An Urgent Need
I received a very sad message on Facebook just before Christmas. It was from Emjay, the girl I corresponded with when she was an LDP student through Compassion’s ministry.
Now that’s she’s finished, we are able to talk on Facebook. Here is the sad message she sent me:
Mommy…our city was devastated by the typhoon last night.
Many lives were lost…and all our things and house were gone by the flood.
My father and brother were almost drowned. Thank God they were saved.
We have nothing left. Please pray for us…
I immediately googled the name of her city — Iligan City in the Philippines — and was shocked to see the news. Over a thousand people had died in the floods. It was right in the area we had visited a year and 1/2 ago.
I contacted her Project Manager, Eva, to see what we could do to help. This is what Eva wrote to me:
God is good all the time! Emjay and her family are now safe and are taken cared of by our church disaster team headed by our senior pastor…
Her father was injured during the flood, causing his hand to swell. right now he is under medication. His right hand is still in bad condition. he cannot use it for now because the wound is deep. Thank God that Emjay’s family is safe. Their house was totally wiped out. All their things were gone…
About our church condition — we have 3 casualties.
2 staff of Compassion and 1 compassion assisted child. The church rooms are being used as an evacuation center for 10 families. We are also accepting Relief goods to help people in their desperate hours. We want to help more people… according to our assessment they need food, kitchen utensils, cooking utilities, shelters, blankets, shoes, medicines, groceries and toiletries. Thank you so much for expressing help for the church especially that we need to feed the people who are refugees and volunteers in our HOPE OPERATION.
I will tell you more about “Hope Operation” in the next post.
I was able to wire some support to Emjay’s family, but am also collecting funds for the church project itself, which will be sent through Compassion.
This church is amazing. Though it is not very large, it has a huge outreach in the community. This week I will focus on this church and will be collecting funds to send to them. If you would like to donate, please click here.
Here are some photos from this very special Compassion project (taken before the flood):
Sheep Fold