Typhoon = Big Storm

You know, typically when I hear of tragedies in other parts of the world, I think, "Oh, that's too bad." Briefly. And go on with my life.

But when I heard about a typhoon killing hundreds in the Philippines, it made me stop. You see, part of my job involves working with the MTC in the Philippines. I make arrangements for radiologists to read their images from here in Utah. Long story short - they found that tuberculosis infection rates were high so someone figured out that if they screened every entering missionary and temple worker, they could lower it. That's great, but they have to have a trained radiologist to read the screens, right? And that involves recruiting radiologists as missionaries to serve full time in the Philippines - OR, and this is where I come in, they can transmit the images via the Internet to be read by volunteer radiologists on their off time. We have about 12 we work with, and part of my job involves recruiting, scheduling, and reminding the doctors.

And working with the tech who mans the x-ray in the Philippines.

So, when I heard about the typhoon, I immediately became concerned about our missionaries and Gilda. This is the reply I received from her this morning:

Hi Julie,

Our family is safe as well as Rex’s – no flooding in our respective homes. We had missionary x-rays last Saturday, so we were in the office during the storm. Rex and some of the temple and MTC employees had to stay overnight because most of the roads were closed. One missionary and his family got stranded on their way to the MTC. Their car couldn’t go on because of the flood. They were waiting for a truck or a bus to pass by. A little later, a bus came along and they hailed it. They didn’t realize that the bus was full of members on their way for a temple trip! (The MTC is just across the temple.)Two missionaries from the airport got stranded on their way to the MTC. It’s their first time to be in Manila. They had to leave their belongings in the taxi, then wade in the waist-deep flood two hours to get to the MTC. The next day the taxi driver delivered their belongings to the MTC. Some of the MTC classrooms and offices had water on the floor because the drains had overflowed.

Two families in our ward lost their homes. A few other families in the ward had to climb up on the 2^nd floor rooftops because the floodwaters were that high in that area. Last Sunday in our ward we met after sacrament meeting and talked about how we could help. We came back in the afternoon bringing food, clothes, blankets, and other supplies. We have 4 families staying in our chapel. Some wards and stakes experienced worse. Some of our co-employees’ homes were also flooded. We’re looking at lots of opportunities for service. There are lots of cleaning up going on because of the mud and debris.

Thank you for your prayers. We are still so blessed.

Gilda

Suddenly so far away isn't so far away. My heart goes out to all the families and lives affected by this storm.