(Photo courtesy of EFCA)

Samar (EFCA) — [EDITORS NOTE: We are sharing this directly from a ReachGlobal Crisis Response post.]

This past December Typhoon Ruby slammed into Borongon E. Samar. Our partner, World Harvest Fellowship Borongon (EFCP) immediately began reaching out to help in the community, along with the EFCP and Covenant EFC Singapore. ReachGlobal Crisis Response has been partnering with them in the response. After only a few months of compassionate and crisis-based Gospel outreach, they celebrated the baptism of nearly a dozen people and have established a ministry center and weekly Bible study with over 40 people.

WHF Borongon’s vision for 2015 is to plant churches in 10 communities impacted by the typhoon. Join the partnership. There are many opportunities for you to serve and support EFCA’s mission and the people affected by the typhoon. You can pray and ask God to root His Word and His Hope deeply into the hearts and minds of these new believers, and for His saving Grace to be abundantly experienced by many others in this village. You can also give to the Typhoon Response outreach.

Approximately $2500 of materials is needed to rebuild one home. Typhoon Ruby destroyed or damaged almost 1000 homes in these 10 villages alone. You can invest $650 to cover the entire 2 months cost for one of these seminary students, helping them gain practical ministry experience, while significantly extending the outreach arm of these local churches. You can also go and be a light in the darkest places with people who are hurting. Send a short-term team to help with relational outreach and ministry with kids and families.

(UNICEF Philippines photograph)

Philippines (MNN) — A glance at the most recent Situation Reports from the United Nations for the Philippines reads like this:

*About 1,400 tents (20% of the total) had to be repaired or replaced in Guiuan following the passing of Tropical Depression Agaton (Lingling) in late January.

*A 4.8-magnitude earthquake struck Leyte (Region VIII). There are no reports of damage or casualties.

*Internally Displaced Persons in Tacloban City moved from evacuation centers to bunkhouses two weeks ago. However, more work is required to prepare the sites.

*An assessment mission in Bantayan Island (Region VII) showed that there are still immediate shelter requirements and a need for better early recovery coordination.

This is a mere glimpse of the aftermath of Super Typhoon Haiyan, which struck the Philippines squarely November 9, 2013. It revealed disaster upon disaster, and yet just 52% of the funding required in the Philippines has been met, despite a huge international effort to pool donations.

Why the disinterest? The international community is deluged with disaster reports all the time. That’s especially true of Syria, the Central African Republic, and South Sudan. Now, with the Olympic Games underway, there’s very little attention paid to the crisis in the Philippines.

(Photo couresy of ANM)

That may be due, in part, to not having a face or a story to put to it. For Marlou Barredo, wife of Advancing Native Missions founder and President Bo Barredo, it got very personal. Marlou is a native of Tacloban, an area that took the brunt of Typhoon Haiyan’s wrath.

Shock upon seeing her hometown leveled turned to forward motion after Bo encouraged her to action. “’I think it’s about time for you to stop weeping and for you to acknowledge that you are the Esther of your people in such a time as this. You come from the island. You come from the Philippines, and those islands of Samar and Leyte. Those are Waray-Waray people, and you are one of them.’”

She told her story, and her heartfelt plea brought in a flood of supplies. Bo adds, “This is also in partnership with another ministry called ‘Gleaning for the World’ based in Lynchburg, Virginia. With this partnership, and with all of those donated food items and clothes, and blankets, and medicines, we were able to ship out 459 large boxes.”

They’ve also sent a couple of medical teams out to deal with the injuries that come in the wake of storms like this, and in the aftermath of clean-up. In fact, on Valentine’s Day, “There’s a big medical team doing their second or third medical operations in the city of Tacloban.”

Bo adds,  “Aside from the food distribution, there’s an ongoing repair of 53 homes and churches, and one of them is a Bible school.” Now, this story is starting to read like all the other disaster stories buried in a newscast.

Carlota Ursaig, 45-years-old, was thankful to be reunited with her 6 children after a tree landed on the house they had been taking shelter in. They gladly received food that an OM team had to spare. (Image, caption courtesy OM)

Let’s put another face on it. Bo talked about a couple he met while in Tacloban holding pastor conferences. Not only did the attendees get a good meal, some supplies, and care from God’s Word: they also got hope. But this couple, Pastor Dante Lingo, and his wife, DeLor, stood out in his mind because of what they said. “’Thank you for helping us start a second life.’” The ruin faced by this family was complete: they “lost three of their four children, all under the age of 11. Not only had they lost their three children, they also lost their home, and they also lost their church.” But they were determined to continue their ministry, and with the respite they received at the conference, they could go on. Their story is similar to thousands across Haiyan’s footprint.

There are real people behind the collapsed buildings and rubble scattered island wide. Bo observes that while the scope of damage remains overwhelming in light of the time that’s passed, there is still time to respond. “We admit this is just a drop in the bucket, but if there are many drops in the bucket, that makes a river.”

About a third of the country's 80 provinces, mainly in central and southern
regions, have been inundated by floodwaters since the rains began in late
December.

Damages are estimated at $40 million, but thus far, the country still has
rice and corn production to fall back on in the north and western parts of the
country.

In Samar, child development centers and children assisted by Compassion International have been affected. Several
children lost their homes to flash flooding, and the brother of a sponsored
child was killed.

The government has also issued advisories against fishing in the northern
and central parts of the country as strong winds could trigger big waves.

However, fishing and farming are the only sources of income for most of the
fathers of the sponsored children. In addition,
the flooding has also resulted in rats infesting the crops, and plants and
trees being toppled.

Compassion is meeting the physical and spiritual needs of the families and
children in these areas through church partners. Please pray for an end to the
rain. Pray for the Lord to provide a source of income for the fathers who are
fishermen and farmers. More prayer points are here.

It's a public acknowledgment equivalent to the Nobel Peace
Prize in the region, awarded to OBI for the ministry's efforts in promoting
peace and helping to rebuild the nation's impoverished provinces, especially in
Samar.

This region is still struggling to make a comeback after
being battered by a string of typhoons at the end of last year. OBI committed to a long-term recovery
project and has been providing
healthcare, emergency aid, livelihood assistance to families, food, and
education to children.

Volunteers conducted six week-long medical missions during
the year, assisting 26,000 residents in 20 villages across Samar.
In addition to their disaster relief response, they opened community
pharmacies, provided free medical treatment to thousands through ongoing
medical missions, and drilled water wells for residents living in remote areas
with limited access to clean water.

Acting as the hands and feet of Christ, the teams have met
the physical and spiritual needs of over 26,000 people during the
year. If you can help, click here.