The Destruction part 1

Steve arrived safely home last night after a very tiring 12 hour drive. We are so thankful to have him home today. He said the destruction down there is absolutely unbelievable and indescribable. The whole province is in utter chaos. At least a thousand have been confirmed dead with many, many more still missing. Thousands upon thousands more have lost their homes and livelihoods.
Our partner churches down in the Albay province of Bicol region (the province where the vast majority of the devastation was) were exceedingly thankful for the immediate relief that he was able to bring. And we are thankful to be working with an organization who is ready with funds to help people in the midst of disaster, and thankful for our partner churches and individuals in the States who give to make that a reality. The main 2 things Steve brought down were tarps to be used as temporary shelters until they can rebuild and drinking water (those were the 2 things the pastors in that area said they needed the worst). Here are a couple pics of the tarps already being put to good use.

In addition to bringing the supplies down, Steve also did what he could to help out those affected down there. Since he is good at fixing things, he was able to be a big help. He repaired a generator, a vehicle, a freezer, a water pump and a washing machine while he was down there (I think that is all...)

Water is obviously a huge problem down there right now - ironic after the disaster is due to too much water all at once... Some missionaries down there have a water pump in their back yard so he helped pump gallon after gallon of water to be used in the clean up process.

Steve was able to be a huge help and blessing to the Allens while he was down there (the missionary family whose home flooded there). He stayed with them and was able to help coordinate the clean up effort there (they were understandable a little overwhelmed with all that has happened to them and were thankful for his leadership in "directing traffic" as it were). He was also able to help them get several of their appliances up and running again. Please continue to be in prayer for them as it will be months before they have electricity or water again and they lost so much of their personal belongings. I did a post on their behalf to their blogspot, and you may want to check it out www.allenupdate.blogspot.com to know how better to pray for them. They are going to work for another week then will take a few days off in Manila to re-group. They aren't sure yet where they will spend the holidays...

On the way home, Steve was able to stop through Iriga, the city where we hope to locate, and check on the 2 houses that are options for us to move into. We are thankful to report that neither one of them had flooded! While there was some wind damage on the outside, they both looked pretty much ok. Here is a pic of "House #1" that I failed to get a pic of last time...

Continue on to the next post to see a few more pics that Steve took down in Bicol.

Thanks to all of you who sent notes after our last update - it was SUCH a blessing to have an inbox full of encouragement from home. It has been a rough week (month!), and that meant so much. We head up to Manila today for Ben's appointments. Please pray with us that the doctor will work with us so we can get all 3 appointments in before I have to leave to go to help my sister with her surgery - I leave on the 12th.