The good news is that this time,
they are ready. 
Roger Thomas with AMG International says their teams may be prepared, but they're also
overwhelmed.   "They're just trying
to turn the corner from relief to rehabilitation, and now they've got to go back to
relief. People
need long-term help to rebuild their houses, their livelihood, and churches and childcare centers need to be rebuilt," which includes 17 AMG
childcare centers–eight of which have been flooded. 

Some of the AMG centers are being
used as temporary shelters, where emergency food and clothing is needed
immediately.

Thomas adds that while it's a
crisis, this has also opened new doors for the hope of Christ. Although the office headquarters of AMG
Philippines is in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Thomas notes that "this is an area where we don't have any
ministry at all; our teams went in, gave food packages to 400 families,
and coordinated that with the local church."

Compassionate response to
physical needs marks the path to outreach and discipleship. Thomas says, "Now we're going back to check
and say, 'Hey, how are you doing?' And
they'll ask, 'Why are you doing this for me? Why are you here?' And then we're
able to tell them."

AMG has sent emergency relief
funds to enable their staff to provide emergency food and care, and to help the
affected families recover. However, over
the last three months, that emergency fund has been depleted due to multiple
disasters in Asia. That means AMG is
only able to assist sponsored children and their families.

If you can help, they can go
beyond that to assist other families in the communities as well. Click here.

Declaring a state of calamity will allow the country to use
emergency funds and impose price controls.

As of Friday, 400,000 people took refuge in schools,
gymnasiums and any other makeshift shelters the government and non-government
organizations (NGOs) could provide.

"The rains from Parma threatened to worsen already-squalid
conditions and further hamper relief supplies for the survivors in those
shelters," AFP reported.

AMG International is on the ground. Of their 32 childcare
centers in the Philippines, 17 are in metro Manila–one of the areas hit
hardest by these storms.

After Ketsana hit, eight of their centers were flooded, stranding
AMG staff and preventing them from providing aid to all who need it. The other centers
still above flood level were turned into shelters for those displaced from
their homes.

Roger Thomas with AMG said these centers are providing food
and clothing for some. Currently, food is the greates need, as some of the
refugees had not eaten since the first storm struck.

Thomas said the situation is frustrating: "Our truck pulled
up to one of our centers with a limited amount of relief … we didn't have
enough to give to everybody."

The lingering flood waters and lack of resources, coupled
with the government and NGOs who were unprepared for the first storm, are
making relief efforts extremely difficult. Also, as several feet of water cover
large areas of the region, medical risks, such as water-borne diseases, will
arise.

Thomas said they can still get to many of their centers and
use their trucks to get food to those who have none. However, they lack enough money to
purchase the amount of food needed.

To help provide immediate relief to those worst affected by
the storms in the Philippines, click here.

While AMG struggles with
providing aid to the many needy people across the country, they still remain
faithful to their calling to share the Good New; they see this time as an
opportunity.

"Anytime you help
somebody, whether it's a flood or a tsunami or an earthquake or whatever, they
greatly appreciate what you've done for them. And they will be willing to
befriend you and listen to what you have to say," Thomas said.

Pray for the victims
of tropical storm Ketsana and typhoon Parma. Pray that they will see the love of
Christ reflected in the work AMG and other mission agencies are doing in the
area. Pray for the waters to recede and rebuilding and restoration to begin
smoothly.

According to the World Health Organization, Uganda, a nation
of 30 million people, had an estimated 10.6 million cases of malaria in 2006, with
70,000 to 110,000 deaths a year. 

Roger Thomas with
AMG International agrees that the disease is
taking a serious toll on work and development.
"At our childcare center in Igamba, we have about 250 children. At
least three children a week are taken into the clinic for treatment of
malaria."

The government wants an insecticide-treated mosquito bed net
in 85 percent of households and wants to spray the interior of all homes in the most
hard-hit of districts by the years' end. Although the government priority will be given to children and pregnant
mothers,  the problem is rampant. It's even more pronounced among the poverty-stricken, isolated regions.

That's why AMG is working in the poorest rural areas, where,
according to Thomas, "Most of their
homes do not have the mosquito nets that they need to protect them from the
mosquito bites." Homes that do
have nets usually have nets with holes in them or are no longer treated with
the repellent. 

It has taken time to earn the community's trust. "We've
had cases where the parents come and take the children out of the clinic and
take them to the witchdoctor. Of course, they don't get any help; we've had
children die because of that. If we have our own clinic, which is under
construction right now, we'll be able to keep the children right there and
treat them for malaria." 

Thomas says this will bear fruit. "Because you build a
relationship both with the children and the parents, and you're giving the
Gospel to the children, eventually the child, the family, and the whole
community is changed."

AMG is getting a short-term team together for
work in Uganda. The team will visit the
five AMG projects in and around Kampala as well as one located in Igamba, 70
miles east of Kampala. While at these projects, the team will minister to the more than 1,300
children supported through AMG.

Should the property purchased by AMG be ready
for construction, the team will help with building the new AMG orphanage. Other activities will involve teaching Sunday school and preaching two Sunday
mornings in various churches and ministering to the inmates in a men's and/or
women's prison.

Click here for details on how you can help.