Philippines= very special place

This post is dedicated to our staff and friends that we worked with in the Philippines for 7 years from 1979 to 1986.  Last month, Mike and I returned there for a week and I hadn't been back for over 15 years. Ever-since our return from that trip, we've had a full schedule- but I've wanted to share more from this visit. This was the place that Mike and I first learned to work in full time ministry as newlyweds, laid the foundation for our marriage, and lived through our first three pregnancies and deliveries and learned to parent.  It is a very special place to us.  Our life there was so so different from our life now. We didn't have family so we leaned on each other for companionship and  support. The staff that we worked with there are still some of our best friends ever.  I really believe that the people on your team when you first enter the ministry are some of the most influential people in your life.  We learned so so much from our friends that we worked with, lived next door to, and stumbled through learning how to be parents.  I love this group of people:  Earl and Susie, Mike and Kaye, Brenda, James and Theresa, Lee and Edye,  John and Sandy, Hugh and Joanne, Howie and Nancy, Leslie, Ron, the list goes on and on.

I have been far removed from the Philippine culture for so long, but as soon as we landed- floods of memories started coming back to me.  If you were not part of our early days there, you wont' appreciate this.  I however was giddy with all the "come backs"!

Foods like:
Pancit......Adobo......Lumpia......Hot Pandesal......Leche Flan......Magnolia's....., etc.

Places like:
Thomas Morato Ave., EDSA, Timog Circle, Makati, Quezon Blvd, Jeepneys, Faith Bible Church, Polymedic General Hospitol, National Bookstore, Shoe Mart, Alfredo's Steak house, Tropical Hut, Kamuning Market, Mercury drug, Rustan's, Jolibee Yumburgers, etc.

















Our home in 1979 above... and then to the right, look how that tree has grown to be now!

The first day we drove over to our little apartment at 73I Dr. Lazcano where we brought home Marisa, Lori, and Bethany!  Oh, what a special place to us!  The main drag, Thomas Morato Ave.  has now become a street full of restaurants.  Many of them American chains that we do not have in Thailand- right in our old neighborhood. Wish they'd come on over to Thailand, too.

Just some of them are:
Shakeys.......Chilli's........Johnny Rocket........Cinnabon.......Papa Johns......Wendy's......Sbarro's.....Taco
Bell........Seattles Best Coffee........Kenny Rogers........TGI Fridays....... etc.

One of the most encouraging parts to the trip was  hearing from disciples who are still in ministry and them giving us updates of students and staff and how they are still walking with God and serving Him.

This was our very first team in 1978 that we prepared to serve with.  A lot changed about that team but the other three (Ron, James, and Theresa)  are still working with Cru in the Philippines after all these years. What a fun reunion!

Ammi was on our first team with the "I Found It" campaigns. We had so much fun reminiscing with her, too.

The International Graduate School of Leadership is one of campus Crusade's grad school's where some of our Thai CCC staff go for seminary and graduate degrees.  It was fun to get a tour of their new (to us) facility and get some time to catch up with  our Thai staff who are studying there right now; (Mini, Chaw, and Jamie.)

We could not have asked for better host's on this trip; Art and Annie.  Mike discipled Art as a student and new staff and now he directs the GAIN ministry there in the Philippines.

We got to spend a lot of time with them during that week in planes, boats, taxis, jeepneys, squishy small vans, and tricycles. They took good care of us and it was so good to share together again after all these years.  Annie has had a struggle with cancer and her life is a beautiful testimony of someone who is trusting God.

Our beginning roots in the Philippines are very special and significant to us.  35 years ago this week, we landed in that foreign country for the first time.  How thankful we are that God led Mike to leave his stable job with good benefits at John Deere and begin our adventure with Him, that has given us more fulfillment and experiences than we could have ever dreamed of.

Yolanda rebuilding focus areas

The decisions that we wanted to make concerning help with relief in Tacloban City last week was so much easier for us because of having a Philippine Campus Crusade team there already.  They have about 10 volunteers that have been working together with local pastors and government officials.  This helps us to know that groups that come to help are not just a 'one shot deal', but are working together with the local Christians and will have continued follow-up over time.  They have narrowed their areas of work down to three locations.

 The first group is the local PCCC Student Link ministry on the campus of Eastern Visayas State University.  The campus was hit hard and has been closed for two months.

The day we arrived was their first day (after two months) to open back up for registration and classes would resume this week. There is so much that still needs to be  done on campus.

This is what was left of the main auditorium on campus, where students gather. 

 They have a solid ministry with PCCC there already with about 50 students.  They meet every Wednesday for a prayer time and every Friday for a family time together.  The  group has been recognized on campus by the Student Services department as "The Most Valued Oriented Organization" for a few years in a row. They told us that they are very active on the campus, and the administration likes what they do.  This is the room they were using but the ceiling and roof were blown off. This room is in the Engineering Building where there are around 36 classrooms, but only about 5 are ready to be used again.

They want to continue meeting with students at their weekly meetings, but are not sure yet if they will be given a room on campus as space is limited.

We walked around the campus with some key students, stopping to talk with faculty and pray for them as they try to get their teaching areas and homes back to functionality.

All of the staff from the Student Services Department came together here for our team to share our concern for them, desire to help, and then pray for them.

Since this was the first day that the campus had opened back up, much clean-up needed to be done, and PCCC brought in two teams of students to help them.

One team came in from Korean Campus Crusade and showed real servant-hood, by cleaning out the classrooms in the Student Services building.

After wiping down every desk and cleaning the rooms top to bottom, this team had them ready for use again, minus the blown out windows.

Mike tackled one of the "Comfort Rooms" or CR's as they are called there.  There was a lot of broken glass on the floor.

I enjoyed talking with this group of students and inviting them to some of the future Student Link meetings. It was a quick reminder of how friendly Filipinos are and how eager they are to share in friendship and conversation with us as foreigners.

The other target groups are two villages out of the city.  The country is broken up into Barangay's (or villages).  The ones inside the city, will probably get help sooner, but just like the Tsunami rebuilding the farther out we went, the less help was given to the people.

We drove over an hour to this barangy called Paglaum.  Almost the entire village was destroyed and they have received little help.  This is one classroom in the village school, where all the roofs were blown off.

Art (PCCC staff) met the pastor of a church in this village while he was in the city, and has been building a relationship with him.  They believe that if they can get the school back into a state that the kids can study again, that will help some normalcy to return.  This is another classroom.

They had been given one tent to save the few school materials that were left, including these books.

This is a temporary room that they have put up, to start back to school for now.

Getting to and from this village was one of our most interesting experiences on the trip.  It was an hour out of the city on very rough and remote roads that were in bad shape.  The jeepney that we hired for the day was a bit reluctant to go down some of the roads.  On the way back, (real far from civilization) as it was starting to get dark, the jeepney broke down twice.

Mike and the jeepney driver worked on it together.  Mike says it is definitely a total miracle that it made it back in to the city. (We were all praying a lot) All 6 of the axle nuts had broken off.  He had extra wheel nuts, but since they had broken, they could not be attached.  They ended up tying wires in and out of the axle, which broke off once but got us back to town after the second  temporary repair job.  It's one of those experiences that you feel God's hand of protection and love to tell and remember over and over.

We are continuing to pray for teams to come assist from anywhere in the world to help these needy people in the rebuilding of their homes and lives.

Typhoon Yolanda

To see the devastation from the typhoon first hand was difficult and heavy for us this week.  The international name of this typhoon that hit on November 8 was typhoon Haiyan, but the Philippine name is Yolanda. Just getting to the Tacloban area was a 2 day challenge.  We started out on Tuesday morning, sat in our plane on the tarmac for 3 1/2 hours, waiting for the rains to subside in Tacloban, then stood in the airport for two more hours trying to be re-routed.  Wednesday morning was our second attempt and we left for the airport at 5:00am and flew to Cebu City, then took a ferry in very rough waters because of a storm for 3 1/2 hours to the city of Ormac, then rode in a small van with 15 people for 3 more hours till we finally reached Tacloban.

As soon as we got off the ferry in Ormac, we saw right away the roofs blown off of most all of the buildings.

On Thursday as we rode in a jeepney around Tacloban for miles and miles, all we saw was destruction.  The Tsunami in Thailand has been  hit mostly along shorelines, but this was in a much broader area.

It was hard to believe that the typhoon had hit over 2 months ago, and these victims have been living like this ever since, with hardly any rebuilding done yet. 

For miles and miles, we'd see people just living in the rubble making makeshift homes out of broken pieces of materials.

It is the strongest typhoon ever recorded in terms of wind speed.  It bent and twisted up the metal supports of roofs and bent the re-bars on everything in the area as if they were made of pliable bars. 

Mike found a good seat to observe the destruction... so much to take in.

Over 6000 people were killed and they are still finding dead bodies under the rubble.

Since they have not received much aid, the victims have tried to rebuild their homes with whatever  materials are reusable. 

Even after two months, it gave me a feeling of where do they even know where to start with the piles of debris.

Many homes had literally nothing at all left to salvage, like these homes that were out on the water.

The United Nations has brought in some tents,

but they only hold a limited amount of the victims.

They have no where to put the few things they may have salvaged.

This huge ship was pushed up into the city and we saw them working on it with hand tools, trying to get it back out to sea.

This ship pushed right into a home, that Mike is standing beside here.

Because materials are not available for rebuilding, they have started cutting down coconut trees and cutting them into lumber. We saw these signs in several places , which is a bit sad because Mike said  the lifetime of coconut lumber is about 3 years- but at least it will give them something for now.  

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One of the most difficult factors in their recovery is that it continues to rain a lot.  Our last night in our 'not so nice' hotel room, we heard the pounding rain all night long and I could not sleep thinking of these dear people laying under tarps and roofs that are leaking on them all night long. Their homes are constantly wet.

It was so much  for us to take in.

What would you do if you came back and  found your home like this, and no resources to fix it?

Before our trip there and throughout the time, we continually prayed for God to give our Philippine staff and us wisdom to know "who" to help and "how" to best help.  There were needs everywhere, but we believe it's important to have a focus group.  Instead of stretching thin throughout the disaster area, we want to pour into a specific group.  We are excited about a  few groups that we feel God led us and the PCCC team to. I will share about them soon because they are some groups, we are confident are needy and will produce remaining fruit in the Tacloban area.