Typhoon Haiyan wiped out Tacloban, the main city of central Philippines last November. When I visited there in January this year, it was simply miserable. As soon as I saw and smelled what was around me, I couldn’t wait to get out of there. I had no idea what the many crosses along the road meant. My friend who was guiding me said people had temporarily buried bodies under those crosses.
When I returned to Korea, the horrible scene lingered on my mind. After some thought, I decided to go to Tacloban with my volunteering team, Milal Corps Volunteers, and provide relief efforts. On June 7, 2014, nine volunteers including me headed to San Jose to build a local church.
As soon as we arrived there, we faced an unexpected difficulty. I had confirmed that the accommodation for our team was already arranged, but there was only a small hut with three cats and two dogs and no facilities. I could do nothing but earnestly pray to God, and He heard my prayer. One of the church members called us and let us stay in his sister’s house. Even though she was not an Adventist, she willingly provided us with accommodations at an inconvenience to herself. I thank God for solving our difficulty.
The next day we rolled up our sleeves and got to work. The church members had already begun to build the church. Most of them were engaged in farming, and their farms had beenextensively damaged by the typhoon. Despite being poor, they brought rice for our team everyday.
At first there were misunderstandings between church members and our team due to the language barrier. As time went on, however, we were all eager to complete the church building. It seemed certain that all of us were one family in God putting our hope in heaven.
We could not complete the church in our limited time schedule, but we were glad that on a rainy day the church members were able to have a worship service inside out of the rain. The tough moments flew by and our time came to an end. We exchanged a tearful farewell with the church members.
It was a precious opportunity for us to do volunteer work in Tacloban under God’s guidance. God made humans to be happier to give than to receive. Now Milal Corps Volunteers are planning to go to Bangladesh and Nepal next January and February.