New Update from Samar

The past weekend was the national holiday of Thanksgiving in the US, and there are many things to be grateful for in Typhoon Relief.  Praise God for His provision and His faithfulness!

1. The roof is almost finished in Borongan. It was a huge project, but the team started putting metal on the roof during the last week in November.

2. The construction on the church in Hernani is waiting for more funds before work can begin, BUT the team asked a road crew if they could borrow their grader for clearing the property. There was a heavy equipment operator on the CC Creekside, Washington team. The crew said "no" but instead they came out to the property with all of their equipment. They graded the property and dug the footings for the church in about tow hours. This would have been about a month worth of work. They did it for free. Praise God!

3. The Calvary Chapel / U-Turn team are still the only ones doing any type of feeding in Hernani. The governor of Hernani asked if they would start feeding the people twice a day instead of only once. They love us there and many people are getting saved through this ministry.

4. The Superintendent of Schools said that the team could keep the school for as long as they are doing the feeding ministry. He gave Pastor Gerry Brown a letter stating such saying also that he looked forward to a long term relationship with us.

5. The relief supplies from CCTC arrived. It was enough food for 1,150 families 5 days and non-food supplies for 1,707 families. (9 tons worth of goods). The team handed out relief goods to 250 or so families. Once again, many people gave their lives to the Lord.

6. Details are sketchy on how the Lord worked this out, but somehow the relief work and feeding resulted in the team doing a Bible study in a little town north of Borongan named San Julian. Many gave their lives to the Lord there. Pastor Gerry asked if they had a Bible-teaching church in town and they said they did not. He committed to doing weekly Bible studies there with them. It looks like God just birthed Calvary Chapel San Julian.

Prayer requests:

Ongoing support for the work in Samar is needed: this work can easily keep teams busy for the next few years. People are also needed as missionaries to the Samar region: please pray about moving out there and doing some long term ministry. There are going to be tons of opportunities to disciple new believers, raise up church leaders, run orphanages, counsel, and do relief work.