Last week I was in the Philippines and during that time I was able to attend the Love Community Baptist Church which I had constructed more than 20 years ago. It was so wonderful to be with Roger and Rosie Rico, the pastors of the church.
Do you know how they treat poor people in Cambodia? They give them a bottle of soy sauce and take their picture. I am not sure who is supposed to be the one feeling blessed, the photographer or the impoverished villager.
Cambodia already has a lot of flooding this year, now with another Typhoon on the way, the end of the rainy season is a little further away.
In 1985 Steve Hyde built a church to provide a place of refuge for the community after a huge flood in the community of Malanday, Marikina, Manila in the Philippines. During Typhoon Ketsana, the community was again destroyed by the flooding, but 26 people were able to take refuge in the church building.
Last week Typhoon Ketsana flooded much of northern Cambodia. Most rivers broke their banks and flooding and destroying an estimated 75,000 acres of rice fields, just as they are nearing harvest time. 11 people died as the strong winds collapsed their houses. Most of the dead were women and children. Roads were destroyed, crops destroyed, schools flooded, and typical of most rapid responses, they simply pass out a box of instant ramen noodles, a bottle of soy sauce and about 10 pounds of rice to each victim. A week later, the photographers are gone and so is the not so healthy food, but the roads are still washed out, the fields are destroyed, the schools are still knee deep in mud and water. We can help some of those affected in a tangible way.