Christmas at Lapoc

We have found, as you would have too in your lives, that our Christmas expectations may not always turn out the way we anticipated or wanted.  And even when things ‘go’ the way we wanted, we may not ‘feel’ the way we wanted!

For us personally, particularly here on the mission field, we have had Christmases in the past that involved celebrations with family, Christmas parties to attend, lots of fun, our kids laughing, presents, good food.....and we have also had other Christmases that have been lonely and hard and some – when we were new on the field and new in Cauyunan – where Christmas passed without us even hardly noticing. Back then we lived in a time where the days and dates lost significance in the face of the isolation and the struggle for souls.  

This year in Lapoc was no exception to ‘different’ as life is. This year’s Christmas was a time of joy but also of grief. I can’t remember a Christmas before where we cried so much. 

The one thing though, that has always been the same every Christmas – the celebrated ones and the not celebrated – is our Lord’s faithfulness to His promises. Jesus already told us that we would have grief here on this earth BUT that we will see Him one day and also that no one can take away our joy! And it’s true! Our joy in Him has always been with us and cannot be take away. John 16:22

The GRIEF:

Our neighbour Rito’s twelve year old son Yoyong died from

suspected typhoid and was buried on Christmas eve

just before our church conference started.

He said to his mother, Nelda, just before he died that he wasn’t

scared because he knew he was going to heaven.

He died with a smile on his face, was buried Christmas eve, and his parents

were in church the next day – knowing Jesus’ joy

even through their grief and tears. 

Destruction, lost lives, broken and grieving families remain in the wake

of the flood they are calling “Washi”.

Those among them who are believers, testify to their joy in the Lord.

Other families who we love very much experienced sudden calamity

on Christmas eve and on Christmas day that was brought

on by reasons other than flood or typhoid.

They are still suffering and experiencing huge damage to 

relationships and to their ministry but it is joy in the Lord

that can keep them going.

The Joy:

The church conference (Dec 24-26) brought lots of visitors!

The young people loved it!

We had 5 families billeted at our home which made for

busy bathrooms, a busy kitchen and lots of great fellowship!

Seventy people, including many young people were baptized during the church conference!   

Max and his wife Bheng and their family were back home on a visit from the place they’ve been sent to as missionaries

and Max was able to help baptize some of the people he has led to the Lord!

Our 7 month old granddaughter Jhamaica caused a few of our tears to

turn to smiles! How could it not with her gorgeous smiles and her love for cuddles?

So in the middle of grief, suffering, lack of sleep, sickness (Paul and Jubab both

had the flu as did many others), various kinds of trials,

weariness that seemed to seep to our bones,

 crowds of people, visitors from many places,

the Word being preached, baptisms.........

the Lord did what He promised to do:

He gave us a joy that no one and nothing can take away!!

And that is what Christmas 2011 meant to our family – different but the same joy!!

What we saw.....

Thank you for your prayers in answer to the urgent prayer request we sent out two days ago.

We saw so many horrors and tragedies in Cagayan that difficult even to think about

let alone describe but we believe that you would want to know and be a part of this.

So here is a partial account of what we saw, but the whole of it and the smell of it and the awfulness of it we cannot explain to you in full.

There are some pictures we want to share with you that we took 
ourselves – many more you can see on the internet.

But there were also things we saw that we could not photograph as it 
would be too horrific to show.

Our whole missionary experience did not prepare us for what we 
encountered on Monday and Tuesday.

Our inadequacy in the face of what we saw was huge as we are 
not aid workers and have not been exposed

before to tragedies of these huge dimensions.

 But knowing that this tragedy had taken place virtually at our back door

and that there were thousands of people needing help, 
we felt compelled to go and

help in any small way that we could. 

 This woman had lost 8 members of her family.

We sat outside the place where hundreds of bodies had been taken,

and we talked to her and to other people and listened to their stories, cried with them,

hugged them and gave money as we could to help with their needs. Some of the people

could not claim their dead as the flood waters had swept away everything they owned and

they had no money to pay for fees (about $70 per body or 3000 pesos) to redeem

them from the funeral parlors where they had been taken for preserving.

The stench of death was almost unbearable - there were so many bodies

that the funeral parlors were no longer able to preserve them. 

We sat on benches outside surrounding by weeping people,

people covering their noses because of the stench,

some were numb and bewildered,

some were collapsing in shock,

others were in agonizingly weeping and wailing.

Some had been staggering for hours from place to place going everywhere

that the dead bodies had been taken, searching through all the dead looking

for the bodies of their babies, their children, wives, husbands,

parents, grandparents......who had been torn away from their hands by the flood waters.    

This was the coffin of a 3 year old little girl, Chastie.

Her parents were still searching for their baby boy who had also been torn

from their arms by the raging flood waters. 

What you see in the picture is all they have left of their lives:

the sidewalk, their little girl’s dead body along with a few plastic

bags of clothes and food items and water handed to them by relief workers.

A bit further down the sidewalk from this spot was a young mother

sobbing in uncontrollable grief. I went to her and hugged her, and she motioned

to a nearby little coffin and showed me a picture of her

beautiful little six year old with bright eyes and a lovely smile.

“I tried to save her, “ the young mother wept, “but I was carrying my 5 month old

baby and the water was chest deep, the current was so strong and it ripped her out

of my hands. I saw the look on her face as she was pulled under-water

and I can’t stop thinking about how terrified she would have been 
and what she must have went

through as she was drowning. I can’t get it out of my mind, I can’t live with this pain.”

Nearby to that place where Jubab and I stood with this young mother in such pain

we could see bloated dead bodies, one of the bodies was unclaimed

and had been partially covered over with rubbish.

Another was the naked body of a young woman, with her hair matted

with mud, and her arms grotesquely twisted showing the agony of her death.

Others were being discovered by searching relatives who were weeping as they

gathered their dead in their arms.  

The next morning we went back only to find the crowds dispersed

and all the dead bodies we were told had been taken away to the garbage dump.

To us it was inconceivable but this is what happened.

Later we saw pictures of the dumped bodies in the local newspaper, the reporters said they

wept as they witnessed this event first hand.

We went to one of the schools that had been turned into an evacuation center

and saw multitudes of people huddled in family groups, without even a plate or a

spoon to their names as they had just escaped with their lives. We were able to help

some of them with needs they had – but started to get mobbed there so we left but our

hearts just ached for them: the man with a pregnant wife soon to give birth and their house

smashed by the flood and everything swept away, the mother with the asthmatic child

who needs medicine, the young wife who lost her husband and is left with a young child..........

The needs are overwhelming. We gave what we had could,

giving people 5000 pesos each (about $110)

which to put it into perspective over here, is enough

for a family to live on food-wise for about a month.

One of our friends in Cagayan even gave us money to give out which

went to helping 10 families.  

In the end we met three of the bible teachers from Lapoc, and they helped us

in giving out the last of the money we had left to give.

They went down to the river-side and walked up and down.

They saw scenes that moved them incredibly and countless people

in great need.

.

One lady they saw was washing a few little items of clothing in the river.

They asked her where her home was and she motioned

with her hand to the pile of rubbish nearby.

They asked her where she was going to sleep and she

showed them one piece of rusted metal roofing left that she slept under.

They gave her 5000 pesos and she started to cry and she said,

“Oh thank you, thank you!” They said, don’t thank us, it is not from us.

She said, “Who can I thank?”

They said, “It is from God.”

1st San Aquino Women's Conference

These are the faces of ladies enjoying fellowship

with other sisters in the Lord who they had never

met before this day! This photo was taken two days

ago on Monday, Dec. 5^th, at our Women’s Conference

at San Aquino, attended by over 200 women

from 14 different churches!

Lola (in the white hat) can barely see and

she left her house at 3 am in the morning,

crawling at times in the dark on the trail

in the mud because she longed so much to

take part in this Women’s Conference and to

see for herself the women who are her sisters

and family for the whole of eternity.

It took 5 hours before Lola arrived at San

Aquino and I was hugged many times during the day

by this dear, beloved grandma and new sister

in the Lord!

An ice-breaker, “musical chairs”, was a huge hit – one lady

 from each of the 14 churches  represented at the conference.

The participant from the Tinongtongan church was the winner!

There were many joyous hugs of introduction, we had lots of

special music, spent time in the Word together,

we ate together, talked, cried, laughed and heard

wonderful testimonies!

You partner with us with your awesome support financially and prayerfully

and God keeps us here and meets our needs through your partnership, and

we thank Him so much for you!

But we must say, we have the better deal of the partnership  

because we get Lola’s hugs.

Wishing you were here to see the awesome things we see – but knowing
you will see them and they

will be your joy and crown at His coming.

“For who is our hope or joy or crown of exultation?

Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming?”

1 Thessalonians 2:19