National Director Visits Brethren Affected by Flash Floods

Brother Ezra Raduban, a member of the WCG board and I arrived back from the trip to the disaster stricken area of Kalibo to personally supervise the relief distribution and to assess the needs for the losses of the other brethren. The area is still messy as the city residents are still salvaging what they can from the things that were buried in mud. There is still no electricity in many parts of the city as the electric poles that were felled by the typhoon still need to be fixed. There is still much dust and mud in the streets and  prices of commodities have dramatically increased due to the emergency and since many of the stores lost their stocks to the flash floods recently.

However, all the brethren here are all accounted for. Despite scores of deaths in the city, our brethren are alive. While a few of our brethren  lost their homes, and almost all lost 80 percent of their household belongings, they are all safe. I was listening to some of their testimonies last Sunday during an informal service held in one of the brethren's homes, one had to stay on a tree for 24 hours without food and water due to the sudden rise of the flood waters, until such time that one of their relatives saw her and swam towards her to bring her to safety. While they were doing that, and the current was so strong, they bumped into an electric post, and she lost grip of her relative, and our sister got bruised and was almost carried away by the strong current. But finally her relative got hold of her again and brought her to safety. While she almost got drowned and swallowed some muddy water, our sister did not get sick.

One orphan family lived in a house which they have evacuated due to the rising waters and the very strong wind, and after a few minutes, the huge tree beside their house fell directly to their house and toppled it to the ground. These children lost their mom to a car accident a few years ago, and they were also abandoned by their dad.

Even in this situation of adversity and crisis it is so heartwarming to hear how God delivered them, and how they were able to help each other. The brethren were really moved by the care that the WCG has given to them. They even commented that while there is some relief provided by the government, but it comes in trickles and due to the tremendous number of people, the goods run out before giving every one his small share. In the WCG, they did not have to fall in line, it was delivered in boxes to them during the meeting. The initial relief goods were processed and packed by our pastoral team members who live in Iloilo. The head of the pastoral team  in Iloilo also met me in Kalibo. He drove starting about 2 in the morning, with his wife to bring the goods and meet us at around 8 in the morning on Sunday. 

Since he is an engineer, Pastor Elmer also helped us assess what needs to be done and how we could help. Pastor Elmer and the pastoral team members in Kalibo, together with the members rode the truck and visited the brethrens' homes, especially those whose houses were destroyed to be able to encourage them and their relatives.  Even the relatives who are not WCG members were really moved by the love displayed by the church. 

The local church hall which is located in  the place of one of our brethren, lost all its worship equipment and books, bibles, etc. The local area is praying for and seeking a place of higher elevation to move the church hall.

It is very hard to get some labor for carpentry and cleaning and clearing because most of the city residents are busy attending to their own homes, so we are trying to get carpenters and some volunteer help from Iloilo, a neighboring city which is about 5 hours away by land. We are looking also at the possibility of recruiting volunteers from friends of members in the city. Through the help that we got from the local churches in the Philippines, we already sent some relief goods and supplies, some of which were airlifted by one of our board members, Capt. Jessup Bahinting, using his private training plane since delivering some of the goods from the other islands is difficult.

With some supplemental help from the US brethren through the  Disaster Fund, we have been able to stretch whatever contributions we received here for the calamity victims. The brethren feel blessed because they belong to a bigger WCG family. Since our brethren have received such wonderful support and has been taken care of, we are also now looking into the possibility of extending help to the affected communities as our funds and resources would permit. We praise God for all your support and prayers.  It has made a big difference! --Eugene Guzon, National Director