Philippines’ Typhoon Response Update

Introduction
In December of 2021, Typhoon Rai known in the Philippines as Typhoon Odette caused the second costliest damage in their history (over 1 billion). Typhoon Odette brought winds of 120 km/h for periods of 10 minutes and even 260 km/h sustained for 1 minute at a time. The typhoon came from the Pacific Ocean and across the Philippines over Leyte region, just north of Mindanao city and over the middle of the Negros Island. Odette was the 15^th storm to hit the Philippines in 2021 and it was the strongest one of them all.

Working with Partners
Word & Deed has established relationships in the Philippines and was able to connect with two partners almost immediately.

First Partner: Pastor Brian Najapfour connected W&D with God is our Help Ministry. Representative were able to visit Saint Bernard, a town in the lower Letye region almost immediately and they assessed the needs. Six families who are members of a Baptist church completely lost their home. Early in January W&D approved a $15,000 USD project to rebuild these homes.

The Endaya family is one such family that lost their home. They already have a new home. Laymen, ladies and young people volunteered to help rebuild their home. Mr Enrigue, head of the household recently expressed his praise and thanks to God for the blessing of a new home. He never imagined that this would have been possible. He passes his thanks on to all the donors of W&D (Pictures below show the work being done). Some of these funds were also used to purchase materials to repair the roof of the Local Baptist church.  Pastor Silvano recently shared his appreciation for the assistance.

Second Partner: W&D also has a partner in Bacolod in the Negroes region. It is called Student Missionary Organization (SMO). They train students for serving as evangelists and some for pastors. Several buildings on their campus were damaged. W&D assisted with $4000 USD to help repair these buildings which included dorms, a staff house and classroom buildings.

SMO is also working with the local church mission team. This team did a mission trip to Kabankalan where indigenous people live and identified assistance that was needed there as W&D approved $15,000 USD to purchase materials and bring food supplies. You can view a video recap of their trip below. 

On Feb 14^th the mission team loaded material and supplies on a truck and they travelled a few hours south. Four indigenous families received materials to rebuild their totally damaged home. Ten families received solar light and twenty families received much needed packages of rice and groceries. More importantly, these families received the gospel of salvation through the preaching of Gods Word.

Construction material, supplies and food were also brought to a second location called Malabong. Materials had to be transported via boat. Praise God that Pastor Egee could lead this team but could also preach to these people who are new to the message of salvation by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.  Please pray for this work of mercy and for the work of Holy Spirit so even in times of calamity more may hear the Word.

To date we have gratefully received $25,000 CAD/ $20,000 USD for these efforts.  The total amount of funds required to assist the Philippines is $38,500 CAD / $30,000 USD. To donate to this ongoing need please visit our donation page here.