Krause Feb 2014 Update – Stitches and Nails

February 12, 2014

Many lives and families have been altered since the arrival and departure of Super Typhoon Yolanda which hit the Central Philippines in November of 2013.

Bernie is a young 24 year old man with a two year old son and wife who found their lives changed by the Typhoon.   Two weeks prior to the Typhoon Bernie was rushed to the hospital with an acute appendicitis attack.  They made it just in time and were able to get the money together for the operation by selling all their back up rice and goods.  If you don’t get the cash up front most people die and this is very common for acute appendicitis attacks. Following his surgery he was released and started hobbling around the area we live in.  He showed the large staple stiches he had and the scar was very big since they had some complications.   He is a very hard worker and was sad because he could not work for a day’s wage to help his young family.  Then the typhoon struck and demolished his small house.  He and his family had to flee to a neighbor’s house and stay there through the storm.  When they came back after the storm the house was all but blown away and so they stared with disbelief and worried about what they would do next. All their money went towards the operation Bernie had and he even had to borrow some money so all his options were at and end! Bernie then learned a little while later that Pacific Rim Ministries and IDES would rebuild his house and he was speechless.  He was one of the 43 houses we have been able to rebuild with the help of IDES. He had staple stitches to fix his body and now would have nails to fix his house.   Even though he was recovering from surgery he worked slowly each day to get things together and clean up the site and then do the construction phase with the help of some relatives and friends.  He is so very thankful and now has a chance to get his life back together.  He is very thankful to God for all that He has done to help him and his young family.

We continue to help people recover from this terrible situation.  Internet communication and some transportation are still being affected and some places do not have electricity although we have power on now where we are living.  Food has been a great problem as stores ran out of many items since shipping vessels from Manila was going to other islands hit by the typhoon.  At the same time we have spent a lot of effort tracking down building materials and organizing these to be distributed.  We found a good hardware and lumber man named Hans.  He is a German married to a local girl and they really knew how to track down building supplies and also sold them to us for a lower price.   He said he had never seen a small mission like ours help so many in disasters like this one and asked about our church and outreach efforts.    He also offered to let us use his truck if we need it for our food ministry, etc.   Other people have been very helpful as well and we have already seen 31 souls accept Jesus as Lord and Savior.  Some of the neighboring people have given fallen trees to those who are rebuilding homes and this has saved a lot of money as these are strong native wood trees that can be used for the houses posts.

We have many more stories to share and will try to include more of these in weeks to come.  This has been a very busy time for us all but we are thankful to see such a positive result through the hard work of Pacific Rim Ministries and also the help of Noemi and her husband.  This has been a very stressful time but God has given us a new year with hope and anticipation that better times are ahead.

Thank you once again for all your help and encouragement and prayers!