Jeremiah 29:11: For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future."

Thursday, October 1, 2009

How can we help out in the Phillipines?

There has been Massive flooding in the Philippines, set off by a tropical storm over the weekend, that has left at least 140 dead and prompted quick action from Christian relief groups. Catholic Relief Services Country Representative Luc Picard stated that: "Many of the people who have lost everything are sleeping in schools right now," "They're calling this the Katrina of the Philippines."

On Monday, the Philippine government appealed for international help after declaring a "state of calamity" in metropolitan Manila and 25 storm-hit provinces, including many that have not flooded before. Officials said more than 450,000 people were affected by the storm, including some 115,000 brought to about 200 schools, churches and other evacuation shelters.

A friend of mine asked me to comment about this and prompt others to help out financially. My friend lives in the Philippines and her concern is that those in the country itself to not have enough resources to provide all the assistance that is needed.

For seven years I have contributed monthly to an organization named World Vision. I've long known how blessed I am simply because I live in America and been mindful of the scripture in Luke 12:42-28 where Jesus explained an illustration about a master who entrusted various amounts of money to 3 different servants. In the second half of the 48th verse He makes this point:

When someone has been given much, much will be required in return; and when someone has been entrusted with much, even more will be required. (NLT)

My relationship with World Vision began back when God did something that seemed impossible to me at the time. As a single mother at that time, with 3 young sons, He blessed me with being able to purchase a condo without any money down. I was so grateful, and so conscious of God's goodness to me and how so much of the world lived in poverty, that I decided to see how I could give more. After researching Christian international relief groups, I found that there are lots of good ones out there but I really liked World Vision. Charity Navigator gave World Vision an exceptional four star rating with regard to“Efficiency” - the day to day financial operations, whether they maintain reasonable administrative costs and ensure that most spending is on programs. (Charity Navigator gave World Vision a three star rating with regard to "Capacity" because they don't think World Vision keeps enough money in reserves.) So I decided that, since I had 3 children of my own, I would sponsor 3 with World Vision. Just like my own, I got 3 boys (in fact I got them as close in age to my own as possible); 2 from the Philippines and 1 from Bolivia. Over the past 7 years it has been awesome to participate in this project and I've always been impressed with how World Vision does things.

As of this past Monday, World Vision had already been distributing relief packs by helicopter, in partnership with the Philippine Coastguard. World Vision is now aiming to target four of the worst affected areas of Manila – Marikina, Cainta, Rizal, Pasig – which are home to thousands of poor settlement homes based near rivers and in low-lying areas.

World Vision is also planning to distribute rice, sardines, cooking oil, water, iodized salt, biscuits and canned meat. Other items include mosquito nets, blankets and kerosene lamps or candles along with hygiene items including soap, laundry soap and women's sanitary items.

If you want to donate money to World Vision to help with flood relief in the Philippines you can go here to do so (just copy and paste the address below into your browser):

http://donate.worldvision.org/OA_HTML/xxwv2ibeCCtpItmDspRte.jsp?section=10324&item=1328100


10 comments:

Brad said...

Thank you for this post. I just pointed to it at http://www.facebook.com/bible.devotions

Chel's Leaving a Legacy said...

Excellent post, Tracy! I'm so glad you did this, too. And I love that you had a different connection (World Vision) through which someone can help. God is so good! Let's just pray that the Filipino people hear and see that in the midst of their storm.

BTW, it was through your blog that I became curious about Jenny in the first place! I didn't know if you had pieced that together or not. :-)

Anonymous said...

It's so good to know there is a way to help.

The Redhead Riter said...

Such a horrible catastrophe.

Jenn said...

What a great idea, I will be sure to check out the link. Cheers!

Anonymous said...

I was just in the Phillipines a year ago. It is such a beautiful place that I can hardly imagine a catastrophe like this one ripping it apart. Thanks for the blog and lets remember them in our prayers.

- http://web.me.com/unruhmarty

P.S. Thanks for your comment on my blog earlier. Much appreciate you stopping by :)

RCUBEs said...

Thanks for coming by earlier and leaving me an encouraging comment. Please also pray that all the help will truly be given to the ones who are devastated by this storm and had lost everything, especially their loved ones, as people sitting in the government, sadly, are known to be corrupt. It's awesome what prayers can do and I'm glad you posted about this. God bless.

J Curtis said...

Good idea Tracy. I'll go to the website.

Tracy said...

Thanks for the support guys.

You're right "customfit"; I read that that officials say 529 people have been killed (although the death toll is likely to rise) by the 2 earthquakes in western Indonesia. I know that a group called "Christian Aid" is doing a lot to help with that. I don't know a lot about the group but here's a link if you're interested in donating:

http://www.christianaid.org.uk/emergencies/

Jenny said...

thank you so much:)

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