Pastor Joel and family standing in front of their house after the Typhoon

Pastor Joel Piña had been through typhoons before; he wasn’t sure what the weather people meant by a “storm surge” but he was confident that he and his family would be fine. Unfortunately, this typhoon was going to be worse than any typhoon he had seen in his lifetime.

As the storm got worse, Joel and his family decided to move to his in-laws’ larger house nearby. This was wise and yet even this taller, stronger house would be rocked the storm. This typhoon included not just the some of the strongest wind speeds ever recorded but also huge amounts of water flooding in from the ocean.

After Joel took his 4 year-old son Zen up to the rafters of the house, he looked around for his wife Annabelle only to see her holding their youngest 9 month-old son above her head to keep him from drowning. He quickly grabbed them and pulled them to safety above what became 15 foot flood waters.  Annabelle’s brother faced a similar situation in the same house.  Tragically, the water overcame his wife and child.  The child’s body was found inside the house, but his wife’s body has not yet been found.

Pastor Joel is praising the Lord that most of his extended family did survive, some of them clinging to the roof outside of his in-law’s house. Even more importantly, in the midst of (or because of) this tragic circumstance, the Lord gave Pastor Joel the opportunity to share the Gospel with some of his family and a couple strangers, all of whom made professions of faith in Christ!

– Ariel Ubben