Tag Archives: Philippines

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Super Typhoon Hagupit Approaching Philippines – Here we go again!

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Hard to believe that 13 months, almost to the day, we are directly in the line of site of yet another category 5 Super Typhoon.

Nazarene Disaster Response teams are mobilizing across the central Philippines.  We have met this afternoon with the Philippine / Micronesia Field Strategy Coordinator, Stephen Gualberto, to review our planning for communications / logistics strategy in the event that this turns into a devastating event like Super Typhoon Yolanda.

There are currently three tracks that the computer models are depicting.  One track (20% chance) has the storm moving due north, skirting the eastern shores and then moving towards Japan.

The 75% or higher probability, is a direct hit to the central Philippines, with the eye passing directly over Manila on Tuesday night.

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As you can imagine, given our roles as Communications / Partnerships / and Work Teams Coordinators for the Region, our office is a buzz of activity.  This will be a very hectic 5 days and beyond if this storm doesn’t either alter course or dissipate.  We remember all too well last year’s days, weeks, and months following Yolanda.

Evacuation
People are evacuating low laying areas on the eastern shores.

Please keep our Pacific Islanders in your prayers as areas that were so absolutely devastated by Yolanda are again in the line of site.  People are evacuating low lying areas now in the Central Philippines.

You can visit our regional website:  http://www.asiapacificnazarene.org/typhoonhagupit which is serving as the Region’s central communications anchor point for the duration of this event.   We released this global call-to-prayer about 1 hour ago:

Current News

Nazarene Disaster Response heads to Northern Provinces hit hardest by Typhoon Labuyo

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Please see the linked news article regarding the relief supplies going to our church families in the Northern Philippines.  While loss of life was minimal, which was a miracle given the power of the storm, home and crop damage was extensive.  Over 120 Nazarene families are displaced due to damaged homes.   See the story.

Posted from Todd while traveling.

Manila Udates

Arrived in Manila to an AWESOME welcome by the team!

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Friday, June 19th, 12:18pm Manila Time (That is for you Mom Landreth 🙂  )  We arrived yesterday afternoon and God truly blessed all of the details.  All of our action packers arrived safely, immigration went very smoothly, and we cleared customs without any problems.  Pastor Elmo and Tata were waiting at the arrival area with the vans, and after some heavy traffic, we arrived at Asia Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary.  God was truly in all of the details.  We did find out that Courtney’s return date was just one day longer than a standard tourist visa, so this will cost an additional $75.00, but that was the only glitch.

We were welcomed with open arms by our team – such a tremendous blessing.  The apartment was furnished, counters stocked with some food to get us going, and even a great welcome sign on the wall.   This is the rainy season, so the temperatures are warm and the atmosphere is very muggy.  It immediately reminded us of our years in Yap, Micronesia.   The air conditioning unit was down, so it truly was like home in the islands, where power was so expensive that we didn’t even have AC.   We made it to bed with some cold showers and fans blowing.

The jet lag did catch up with me.  I (Todd) awoke at 12:00am local time (10:00am Mountain Time) and was wide awake until about  5:00am local time.  We all discussed that we were only going to “think” in local Manila time.  Unfortunately our bodies didn’t get the message.  It did though, afford me the opportunity to get into Lee Strobels, “Case for Faith” which I have been wanting to read for quite some time.

This morning in the office, we started out with team devotions at 9:00am, and then moved into a meeting with Dr. Bill Kwon and Grace Tia (manager of World Mission Communications – Asia Pacific).  It was a good initial orientation into what lies ahead.   I am 100% assured now that it is only by God’s grace and strength that we will be able to accomplish the task that is set ahead of us.

Final note…went out to start the car, battery dead.  Looks like I will get to start mechanic work the very first day here.  Glad I threw some tools into our action packers!

Thanks for your continued prayers and encouragement,

Yours and His,
Todd

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World Mission Communications Team with a welcome sign in our office.  They had a similar sign in our apartment!  Such a great family!

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Dr. Kwon’s daughter – the youngest member of the welcoming team.

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The team enjoying snacks from Cabela’s…had to bring a little Idaho with us to share!

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Posted from Todd while traveling.