Oct 8, 2009

This past week I haven�ft had internet access at the house, so I haven�ft been able to post much. I am sorry for that.

The typhoon that hit Manila before never had a chance to leave the Philippines because two other typhoons came pushing it back in. So for the past week it has been raining a lot!! Today especially the rain is very bad. It forces its way through our windows and then into our house, the floors are very slippery. But thankfully we have had no real flooding in our home. It just trickles from the 3^rd floor down to the group floor via the stairs. Outside our house the subdivision streets are flooded. I went into town today and when I left it was up to my lower calf, upon returning, which was very hard to get back, the water was up to my knees. My lovely rain jacket is coming in handy because the umbrellas fly away. J

On Monday instead of going to the slums with Dreb to have youth bible study, the young mothers in the slum came to our house to have an �gouting�h. Everyone came in their best outfits, some of the woman brought their nieces, nephews or boyfriends. Which we hadn�ft planed on when cooking, but there was just enough Styrofoam containers we had prepared with spaghetti. Some of the things we did together was sing songs, listen to a short message, eat spaghetti, and play games. We had a speed crossword puzzle for them, and prior to their coming we challenged them to memorized the books of the bible, whoever could would recite it. They played a bible quiz game, which was so much fun to watch, they would race to the whiteboard first to write the answer down. One small joy in life for them is writing on a whiteboard because they never get the chance to. We gave out prizes for various reasons (everyone got at least two chances to come pick a prize). The prizes consisted of grocery items that they might need, a few examples are: diapers, pads, noodles, shampoo, laundry soap, then also they could choose a toy for their child.

�@

October 11, 2009

The rains were so bad the whole town is under water up to the chest, it rained all day on the 8^th and the 9^th. Finally the rains stopped on the 10^th but most everywhere is flooded. The electricity went out for almost three days and we were just stuck inside the base. Trying to find things to do. Since we live outside of the town we were spared from water being up to our chest, the water only came up to our knees on the streets and didn�ft enter our house.

Now will be our time to provide relief to the people. We have not been able to get into the town yet, but we are going to try today. Next week there should be a team from Singapore that will coming and provide relief work also, and with that bringing funds to provide. We will house them!

I don�ft know when I will actually be able to post this because the town is flooded. But the sun is out and hopefully will dry up the rains!