Our Journey: We survived Typhoon Utor!

I'm sure many of you heard either from us or on the news about the typhoon that came through the southeast Pacific last week. I've been itching to blog about it since then, but we've just now gotten the internet to do so. Since we have lived in the Philippines, there have been many warnings of typhoons. A very strong storm actually hit the southern island last year, but none have actually made landfall in our province until now. Thankfully, our neighbor Barry keeps track of the weather system here and we knew the storm was coming a few days before it actually arrived. To prepare, we tied down the cabinet in our outdoor kitchen, the tricycle, and a few other valuable things. We closed our windows (which is a rarity here due to the heat) and made a game plan in case it began to flood. And that was that. We prayed for the Lord's protection and went to sleep. Around 1am the winds began to pick up and we could soon hear things snapping and cracking. But since we had closed our windows it didn't sound nearly as scary as I had anticipated. (I personally think the sound of jungle thunder is much more frightening!) However, reality set in the next morning when we came out to see the damage. All the plants were still bent toward the direction that the 70-100 mph winds had blown them. Most of our banana trees were ripped out of the ground. The welcome sign above our home was torn in half and everything was out of order. We spent half the day cleaning up what Utor had left behind. One of the most interesting parts of the aftermath of the typhoon was watching how the Filipinos responded. As soon as the kids were awake, the parents sent them out to gather anything and everything that had been blown down. First come, first served was most definitely the mentality. It was totally irrelevant who the fruits and lumber actually belonged to. It seemed as if all of our barangay (neighborhood) was in a race to gather their things before someone else did. Nonetheless, we are very thankful to the Lord for protecting us. After we were able to access the internet and learn about the damage in other areas, we learned that an area not very far north of us received the most destruction. Most of their town was destroyed. Praise the Lord only 2 deaths have been reported thus far. But please do continue to pray for many who were left homeless and some people (particularly fishermen) who are still missing. I've also noticed that the 'rally-up and help' mentality that we experienced in the southern US after Hurricane Katrina is just not as feasible for a poor provincial area. Pray for the body of Christ to serve those who need assistance.

Here are some pictures of the after-math: