The people of Tacloban where the typhoon hit hardest are starting up again, as are the people of Bohol after the earthquake, and as are many other places. We are starting a new semester at Faith Academy, and our Tagalog language program is starting again...
As many of you know, I returned to Texas just after Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines, and was able to convey to many of you all about the damage and devastation that was caused. You all were exceedingly generous and gave to help our mission so that we could in turn help those who were hurting. I have attached a personal thank you letter explaining more of our operations at the bottom of this, and a link so that you can download our mission's explanation of some of the work we have done.
Many of you are aware of the health problems that have beset me over the past 2 years, and how this really affected my ability to return to the tribal areas. I have been on an alternative diet treatment plan for digestive illness, and have seen some great progress. My entire 4 weeks in Texas I felt really good (as long as I stuck with the diet) and did not have any major reactions. This was a huge blessing.
Within just a few days of returning to the Philippines, I had a strong food reaction to some mushrooms I ate (which I haven't had much of a problem with before), and then a week after that something went wrong in my back, and it hurt so bad that it was difficult to move around. I have recovered from the food reaction, but I am still getting regular treatment at the chiropractor to finish fixing up my back. Just as that started to feel better, both Ginny and I came down with a major cold/sore throat/bronchitis infection. So ever since I returned from Texas, it has been hard to have much energy and get going. But we are starting up again!
The Lord knows all these things and we trust that we are being held in His hands. He brought us here to the Philippines, and will see us through to carry on with the work He has given us - that of reaching the tribes with the Gospel, and sharing life through education to missionary kids. So we press on!
We are due for a long home assignment (1 year or so) in the latter half of this year, and our current plan is to return to Texas some time in June. We would appreciate your prayers as we prepare for that!
Right now work is on the increase, as we just brought in 3 new missionaries into the Tagalog language program. We are starting it with an entirely new emphasis, one that we hope will better equip people for a follow on ministry in another language in the tribe. We are currently in the process of finding housing for them, so that they can get started in the work God has called them to here in the Philippines!
Thank you all so much for your continued prayers and support, so that the work may continue to go forth!
Blessings in Christ,
George for all of us
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Here is a link to download NTM's disaster relief accountability report, written by our chairman here in the Philippines.
http://www.reachthetribes.com/201401/Phil_DRFA.pdf
Below is the text my letter, separate from the link above, explaining the how NTM carried out the relief work in the aftermath of typhoon Haiyan (local name Yolanda).
Dear Praying Friends and Family, When Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines last year, it hit an area that was uniquely situated to receive a massive storm surge. The area of Tacloban sustained an incredible amount of damage, as was well reported on news throughout the whole world. NTM is in a unique position in the Philippines. When the typhoon hit, we were the only mission here that was operating small aircraft going specifically to out of the way remote tribal places. There used to also be JAARS here, but they pulled out a few years ago. We work in multiple remote locations all over the country, where the use of a small fixed wing plane or a small helicopter is necessary to sustain operations, because there is no other quick access. When Typhoon Haiyan passed over Tacloban causing extreme devastation, one of our planes in the southern part of the country was available to immediately fly relief goods to the devastated areas in and around that city. They were in contact with Philippine governmental authorities in order to coordinate relief operations. As they were preparing to begin ferrying relief goods to that stricken city, they were ordered to stand down by the Philippine government, as the devastation was so great on the ground that they were concerned for the safety of any civilian aircraft. The airport itself was devastated and without power, so there was no way to have air traffic control for any flights that might come in, and there was a high risk of hijacking the airplane by desperate people on the ground. We were told to wait until they could secure the safety of the area. Only after they made sure things were safe would they allow civilian flights to begin ferrying relief goods. Over the next few days the security situation grew worse rather than better, as the devastation was far more than anyone imagined. Our planes were able to do some aerial surveys in order to assist in gathering information about the devastation, which was helpful for the people that needed to know that, but we were not able to fly directly into the devastated city. After a few days, the Philippine authorities were able to open the airport to the Philippine and US Military conducting relief operations in the main area around Tacloban. They had large aircraft that could bring in large volumes of relief goods, so they found that our services were not necessary, only having small aircraft. However, other areas that were hit in the Visayan islands region still had some significant needs. People that live on those islands (remember, there are around 7000 islands in the Philippines, most of which are very small) had their rice crops, homes, boats, fishing nets, and fish farms all destroyed. All the survivors were sitting on these islands in the ocean, with no food, no means to get food, no shelter, and contaminated water wells. These areas were far from the devastated regions around Tacloban, so none of the large quantity relief goods were being brought to these people. The only way the people in those places could survive was by wading in the shallows around their islands and trying to gather clams, salvaging fishing lines in order to try and fish, and drinking the rapidly depleting coconut water that was still available. In some places they may have had some canned food, but very few people store large quantities of that. This is where New Tribes Mission found itself in a unique position to help. We set up supply lines using our fixed wing airplanes to ferry relief goods to the closest island with a large airstrip (in Cebu). From there our helicopter was able to ferry relief goods to the multiple small islands in the Visayan region that had been devastated by the Typhoon. Much food was delivered and many lives were saved. I have written some about this already in previous updates. Many of the places where our helicopter was able to go were areas that we had never been before, and the people were very blessed when they saw the helicopter land on their beaches and start handing out food and materials. In addition to this, there are 2 specific areas that were hit hard by the Typhoon where our missionaries were working, on the islands of Coron and Agutaya. One thing that is important to understand about our mission is that we already serve very needy people in remote locations. Therefore, pulling our aircraft off of the service of those remote locations for extended periods can cause some hardship to the people in those areas. For that reason, we normally do not involve ourselves in disaster relief, as there are other organizations that are here for that purpose and do get involved. However, in this case because of the extreme nature of the devastation and our ability to help in a unique way, we chose to re-direct our efforts and help out with disaster relief as a temporary measure. Our mission's involvement was always from the beginning considered to be something that would be a temporary measure. In the last few weeks of our assistance, we were able to coordinate with 2 other mission organizations, help them rapidly get established in the Philippines, and share the burden of relief efforts so that it did not depend solely on our small helicopter. The 2 organizations we worked with for this period are Helimission and Mission Aviation Fellowship. As of the time of this writing, NTM's direct involvement in the disaster relief has come to a close (with the exception of long term rehabilitation of the 2 specific areas mentioned above where our missionaries are working). Our pilots have needed to get back to serving the minority people groups and mission stations in their respective regions, and all of our NTM aircraft have been returned to servicing those regions. Helimission has been able to continue relief operations to many of the Visayan islands after our aircraft returned to their bases, and our missionaries on the ground on Coron and Agutaya are coordinating long term livelihood rehabilitation in their respective locales. We have been asked to communicate to our churches and supporters that it is no longer necessary to send funds to the NTM Typhoon Haiyan relief fund. The target amount of funds has been raised, and much of it has already been put to good use, as you will see from this attachment and the link to the youtube video below. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nxbqEV-Urs&feature=share We thank you all very much for your generous support of the work we are doing to bring the Gospel to the minority people groups of the Philippines! Helimission and MAF were able to really help out, and they have now completed their operations also. Below is their web page, which at the time of this writing still has some good information on the front page about the work they have done with us here in the Philippines. http://www.helimission.org/english/ The reason we are able to wrap up our relief efforts on many of these small islands so soon is that beyond the immediate relief needs and getting started again, life on many of these islands is relatively simple. There was no infrastructure to start with on these islands, so there is no need to restore infrastructure to them. They needed help with immediate food needs, and then building new boats, buying new nets, and getting new fish farms started. Much of that work is already complete, and the Lord allowed us to stand in the gap for a time in order to help them with that work. This has opened up relationships with people in these areas, and we are looking at where the Lord will take these relationships in the future. We have still received requests from some people as to how they can donate to help the relief work in the Philippines. Even though we are no longer receiving funds for our mission's rehabilitation work on the islands where we work, I am in touch with people from another mission that are doing some rehabilitation work in the more devastated areas around Tacloban. Those areas are of a different character than the small islands where we have worked - all major infrastructure in a large city was destroyed, and the relief work there will go on for years. I would be happy to refer anyone that is still interested in contributing to the relief work to the people we know working in the major devastated areas. Just send me an email and let me know, and I can get you in touch with them. Thank you again and God bless, George for all of us in the Philippines George, Ginny, Sarah, and Abby
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| Layover in Singapore on the way home from Texas |
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| The whole family together again... :) |
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| On RORO - Roll On, Roll Off (or sometimes called Roll On, Roll Over) |
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| Family time on the RORO... as you can see we didn't roll over |
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| Come to the Philippines where you can have a White Christmas on the beach every year! |
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| Our neighbors butchered a pig for New Year's |
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| Visiting old friends from where we used to live before the New Year |
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| 2014 and the Philippines gets back to work! Packing people onto the train... |
