The last three weeks in Asia have seen so much death and destruction from nature - two typhoons in the Philippines, a tsunami in Samoa, and an earthquake in Indonesia.  I was in Manila on Saturday 9/26 when the typhoon Ketsana (local name "Ondoy") dropped  a month's worth of water in less than six hours. The downpour was just breathtaking. It was more water than Hurricane Katrina.

What started as an awesome feeling soon turned into dread as you could see the streets, homes and businesses fill up with water. By the end of the day, half the city was under at least five feet of water.  It was the worse flooding in Manila in 40 years.  On Sunday 9/27, I drove out to the affected areas (Antipolo, Quezon City, and Malabon)  to visit three of my employees who were the worst hit. By then, the water was gone, but the destruction was massive. Cars, appliances, furniture, and personal belongings of all types littered the streets. And mud everywhere.

Two of my employees were at work when the typhoon on Saturday. To get home, they had to walk several miles through chest-deep water.  One of them lives in a tiny three-level house tucked away in an alley in a district called Malabon.  The living area probably no more than 1000 square feet. She lives there with her parents and extended family.  When she got home, the flood submerged the entire first floor. She had to climb up a make-shift rope ladder to get into the second level. When she got in, low and behold, there were 30 neighbors piled into the home! These are people who had no place to go. They spent the whole night there standing up. Their fear was that the water would rise higher or that the home would collapse. Imagine that.  But by the Grace of God, none of these happend. It wasn't until Sunday morning that the water level started to go down.

The following CNN story is a typical survivor's tale:

Stories like this played out thousands of times across the city and nearby provinces.  Several hundred people died. I'm surprised it wasn't more.  In the storm's aftermath, what struck me was how quickly people started to put their lives and belongings back together. You could see that immediately with the clean up effort and the business-as-usual activities around the city.  

My employee reminded me, "This is the Philippines. We are very resilient."   Sure enough, this country has its (unfair) share of natural disasters (remember Mount Pinatubo?), political calamities, and poverty.  Yet, Filipinos keep on going.  They have a strong faith in God (the majority of the country is Catholic) and a strong family structure. I thank God for giving me this opportunity to work in the Philippines and make a small contribution to ease their recent suffering.

Please continue to pray for the recent victims in the Philippines, Indonesia and Samoa.  If you can make a donation to the Philippines relief effort, that would be great. You can do it online through the Philippines Red Cross: http://www.redcross.org.ph/.