People’s Village Progress
Although it has been over two years since the catastrophic typhoon Yolanda hit the Philippines it is only now that many of the future homes paid for by foreign aid are getting ready for families to move in. It has been a long and hard process because of political manipulation and also the problem of getting land with clear titles which is a nightmare in the Philippines.
This super mega typhoon hit our region where we live very hard and so the majority of villages being built on this island are in and around our province of Iloilo. These living apartment’s total in the thousands with the use of all kinds of building supplies. The one next to our house is one of the strongest and will begin to have people move in at the end of March 2016. Carol and I have been walking most mornings at around 5.a.m. to get some exercise now that we have a concrete road and our route takes us from our house to the end of the new village being built. It is a distance of 3.8 kilometers round trip and we are beginning to lose some weight in the process of walking. It is cool that time of the day although we have to walk a second time in the evening if we have missed out on our morning walk. This means we can see the progress of the new village almost daily.
Electricity has been hooked up but can only be accessed if you pay a large set up fee. The monthly cost here is the highest in Asia and around three times what it would cost you overseas as the electric companies add 100 per cent or more in special add on charges that are equivalent to your monthly consumption on every bill. This includes any money they lost during the month. It is our largest monthly expense in our house. There is only one manual water pump for 4,000 people in the new village and the developer said it is not his problem so we will have to see what happens as there is no regular source of water here accept by using a manual or automatic water pump from a dug out well. Each house here digs their own well or shares with someone. We ourselves also catch two thousand liters of rain water from our roof into large plastic bins and this is helpful since well water has thick sediment in it. We drink bottled water purchased in bulk. It is not very costly and so that is one blessing for us.
It has taken a long time to build all these emergency dwellings in the Central Philippines. Our Pacific Rim Ministries rebuilt over 50 homes around us within one month of the typhoon and most are still standing today and many have been expanded by the people living in them. We are told that it could be another 5 years or more before all the homes are finished that have been paid for by overseas funds given to government agencies. People for these new homes will be moved in from far and near and so that will create some real challenges for the very small infrastructures already in place around us. We pray that God will open some doors for us to reach a number of of these new people with the message of Jesus and the hope of eternal life.
This village now has a name and is called “People’s Village.”
Serving Christ with Joy and Zeal for the Lost,
Darryl & Carol Krause
Pacific Rim Ministries
Forwarding Agent:
Mrs. Joanne McKenzie
Pacific Rim Ministries
P.O. Box 344
Weston, Ohio 43569
