November 29, 2013
Dear Prayer Team,
It is 5:30 AM. I’m typing on my laptop in a bedroom in our house in Tacloban. It is the only one that doesn’t leak badly. There are many holes in the roof. If it rains hard, there is a waterfall on the stairway from water pouring in the holes in the roof. A big chunk of cement fell from the top of our wall into the master bedroom. It’s still there, and there’s no roof above.
Though there are some homes here that fared better, I think ours is one of the better preserved homes in Tacloban. There are broken roofs and homes everywhere. The pictures you see of Tacloban only tell half of the story of the devastation here in the Philippines caused by Typhoon Haiyan.
Missionary Ben Horton, Ben’s friend AC Acosta, and I arrived in Calbayog on Monday night. Tuesday, we planned with Pastor Haligado and Nonoy Perito, leaders in the church, what we would do. Ben, AC, and I traveled through Eastern Samar, while Ely, Nonoy, and other members traveled to Tacloban. We went to find where the needy people were and see if the pastors associated with our Filipino home mission board, New Life Baptist Mission, were able to receive food and relief goods. Filipino pastor Paul Pascual traveled with us by motorcycle. His home in Borongan, Eastern Samar, was not damaged.
Destruction in Hernani
South about an hour and a half from Borongan, we came to Hernani. A 10 foot wall of water from the ocean hit Hernani. Where there used to be green rice fields and coconut trees, there were stretches of brown mud or sand. We visited the Batang district of Hernani, where Brian Babasol pastors a mission church meeting in a home. The place where the church met was almost scraped down to bare sand. Brian’s little house, which appeared in a recent prayer letter, couldn’t even be found. The 2 story house that was being improved as a meeting place only had the floor left. 27 of the 900 residents died.
We met the community leader of Batang. He was red-eyed and dazed, wondering how he would lead these people who had lost almost everything. There were grey US Aid tents in the area, providing shelter to many who lost homes.
As we started going along the south coast of Samar, we were shocked. The area we drove through looked like a nuclear blast had hit it. Maybe a million coconut trees snapped in half or completely uprooted. Roofs in the towns were off, and debris was everywhere. The hills, once covered with green coconut trees, were brown. All the way from Guiuan, Samar to Tacloban, Leyte, there is great devastation.
It was getting dark when we arrived in Giporlos. Smiling Manny Ramil was getting ready to have a prayer meeting with his 6 members that had arrived. There is a big hole in the side of their rented building, washed out by the typhoon. I am wondering how I can get him to a safer and better place. Manny’s smile was as big and white as ever.
We drove to Lawaan, where Jun Rowmawac pastors. The typhoon took off almost the entire roof of their church building. They have a tarp covering the gap, but the typhoon blew out the front and back walls of the church. Jun and his sister Vanessa were staying there when the typhoon hit. They took shelter in the bathroom. The typhoon was so powerful, it sent the church piano tumbling across the church floor. The wind was so strong it was pushing the bathroom walls in on them. Vanessa and Jun pushed back and prayed. Both of them thought they would die that evening.
We slept at Jun’s house. Just after we arrived, a team from a Baptist church from Romblon came there. They were sent to feed people in the neighborhood of the church. We slept on air mattresses inside the church.
The next morning, we got up early and drove to the Osmeňa district of Marabut. We saw the red painted trusses of a roof lying twisted on the ground, as if a giant had wadded them up into a ball. Mrs. Mike Baltazar was there at the church. They are living in the church building, since the parsonage doesn’t have a roof any more.
Nobody that we met was in despair, but all of them had very serious challenges to finding a dry place to live. There was only one death among the members of our family of churches. It’s hard to believe when you look at all the devastated towns. The devastation in Tacloban is only part of a much greater devastation.
Relief Team
Just before we reached Tacloban, we met the truck from Calbayog carrying the rice, canned goods, and other goods that the folks from the church bought with money donated by people who gave to the Philippine Typhoon Relief fund. We filled them in on where the churches were located, and where to leave the relief packages that they made up.
I was really happy when we drove into Tacloban. Nonoy Perito’s mechanic, Eddie, said that he thought my car would start, if we bought a new starter. I went with him to the store, then we drove together to San Jose. We almost couldn’t get into the small road leading to our house, because it was clogged with debris and sheets of steel roofing. After we cleared them off, we were finally able to enter the compound where our house is.
The ground is really muddy. Sheets of roofing litter the ground, junk and debris is everywhere. We saw the big hole in the side of the house. Nora, who works in our home, and her husband Roger were there waiting for us. Nora had done some wash. It was obvious she had been working hard to clean the house. I opened my office, and found cabinets on the floor and mud-covered books. Our laptops, which I had carefully placed inside a plastic box in case of a little rain, were slimy with mud.
Eddie started working on the car. I began shouting, “Thank you Lord” when I heard it start. Eddie says I still need to get an electrician to complete the work, for many wires and connections need fixing. But it starts! Pray that I can find a car electrician to work on it.
Tomorrow, Roger and Nora’s cousin will put tarps on the roof. If we can just get the rain to stop coming in, the house will be much more livable.
Carrying the Light,
Jim and Allene Latzko
