Yolanda Aid Worker Story 3

 God’s Unexpected Provision

By Pastor Steven Dime

Pastor Dime (above, center) and Jay Johnson Go (below
wearing mask) in action in Tacloban. 

The main purpose of my journey to Tacloban City was to remind people that there is still a God who cares and continues to provide in spite of dire circumstances. But before I could remind people of this wonderful lesson, I learned firsthand that God has a funny way of first teaching us the very lesson we want to impart to others.

I grew up in Tacloban City but have since migrated to Manila and am currently pastoring Lighthouse of Faith Tabernacle in Makati City.  I was selected to be the operation manager of CCOWE Care Caravan (A conglomeration of Chinese Churches created for the purpose of extending Christian concern and love especially in calamity-hit areas) for our Tacloban relief distribution. Bro. Jay Johnson Go of UECP volunteered to join me in the operation.

We had two main objectives in Tacloban: distribute relief goods and scout for contacts from surrounding towns for future relief operations.

Knowing full well the dire situation in Tacloban City during those first few days after Yolanda hit, I had to mentally condition Jay Johnson. First, I told him to be prepared to live on a biscuit-and-cupcake diet only. Second, we needed to conserve our drinking water because we wouldn’t be bringing too much of it with us. If people saw that we had supplies we could get robbed on our way downtown. (We were told that there was no transportation available and that we would have to walk all the way from the airport to the downtown area). Third, there were no guaranteed flights back to Manila. We would be taking chances. Hopefully we could get to Tacloban, distribute our goods and be out of the city within a week. Hopefully our food supply would last that long.

We stayed at the Ritz Tower which is owned by a good friend of mine. The CCT team happened to be also staying at the Ritz. Our relief goods would not arrive for a couple more days. They too were waiting for their medical team to arrive and had nothing planned until then. We decided to offer what little help we could to the city vice mayor who put us on a dump truck loaded with relief supplies headed for Brgy. San Jose.   

That one relief distribution activity forged a bond of friendship between our team of two and the CCT team. Little did we know at that time that the CCT team was God’s way of providing not just our needs but a reminder that He still cares and continues to provide.

When Jay Johnson and I arrived in Tacloban, we only had two liters of water each and a plastic bag of store-bought cupcakes and biscuits, which, by the way, was not much. On the first day, we had to take small sips just to make sure our water would last for a week. We didn’t even bother eating the first day in the name of conserving food.

When Pastor Ed Gomez heard of this, he graciously invited us to join them for every meal. In fact, he was very insistent that we join them. Every meal, we got to enjoy freshly cooked food courtesy of the CCT team. We never prayed for it. We never asked for it. We were prepared to eat only biscuits and cupcakes for a whole week. If God could turn water into wine…we found out that He can also turn cupcakes and biscuits into rice and fish and chicken.

When the medical team arrived, I realized that they didn’t have a pharmacist with them. They had doctors, nurses…but no pharmacist. I have been involved with medical/dental missions since I was in college. And I understand the importance of having someone familiar with medicines to do the dispensing of medicines in a medical mission or people could get the wrong medications. Being a licensed pharmacist, I volunteered to man the dispensing of medicines.

It’s amazing how God puts two and two together and everything just falls into its perfect place like a jigsaw puzzle. Doctor Demy came up to me afterward and said that we were a great help. God allowed us to be exactly where we were needed.

After Jay and I distributed the CCOWE relief goods, the only problem left on our end was how to get back to Manila. By the grace of God, the CCT team rented a van and was going back to Manila by land. And again, by the grace of God, there was enough room for Jay and myself to hitch a ride with them all the way to Manila. And again, by the wonderful grace of God, the CCT team offered us a ride without our asking them.

Our God is really a God of wonder and provision. We went to Tacloban hoping to remind them that God cares and still provides. And in turn, we were the ones reminded of that wonderful fact! May all the glory be unto our God…the great Provider.

New Boat, Fresh Hope for Roxas Fisher Folk

Fernando and Isabelita Ibanada in their new boat. The
net is the only piece of fishing gear they were
able to salvage after the storm.

Fernando and Isabelita Ibanada of Barra, Roxas City go out to sea in the small hours of the morning, bring home fresh catches of fish, crabs, and shellfish, and help make Roxas City the seafood capital of the country. But when Yolanda battered their tiny barangay on the northern coast of Capiz, the only boat they owned was shattered, never to be used again. 

Today, a month and a half after Typhoon Yolanda struck, Tatay Fernando has hope as fresh as an early morning catch of fish and he can go out to sea again – in a newly-purchased secondhand boat. The Ibanadas and four other fishermen are the first of 33 boat owners to receive loan assistance for boat purchase or repair from CCT and Bread from Heaven Christian Fellowship (BFHCF), a church in Las Pinas, Metro Manila. 

The couple will also receive P5,000 worth of housing materials free from BFHCF  for their partially-damaged house. The boats and eight houses being rebuilt with assistance from CCT and BHCF were dedicated to the Lord in a simple program attended by families of the recipients and by Pastor Doy of BFHCF. 

Anna Mae Labanero, CCT regional peer servant, said, “By Janaury we will have 20 more houses and about four more new or repaired boats to be dedicated to God.” 

Labanero added that all 2,079 community partners whose houses were totally destroyed will also receive assistance in 2014. Recipients of micro finance loans from the CCT Savings and Credit cooperative are referred to as community partners within CCT circles.

Of the 1,905 CCT community partners in the province of Capiz, about 310 are in the fishing industry as fishers, vendors, or processors.

- with reports from Connie Defensor, Roxas City, Capiz

Yolanda Aid Worker Story 2: Unexpected Rescue

Dr. Demy (standing) and Dr. Pan Callanta in Tacloban, Leyte.

By Pastor Ruel Castino as told to Myra Gaculais del Rosario

It was nearly sunset.  Three doctors and two nurses in the  medical mission team I was part of  were rushing to attend to a few more patients before Yolanda-devastated Tacloban would  be plunged again into darkness. 

They were treating survivors at the Rizal Central School where several families had taken shelter during the storm. Earlier, non-medical members of the group, myself included, had shared the Gospel and given out Bibles in the classrooms. 

A little girl, about five years old, had been hanging around the makeshift clinic as the team did their work. To pay her a little attention I taught her an action song which she acted out with gusto. 

“So where are you and your family staying?” I asked her afterward.

She pointed to another building and casually said her mother was not well. 

I decided to go see if our doctors could offer the woman some assistance.  It turns out girl's mother had been in a small accident at the crowded evacuation center and was suffering from burns on her back.   But lying next to her was a child– not one of hers --  gasping for breath. This boy, about six years old, was more in need of immediate medical attention than the woman.    

In other circumstances I’m sure the boy’s father would have brought him to a doctor.  Or he would have at least gone to a drugstore for a few tablets that would stop the asthma attack.  But this was just 13 days after the super storm that had made life in Tacloban come to a standstill.  People had lost their homes, hospitals were ruined, transportation was next to zero, and the stench of dead bodies still under the rubble filled the air.  Perhaps the father had given up hope and was waiting for the inevitable to happen. 

But I knew there still was hope for this child.  I alerted Dr. John Tabije who said he  indeed needed to be brought to a hospital.  We were lent one of the few vehicles available, an army truck brought to Tacloban by Japanese aid workers. The first hospital we brought the child to was closing just as we arrived.  They were open only during the day.   Thank God the child was admitted to the second hospital we brought him too.

When we visited the boy before leaving for another Yolanda-battered area he was breathing much better and his father had lost the look of hopelessness on his face the day before.  (The woman with burns on her back also sought medical attention she’d been trying to put off.)

And that little girl I taught an action song to?  Perhaps she will never know the important role she played in saving the life of another little child at the evacuation center that day.  

Pastor Ruel Castino (holding water bottle) with a relief delivery team
in Leyte. 

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The Center for Community Transformation Group of Ministries is committed to long-term rehabilitation work in areas affected by Typhoon Yolanda.  

Should you want to donate to Yolanda survivors, the following are CCT’s bank details:

               Bank :  Metropolitan Bank and Trust Company – Kamagong-Sampaloc, Makati Branch
               Bank Account Name :  Center for Community Transformation
               Peso Account Number :  501-3-501-90126-2
               US Dollar Account Number :  501-2-501-20008-0
               Swift Code :  MBTCPHMM

In the Philippines, please get in touch with Ms. Penny Lim at 0933-2618809 for queries or more information. 

If you are US-based, please visit philippines.causevox.com to make a donation.