Hello from Manila. After 21 hours of travel, I arrived at 1:00 am Sunday November 17th. The purpose of my trip is to connect with World Renew’s partner, the Christian Reformed Church of the Philippines (CRCP) and provide support to their Disaster Response Team (DRT) as they respond to the devastation of Typhoon Haiyan. I was picked up Pastor Adelito Gonzales, CRCP’s National Disaster Response chairman, who I kept up to 3:00 am getting up to speed on what has been done already.  

Grace Wiebe, Senior Disaster Response Manager for World Renew, will be blogging from the Philippines for the next ten days.

As of Nov 18th, the government now estimates that 12.9 million people have been affected, 4 million people have been displaced; about 350,000 live in over 1,560 evacuation centres.  One million houses sustained damage, with over 490,000 completely destroyed. With all the experience World Renew has in building shelter, I think we will be busy here for quite some time.

Many in the churches have been personally affected and the CRCP church in Tacloban has been completely wiped out. Despite these trials, the CRCP has been responding and reaching out to others. All six Classis (or regional groups of churches) of the CRCP are helping out; the three northern ones with financial donations and the procurement and packing of supplies; the three southern classes ones serving as the eyes on the ground, assessing the situation and identifying those most in need.

I shared with Pastor Adel some ideas of what the next steps on the Typhoon Haiyan response could be, based on my experience with the 2005 tsunami as well as opening and closing four World Renew (then CRWRC) regional offices for major disaster responses in Asia. He was greatly encouraged by this information, as it gave him a sense of what could be done through a strong partnership with World Renew.

Later that morning, only 6 hours later, I had the opportunity to worship at the Parañaque CRC. I shared with these brothers and sisters in Christ that $300,000 had already been raised for World Renew’s Typhoon Haiyan response from supporters in North America and overseas. It was a great lift to their spirits to know that they were supported by their worldwide church family. One of the elders delivered a wonderful sermon called “How God Works in Times of Disaster.”

After church I met with the Disaster Response Team, to talk about the challenges of logistics and transportation of relief items. As you may have heard in the news, transportation of food and other aid has been difficult in the Philippines since the storm wiped out so much of the infrastructure and since there is a competition for available resources. The CRCP has found a workable solution for the time being. Congregations in Classis Southern Luzon are purchasing goods in Los Banyos. These materials are then loaded onto a 10 ton truck which will be driven 17 hours to the most southern tip of the island that Manila sits on. From the port, the goods are ferried 45 minutes across to the northern tip of the island of Samar and then driven five hours south to Tacloban.

I will be in the Philippines until November 27 to help coordinate World Renew and CRCP’s efforts. Please continue to support us with your prayers.

Prayer requests
  • Please pray that we are able to get hold of the needed trucks to transport not just the relief items but also 30 CRCP volunteers.
  • Pray that we are able to safely reach our target beneficiaries with our goods, as we have to drive for four-five hours past very hungry survivors.
  • Pray for wisdom, energy, and security for me, as I travel to the island of Panay Tuesday, to meet with the Iloilo church. From there I will go to Tacloban and Guian.

Thank you for your generous support and your prayers!

In Christ,

Grace Wiebe

Senior Disaster Response Manager
World Renew Disaster Response & Rehabilitation

 

Photo top: Pastor Adele, Christian Reformed Church in the Philippines Disaster Response, and two Filipino children.