Update From Philippines

Received this a few minutes ago. An update from my nephew who is a missionary to the Philippines. Please pray for them, Kordong, and for the people trying to recover from the last typhoon.

Dear Friends,

We are now in the city helping with one of our Youth Center teenagers who was the victim of a stabbing. He is from the same family that was flooded out of their home last week and living at our Dakuton Base. He is in the hospital but in stable condition. Please pray for Kordong as he recovers.

The typhoon we asked you to pray about has been quite a story. It was headed right towards the Philippines and had intensified into a category 5 storm. In comparison, Hurricane Katrina was a category 3. People here were in despair as they watched this new storm develop. Many of the dead from the last two storms still remain unburied and over 1 million people have been displaced. The president here called for a day of prayer,” that God would protect the Philippines.” Pastors in Manila were reporting that their churches were packed with people. Amazingly, the massive storm (600 miles wide) began going in small circles and then took an s-shaped course. It also weakened into a category 3 storm. It was supposed to make landfall last Monday, but yesterday was still about 500 miles away. It is also veering much farther to the North of us.

We were set to cancel a camp that was originally planned for October 23rd, but the group begged us to allow them to come as scheduled. Imagine, on the highway side of our camp, we can see Red Cross and military vehicles going to stricken areas; on the ocean side, we can see huge, U.S. Marine helicopters (700 marines are in The Philippines helping with the relief effort) ferrying in supplies; the ocean is eerily still and quiet (the calm before the storm) and 150 people want to do a camp! We told them that they could come but needed to be prepared to leave in a hurry.

Thank-you so much for your prayers. Many have said,” they were not able to open the attachment we sent along with our newsletter. “ If you want to see a good, up-to-date Satellite picture of the typhoon, go to: typhoon2000.com. Our island is the long, thin one, closest to Viet Nam.

Scott