God is so good. He has a plan for all he does.
We are staying in Tacloban, The Philippines, and it has been an incredible experience so far. Tacloban was hit by Typhoon Yolanda almost a year ago. Almost no house or building was spared from severe damage or complete destruction. There are still signs of the devastation beneath the makeshift shacks. There are still many aid workers here that have either been here since the typhoon or have gotten here soon after. Besides the ministry I am staying with (Kids International Ministries), I have also seen YWAM, Samaritans Purse, Salvation Army, US Aid, UNICEF, WHO, (World Health Organization), and many others. The South Korean Army has a base here and is helping to rebuild and support the people here. (It was weird buying pineapple at a local stand and having Korean army behind me.) Most of these organizations have large bases with vehicles and supplies. Despite the enormous amounts of aid here, the people still need more. There is a great amount of poverty and sickness here. But most of all, these people need Jesus. The local church and the ministries I have come in contact with are all doing the best they can to bring the healing love of Christ. It has been amazing to see the impact they have on the people here. We need a great amount of prayer to go farther and impact more people with the Gospel. Please pray that we will proclaim the love of God as we should. Please pray that God will provide enough food when we go out on feedings. We go out twice every day with huge amounts of food and there is never enough to feed the people who are so hungry. On Monday I went on the feedings and we ran out of food twice as we always do. It was so hard for me, especially the second time. There are almost exclusively just kids that come out with their bowls and ask for food.. in the afternoon we ran out of food very quickly and had nothing left to give to the 30-40 kids that were still left. Many on my team were about to cry. I was about to cry and then decided to just played with the kids. We soon realized that the kids that were left needed to play and be loved on and touched much more than they needed food. We played with them until we needed to leave. We realized that God had us there to provide food for some and love for others. It was an incredible time of worship when we played with the kids. It was so amazing, and I will never forget it. I am so blessed to be able to be here for 8 more weeks serving the kids.
We are staying with Kids International Ministries in Tacloban. We stayed with the same ministry in Manila. The Manila base is the central location for the ministry. We had a 31 hour bus/ferry ride to get here from Manila. We are staying in the basement of the house KIM bough shortly after the typhoon. There are locals, Americans, and Australians all staying here and we all have our jobs serving the people of the community. Each team’s schedule is different, but my team’s weekly schedule looks like this:
Monday- Lead morning devotions, go on feeding in the morning and afternoon. (Feedings are bringing food to various communities around Tacloban) At night we have night watch. (There has been some petty theft before we got here and they have taken to watching the grounds all night. We are taking over the night watch while we are here to let them sleep)
Tuesday- Cooking and Cleaning all day, helping around the house.
Wednesday- Free Day!
Thursday- Cooking and Cleaning all day
Friday- Construction in the morning and afternoon (construction projects around the house, right now we are building storm walls and leveling a field for grass)
Saturday- Prayer boat in the morning. (we fish and pray for all of the ministries happening) Awana with the kids in the afternoon and night watch at night.
Sunday- Cooking and cleaning, church, and volunteer night watch
We are pretty busy, and it is awesome. God has been working and moving, and we are doing well as a squad. His blessings are incredible, the pineapple is fresh and the beach is across the street. God is so good, and we are so humbled to be here. Please be praying for our health and our ministry. God bless!
Quick note, I learned how to drive a manual here and driving can be scary. It’s not that bad though, you learn the culture of the road pretty quick. Also, McDonald’s is opening on the 16th for the first time since the typhoon, and the whole squad is pretty excited.
