrma, aimed for his Florida home.
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Feb. 25 will mark six months since #HurricaneHarvey barreled through #Texas. #BecauseOfHarvey is a look back to the people I met and the places and things I saw.

## Stats

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- **Likes:** 79
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- **Comments:** 5

## Tags

catholic, hurricaneharvey, becauseofharvey, harvey, hurricaneirma, texas

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