Chapter 19
Coming of Baptist Union of Sweden w/ Rev. Olof Lindstrom & Mr. Leo Liljengren
1984
was one of the hard time in our country’s history. The challenge of the
Communist Party of the Philippines against the government of President Ferdinand Marcos was felt all over.
The fightings between the government forces and the NPA was all over the
countrysides across the nation.
People’s
marches and rallies were held in different parts of the country. In Iloilo,
Capiz, Antique and Aklan the rallies were strong, with thousand participants
coming from villages of hinteland towns and converged in the city and
capital towns. Great uppeaval was in the
making.
Atty.
Angel Lobaton was the President of the Baptist Convention. Dr. Domingo Diel was
the General Secretary. I was Director of the New Frontier Ministries of the
Convention.
On
day, I received a telegram from Mr. Rey Natividad. He was witth the National
Council of Churches in the Philippines. Earlier, he worked with CPBC project, Center for Education and Development
with Rev. Sammy Formelleza. CER was
stopped by the Convention and Rey
Natividad went back to Manila. He joined NCCP.
The
telegram reads: “Pastor Rudy there were
coming in two weeks, two Baptists from
Sweden. I do not knew them We were thinking of sending them to a project in Pampanga. But because they
were Baptists, we thought to send them to CPBC in Iloilo City.
Please anwer, if you’re willing to accept them, and be your guests. They will
stay for about 4 days.”
Immediately,
I answered Rey Natividad by telegram. “
Rey, please send them to CPBC. They’re our brothers in the Baptists faith. I will register them at Hotel
Del Rio today. Please communicate their date and time of arrival in Iloilo
City. Thanks. Rudy.”
Rey
Natividad told me by telephone that our Swedish visitors will arrive November 3.
They will stay four days in Iloilo City. ‘
November
2, 1984, I stayed in Iloilo City. I will wait for the arrivals for our Swedish
visitors the following day. I prepared a program for their arrival. I have
requested Rev. Edwin Lopez to be around for the arrival of our Swedish friends.
There were heavy rains in the afternoon.
But
November 3, there was heavy rains in
Iloilo City. At about 12:30 AM, floods
entered our room in the First Floor of the house we’re boarding. With the
coming of flood, now over our feet, we
moved to the 2nd Floor. Our first son, Rally Boy was 1 few days old We
moved up to the 2nd Floor in the room of two
student boarders.
They
were glad our small boy was with them.
We stayed on the 2nd Floor until morning. The storm was going a bit stronger. There were blown down
branches of trees.
At
6:00 AM, I went out. The wind was not strong anymore. The flood has subsided.
It was just about 3 inches on the floor. Some part of the road has no water.
I
told my wife, I will met go out and met our Swedish visitors. It waa 6:30. Perhaps, they were still at the airport.
I
took CPBC Pinoy Jeepney and went to Hotel del Rio. When I arrived the airport
was already clear. Very visitors around. I went to the person incharge and
requested to see the Plane Passengers
Manifest. I would like to know if our
visitors have arrived. There, I saw our
visitors name. They have arrived. I proceeded to Hotel del Rio.
I
met them there. Two of them. They were
having breakfast. We shook hands. I told
them, I am Pastor Rudy Bernal of the Baptist Convention. Rev. Olof
Linstrom, introduced himself. We shook
hands. Mr. Leo Liljengren also shook my hand. It was, early morning, but the
sun was already shining lightly. The sun
after the storm and flood.
Rev.
Olof Lindstrom told me a little
about himself. He was incharge of the Social Mission of the
Baptist Unin of Sweden. The same with Mr. Leo Liljengren. He was with
the Baptist Union of Sweden.
Rev. Olof Linstrom asked me about
Dr. Eric Lund. I answered. “I have a very
little knowedge of Dr.Eric Lund. I
knew he was a missionary sent to the Philippines and started work, preaching and teaching
the gospel to the people of Iloilo and Panay.
Then,
he gave me 5 pages Photo Copy of the book of Dr.Eric Lund. It tells of his
coming to the Philippines in 1998, his work in Iloilo, specially Jaro, in
Iloilo City, some places in Panay and
Negros Occidental.
At
9:30 AM we went to the CPBC office at Fajardo Street, Jaro, Iloilo City. We
have coffee. And snack. Rev. Edwin Lopez was there. They shook hands. They
extended greetings. We have some
sharing. Rev, Lopez shared with our
visitors the program of the Convention. Htold our visitors that a strong typhoon
and flood hit the country, specially the
northern part and the provinves of Capiz, Aklan and Antique.
He said, the radio report said of a very strong
typhoon came causing heavy devastations
in the north weastern part of the island.
Showing
the map of the Philippines and Panay Island in the General Secretary’s office,
I told our visitors and Rev. Lopez that we will go first to Central Panay, then proceed to Northern Iloilo. We will stay there for the
night. In the morning, we will proceed
to Capiz, Aklan and Antque. Late afternoon, of the 3rd day, we
will be
back to Iloilo City.
We
went to Passi passing through Pavia, Janiuay. There we saw some effects of Typhoon Undang. We proceeded to San Rafael to
Barotac Viejo and Sara. The destructions were very hard.
But in Batad, San Dionisio and Estancia and
Carles, there we saw the heavy
destructions on infrastructures, home and livelihood ot the people –fishing boats, thousand were destroyed, fruit trees, coconuts, mangoes
were blown down.
That
night we stayed at my parents home. We
were joined by my brother and 3 sisters
who were in Carles. They bought chicken
meat and meat from pig slautered that day.
We did not buy fish that night. There were some dead corposes on the water and
the shores.
The
following day we proceeded to Capiz, passing towns and villages that were
devastated by the typhoon. We visited Roxas City market. We look at thousand of
people, some people trying to retrieve pieces of their homes and stores that were destroyed.
We went to Kalbu, Aklan and saw similar destructions. It has
almost become a forbidden city.
In Antique, we saw similar devastations,
homes, crops, livestocks destroyed. I
have never seen this kind of destructions by typhoons in my life before.
At
3:00 PM we proceeded to Iloilo City. The following day, our visitors Rev. Olof
Lindstroms and Mr. Leo Liljengren, will be going back to Sweden.
A
report by Newspapers, now summarized by Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia told of the destruction of Typhoon Undang, It said:
“Typhoon
“Undang” (Agnes) hit northern Iloilo November 3-6 in 1984. It carried the winds
of 230 with force of 230 kph. Death tolls was 895. And made damage
approximately PhP 1.9 billion.
N.
Leyte incl. Naval in Biliran Is., coast of Esperanza, Masbate; Gigante Islands
in Carles, Northern Iloilo; coastline of Roxas City, Sapi-an Bay and the rest
of Capiz seacoast; Batan and the rest of Aklan; Sebaste, Northern Antique;
Coron and Culion Islands of the Calamian Group.
“A little over a
month after Nitang ravaged the Visayas and Northern Mindanao, UNDANG entered
the country as a very strong typhoon and reached almost “super typhoon” status
ravaging Southern parts of Samar Island by early morning of November 5. It slightly
weakened but still slammed Tacloban City with a full fury of devastating winds
wrecking buildings and houses and snapping trees and electric posts.
“It regained strength
as she crossed the Visayan Sea by the middle of the day heading full-force to the
islands off Carles in Iloilo Province.
“It struck Carles
and towns in Northern
Iloilo at about noontime and plummeled its howling winds and powerful waves
that battered the Northern coast of Capiz, wiping out coastal barangays,
twisting metal trusses and galvanized iron roofs flattening houses in other
coastal municipalities up to the capital, Roxas City.
“The enormous Panay
(pronounced as “Pan - ay”) River overflowed, transforming half of Capiz into a
sea of raging waters filled with debris from trees, houses, fishponds and
corpses with dead animals.
“Survivors who were swept by the floods found
themselves clinging to floating debris and bloated corpses at sea. Ships and
other seacrafts docked at Roxas City’s Culasi Port were destroyed and sunk
while the port itself sustained insurmountable damage.
“Devastation
continued as rains filled the rivers, drowning people and communities of the
rest of Capiz, Aklan, Central Iloilo Province and Northern Antique. By early
evening of that day it left Panay Island and devastated the Calamian Group of
Islands in Palawan before exiting by dawn of November 6 at the South China Sea.”
|
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
·
|
|||
|
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
|
|
|
||
That
night Rev. Olof Lindstrom told me to write on a piece of paper the destruction
around, what do most people need. He said, they may be able to give some assistance. But the devastations need the help of more people all over the world. We will share what we can. Please write on
this piece of paper the most urgent need of the people And we will see what we can do.
The
following morning, I came to Hotel del Rio. I brought the paper, where I said
some words of needs. I said. “Sisters and
brothers our people were hit hard by Typhoon Undang. They need
your prayers and support. …they
need foods, water, materials for
shelters, relief goods, fishing boats, fishing paraphernalia, fishing nets,
some money and seeds to be able to plant their fields again.”
Mr. Leo Liljengrem said: “Rudy, disasters, natural and
man made, happens all over the
world. We do not know when it will hit us. But we must stand and work, to help
those who were hit by disasters. God
calls us to do this”. They promised
they will try and see what help they can
offer. Then we prayed.
That morning,
our new friends, Olof Lindstrom and Leo Liljengren, left for Manila. Two
days later, they flew back to Swden.
In Iloilo City that morning, radio stations have mobilized themselves to
help the people. Radio DYRP, DYFM, GMA Radio and DYRI and the FM Stations other stations have
mobilized themselves and requested donations to help the typhoon victims. Truck
loads of goods and relief clothing materials were received which were sent to
different areas in Iloilo province. That week, the government, church agencies,
NGO’s, from many parts of the the world
came and offered their assistance.
That day, I have a conference with Rev. Edwin
Lopez, General Secretary. We explored
ways how we can reached out to our
partner organizations for some assistance for our church members and the
community people. We worked and made plans how we will assist those who were hit hard by Typhoon Undang. We communicated with our partners – specially
the World Council of Churches based in Geneva.
WCC has partners with many church organizations in different parts of
the world.
We communicated with our churches in the
eastern and western side of the islands, who were not hit hard by Typhoon
Undang. We asked the CPBC churches in these areas to send donations –
food, clothes, canned goods, money and
send to the CPBC office.
Slowly and gradually some assistance came for
people in Panay. They came from
different sources, different
organizations and different countries.
About three
months after the visit of our friends from Sweden, bout February 1985, Rev. Olof Lindstrom wrote me at CPBC. Their assistance was coming. It will be transmitted to CPBC
in a week’s time. We moved fast. We
organized the North Iloilo Relief and
Rehab Projects for Typhoon Undang victims.
We organized the processes , methods and
systems. We identified the people to assist in the relief and rehabilitation
works. We identified the places which were not served by existing organizations
and groups. We identified two villages in Batad, 6 villages in Estancia,
2 villages in Balasan and 6 villages
in Carles, all in northern
Iloilo.
Ten
full time staff and 10 part time
staff, were trained and mobilized to assist in Implementing North Iloilo
Relief and Rehabilitatron Project.
Four days later, the staff of the New Frontier Ministries came
together. We joined in prayer. We thank
God for giving us the chance,
opportunity and resources to help people affected by Typhoon Undang in some
villages. Other agencies came to assist
people in Capiz, Aklan and Antique and other places in North Iloilo.
No comments:
Post a Comment