Hope Following the Typhoon!
January 8, 2014
The days following the super Typhoon Yolanda (this is the name it has in the Philippines) have been long but fruitful. The rains of this season have held off when usually it rains heavy most days this time of the year. Although this meant the weather was very hot it still provided a window for people to rebuild their houses and lives after such a huge disaster. This disaster covered over 300 miles of the Philippines and affected many islands, cities and towns located in the Central regions of this land made up of more than 7,300 actual islands. Help was hard to access because of the natural barriers of water, mountains and poor road travel. At the same time relief trucks, boats and planes were limited and took a long time to load and unload because of huge bottlenecks in transport hubs. As well many places were destroyed and so infrastructure in place did not work. There were many storm surges like mini-tsunami’s and so homes along the coasts and river entrances were destroyed and lives lost.
Carol and I are very thankful to those of you who have responded to our urgent request appeal for funds for rebuilding homes and providing food and any other help we could. So far over 43 houses have either been rebuilt or built because of your help and the help of a grant we have received. This was a great task in itself as we did not have any electricity and most of our internet services were off line and still giving trouble. The destruction of the internet systems was great since most are made up of towers and equipment above ground and affected by the severe winds of the Typhoon. The homes had to be surveyed and the families interviewed so they knew we were providing only the materials. They also were told there is a deadline as we want people to get into their homes and regain some form of normality. Most are very poor and all were very thankful and have complied with our requests even to the extent of providing post timbers and roof trestles from trees on their land or on the land of friends. Of course many of the trees had fallen and these were able to be used in many homes. One family near us was living in a patched together house about the size of a small cargo container. Everything was just put together with no nails or adhesive and the roof was made of debris found around the area with rocks on the debris to hold the roof down. Eleven people were bundled in this house and this included two three month old babies. We were able to help them and they have now built a stronger house to live in and this will be the basis of a larger dwelling as they can handle it. They are very thankful and also thankful for food Carol and Noemi were able to provide from our hunger relief efforts. Your prayers, gifts, and encouragement have made a difference and we thank God for all our supporters and friends who are helping us at this time.
If any of you would like to give us additional help for this Typhoon relief project all gifts are welcome and can be sent to our Forwarding Agent. We of course have been able to do many more things during this time and also have seen people accept Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. Please continue to pray for us as we are not only striving to help people in their recovery efforts of their lives but also to help them find recovery for their souls by becoming Christians.
We ask God to bless us all as we strive to serve Jesus by reaching some of His Lost Sheep during 2014.
Serving Christ in the Philippines
Darryl & Carol Krause
Pacific Rim Ministries
Forwarding Agent:
Mrs. Joanne McKenzie
Pacific Rim Ministries
P.O. Box 323
Weston, Ohio 43569
