Here are some of the pictures from the relief project MBI coordinated. We bagged and delivered 500 sacks of food containing noodles, sardines, and 2 kilos of rice to Isabel, Leyte. The youth at New Life Ozamis gathered to put together the bags.
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| It was hard work! |
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| Truck all packed and ready to go |
We waited at the rinky dinky port in Cebu for a ferry to Leyte from 4am until 1pm
but at least we got to see this awesome sunrise!
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| This is Phil. He was the body-guard, muscle-strength, and teddy-bear of the team |
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| This little boy was walking around collecting bottle caps from the floor of the port |
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| My hunk of an uncle, and also the pastor at New Life |
the city for food, medicine, and other needs.
We arrived in Leyte three weeks after the typhoon hit and many homes, especially the roofs of buildings still standing, had started to be reconstructed. There was still no power, running water for only limited hours during the morning, and no government aid there to assist with the recovery.
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| Little baby waiting for food |
Homes lay wasted everywhere
We went throughout the village stopping at various places to distribute the food.
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| A home almost finished being reconstructed |
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| Holy wind force- it knocked down these trees like bowling pins |
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| This make-shift shelter of rice sacks protected one family from the weather for three weeks |
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| Another temporary shelter |
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| Two young boys sitting with the remnants of their house |
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| Tree-tops and livestock- gone |
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| I look so grumpy! I wasn't... |
Virginia, a woman who has been blind all her life, was sitting in the midst of her
home that had collapsed around her during the storm.
There aren't words to express what it's like to enter into someone's suffering in such a close and personal way. Virginia told us that we had been sent by God to bless her, but we feel that she was the one sent to touch our hearts by her faith and courage.
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| The unstoppable three plus Melvin James, otherwise known as Pastor MJ |
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| Mad skillz |
These kids listened with their parents as I explained to the
village why we had come and how we were able to.
My bootiful sister and the primary photographer.
The experience in Leyte was challenging, deeply rewarding, and absolutely unforgettable. It was heartbreaking to see the suffering and loss of people who already lived with so little, but simultaneously inspiring to see them support one another and find their hope in a time of great need.
Pastor MJ, whose family is from Leyte and was displaced by the storm, and I shared a conversation while waiting for the ferry in Cebu that has lingered in my mind. He told me his discovery that a person's truest beliefs are revealed and put to the test in desperate times and in the midst of trouble. He expressed his thanksgiving and pride for his family that believes in a God who sustains them and gives them unshakable purpose in life even despite their situation. He then shared based upon his personal experience and what he has witnessed in the aftermath of Typhoon Yolanda what he has truly found to be the three most important survival skills one can possess: "faith, hope, and love... and the greatest of these is love." These are what have separated those in utter despair from those who are able to cling to their joy and have not allowed it to wash away with everything else they owned in this world. Faith, hope, and love.
