Typhoon in the Philippines

I can't believe it's been almost one year since I've updated this blog. Shame on me. Something has been weighing so heavily on my mind that I just really felt like I needed to share my thoughts. On Friday November 8 there was a horrific typhoon in the Philippines. It potentially is one of the strongest storms ever recorded and has just wreaked havoc on certain areas of the Philippines.

This has hit closer to home because the area that sustained the most damage is the area I was called to serve as a missionary in 20 plus years ago.  I was called to the Philippines Tacloban Mission. I ended up not serving in the Philippines as I had some challenges with anxiety attacks and was reassigned to Illinois. However, I have still felt somewhat of a draw to the Philippines so Don and I were able to pay a visit to the Philippines 6 1/2 years ago en route to a business trip in Singapore that I was accompanying Don on.  We went to Tacloban which is the city where the mission headquarters are. It is also the area which has been utterly devastated by this typhoon.

While Don and I were there we saw the poverty, the poor living conditions, and the humility of the people there. We are sickened in the knowledge that the construction of the majority of homes are in no way capable of handling much more than a 60 -70 mph wind and they had gusts of up to 200 plus mph. Then a huge storm surge occurred and decimated coastal areas. They are estimating loss of lives near 10,000.  They may never get a fully accurate number because Don and I visited areas where people where "squatting" so it leaves one to wonder if they would even be accounted for. It is breaking my heart.

While Don and I were there, I was really troubled by the condition of the hospital. There were no sheets on the beds and patients' families had to go down the street to the pharmacy to pick up medications for the patients as the hospital didn't even supply medication.  I can't even imagine what happened to the hospital and the people in it. I also can't imagine what those injured will do for medical treatment.

This is so sad for both Don and I as we saw first hand this area that was decimated. I wish I was as rich as Bill Gates so I could go in and build a new hospital, help rebuild homes that are more structurally sound and help out with aid they so desperately need. I will be donating to the Church Humanitarian Fund because I know the Church does so much to help those involved in these horrific calamities.

We visited the newly finished LDS Chapel in Tacloban when we where there. It was a lovely building and I'm hoping many where evacuated there as I'm sure it was one of the more soundly built structures in the area. We met some of the sweet members of the Church. Talk about meek and humble.

My prayers are with EVERYONE involved in this catastrophe from the missionaries and members of the Church, to the orphans we saw wandering the streets, to the families who have lost loved ones, their homes, and probably a great deal of hope.  It is unimaginable.

Please pray for these precious people. Words cannot say how sad I am over this and what they must be going through.