You’re going about your normal life, then one night disaster strikes and you’re left with nothing.
Four teams from our squad arrived in Tacloban, Philippines on October 2, where we will be staying until the end of November.
On November 8th 2013 typhoon Yolanda hit Tacloban destroying homes, families, landscape and much more. We are staying and working at The Lighthouse with Kids International Ministries and on the one year anniversary of the typhoon we are doing a three day remembrance for the community of Tacloban where on the 7th we will dedicate The Lighthouse, the 8th is community outreach where people can share their stories and we can pray with them, and the last day will be prayer and worship with the community. So until November 7th we are working hard to get construction done. This includes such painting their fence, moving mounds of dirt, building a cement rock wall, making a basketball court, and much more! For about the first week we were here, to be honest I was only giving the construction about half my effort, I was like ugh its hot and humid, I’m tired, and I deserve a break. Every morning one person is in charge of devotions before we start the day and one morning one of the Filipino staff at The Lighthouse shared her story of the typhoon. With tears in her eyes she told us of how she lost her sister, mother, niece, and brother; how she saw the body of her sister floating in the water, and one of the men on staff told us their vision of how they want the three days of remembrance to be. It’s about many many more people with similar stories and us trying to help bring healing and remembrance, I was moved so deeply after that. My purpose here in Tacloban is to serve the people of the Philippines, help bring healing and joy. Even though I may be tired I will push on because it is not about me, it’s about serving God and serving his people. The strength in the local people here amazes me, they have been through so much, lost so much and yet they still give praise and glory to God.
So if you could lift some prayer up for our squad and the Filipino staff; that we would be working as a family, we would get the work done that needs to be done in time, we would have renewed energy every day, and that in this season of rebuilding that the people of Tacloban would experience healing and joy. Thank you in advance and praying for you guys back home! 🙂
