Mounds of debris clogged Manila's streets after Typhoon Ketsana. (PHOTO/Rand Jenkins)
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MANILA, Philippines (ABP) — When two typhoons inundated the Philippines recently, 10 Texas Baptist men volunteers packed their rubber boots, leather gloves and bright-yellow shirts and journeyed to the disaster zone to offer help and hope to victims.
“‘Why do you do this?’ is probably the most asked question I get from people — people back home and people here,” said Harold Patterson, a Texas Baptist Men volunteer from Scoggins, Texas. “I like it when they ask, as it just opens the door wide open for evangelism. It’s just hard for non-Christians to understand this kind of love and compassion for other people.”
The organization served in the flooded region at the invitation of Baptist Global Response, working alongside other volunteers from the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, Kentucky Baptist Men and Oklahoma Baptist Men.
The Manila metropolitan area received a month’s worth of rain within a couple of days courtesy of Typhoon Ketsana, known as Ondoy within the country, which hit on Sept. 26 after previous days of rain had already saturated the ground. Government officials said that about 6 million people were affected by the flooding, while 287,000 people are still housed in evacuation shelters. More than 246 people died in the disaster.
In some areas, stagnant water still stands waist deep, causing stench and an ever-growing threat of disease.
Russell Sheik of Lubbock, Texas, shares the message of Christ through art in the midst of disaster-relief efforts. Sheik and nine others with Texas Baptist Men left Oct. 7 for Manila, Philippines, to spend 10 days with other Baptist groups to help with mud-out and clean-up in the disaster zone. (PHOTO/Rand Jenkins)
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“The reason I’m doing it is that we are all created in God’s image,” said Larry Vawter, a TBM volunteer from Altair, Texas. “That’s the way that others will know that we are followers of Jesus. This is how to show his love to other Christians and non-believers also.”
Vawter, who has previously helped with flood relief during other disasters, said he had an idea of what the aftermath would be like — but saw vast needs due to the number of people affected, the density of the population and the huge piles of debris remaining in the streets.
“The immenseness of the damage and number of people that it has affected is overwhelming,” he said. “There’s so much work to be done here. Yet, you still see children playing and having fun. We’re able to play with them some and put a smile on their face, hopefully bringing a little bit of respite among all this mess.”
One of the first projects for the team was to mud out the home of Felicisimo and Marieta Cables and a church across the street from there. Cables, pastor at the nearby Hope Baptist Church in Manila, knows firsthand the extent of the disaster, as his own family was caught in the middle.
When he received a text message from his daughter intended to warn his wife of the rising floodwaters, he rushed out of work toward his home, finding that the road near his house was blocked. So, he swam across 800 meters of raging floodwater along with cars, bits of houses and countless possessions from hundreds of thousands of homes. He made it home, only to find their house full of water.
Texas Baptist Men disaster-relief team leader Ernie Rice of Stockdale, Texas (center, blue shirt) and Bill Gresso of Garland (left) work alongside other volunteers unloading supplies in the Philippines, where the government estimated 6 million people were affected by typhoons Ketsana and Parma. (PHOTO/Rand Jenkins).
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Despite the Cables’ and their neighbors now having fewer possessions, their faith is greater in the wake of the flooding.
“I still have my family and my faith, which is what matters and what got me through this time,” Cables said. “One item I’d like to find is my favorite Bible. Missionary Bob Harwell from Texas gave me his in 1992, and it was filled with notes and encouragement. That Bible gave me the inspiration to finish seminary.”
Moved by compassion Ernie Rice, team leader of the Texas Baptist Men group, handed Marieta Cables his own Bible.
“In talking with Felicisimo, I learned his story and that he lost a Bible that meant a great deal to him,” Rice said. “So I gave him mine that Sunday when I preached in his church.”
While several of the volunteers led and attended house churches in the area hit by flooding, four went with local missionaries to distribute food in some of the poorest areas affected. At one of the stops on Oct. 11, the team brought the first disaster relief the area had received since the Sept. 26 typhoon. At this location, seven people made a first-time profession of faith.
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Rand Jenkins is director of communications for Texas Baptists. Kaitlin Chapman, a news writer for Texas Baptists, contributed to this story.