“I’ve heard of a man with holes in his hands, and he can hide mountains of sin in them.”
-Jonathan David Helser
As I look out the kitchen windows over the roosters crowing and dancing, I see mountains. They are so green and big and they promise prosperity. And to their direct right is skeletons of buildings. Memories of past storms and reminders of storms to come.
Team Ransom’s first month is in Tacloban, Philippines. It’s such a beautiful place with beautiful people. You can tangibly feel how much God loves this place and these people. Tacloban is one of the cities that typhoon Yolanda hit hard in 2013. While the news reported 6-8,000 lives lost, a local has told us that it was closer to 30,000. But if those numbers are released, the president could be impeached.
I look at these children living in shacks that come running out of their homes with bowls and plates for the food we bring. And I look at the young girls giggling and finally gaining enough courage to tell me, “Your skin is very white.” And I look at the building that Aaron (a man who works at the ministry) and his family clung to and climbed as the water rose. All of these things are so hard to see when you know 30,000+ people didn’t make it.
But our God is the God of redemption. And the people of the Philippines always choose to rebuild.
Our host ministry this month is The Lighthouse, which is a segment of Kids International Ministries (KIM). They are self-proclaimed “storm chasers”. When typhoons hit they dive into the aftermath, bringing relief packages, medical supplies, food, hygiene supplies, etc. For the last few days here we’ve been preparing relief packages, playing with the local kids that come to The Lighthouse after school, and going on feed runs into the streets of Tacloban and the surrounding cities. Later this week we will be running the relief packages we helped pack out to Samar, who was hit hard by the latest typhoon.
This ministry and place reminds me so much of home sometimes it’s scary. The palm trees, weather, geckos, toads, ants, mosquitos, proximity to water are all the same as Florida. The family atmosphere and so much laughter is the same. Yet my heart is made different by who and where God has brought me to this month.
Pray for the Philippines, pray for Tacloban, and pray for the storm chasers here at The Lighthouse. Pray that they are blessed, pray the people they come into contact with will be blessed, pray that the relief they bring is blessed by God’s redemptive, mountain-hiding hands.
