Typhoon Yolanda destroys my home. Part 1

Well friends, it's december now and time for another update. I'll have to write some time about our adventures in Europe after Africa, because it was so fun and hilarious and quite an adventure, indeed. But today, before my thoughts are forgotten, it's time to explain about my beloved Philippines.

On November 8 , 2013 the largest Typhoon to ever hit landfall hit the Philippines Tacloban Mission. My mission. My home. I remember days before I started hearing about this typhoon and this strange, horrible anxious feeling began to hurt in my chest. Do they know?Have they been warned? What can I do? Are the members safe? Are the missionaries safe? I kept updating my facebook status about the storm hoping that would act as some type of warning system for the people there. I was so worried.

I followed the storm on my phone whether I was at work or at someone's home, constantly praying and worrying and talking about it. Feeling completely hopeless, I might add.

And then, the pictures and reports began to trickle in.

The streets I had walked and worked and laughed in were gone. People were lost, confused, dead, scared. The scenes were horrifying. No word from ANY one. No cell connection , no facebook, no communication with my second family there. That horrible anxious feeling became prominent within me and I could do nothing.

I wish I would have done a better job at writing down when we heard from people but I know it took several, several days and finding the missionaries also took several days. Some we still had not heard from by the day we left. No communication, no clue if they were okay. Throughout all this time I was online numerous hours a day searching for any information from different facebook groups or news articles to connect me somehow with the people there.

For those of you who are not aware, Tacloban is where Jared and I met when we were missionaries for the LDS church. He lived and served there for 8 months in that city, and I was there for 4 months. I also lived in Tanauan for 4 months and Dagami for 3. Both my husband and I literally worked and lived in the Tacloban area of our mission for many months and it was our second home. We knew we had to get back there.

On Saturday I started a fundraiser on Crowdrise to raise $5,000 by my November 15th bday. As time went on the miracles happened and different connections occurred.

Saturday night I contacted a man named CJ Roberts that served in the Tacloban Mission back in 1991-1993. I remembered meeting him back when I was a missionary in 2011 at the church's parking lot randomly when he came over with his family. Small world. No coicidences. CJ and I began brainstorming and I think I talked to him more than I talked to anyone those next couple weeks. Each day things changed and more doors were opened and some closed. Eventually we got connected to the right people, held a meeting for all Returned missionaries who wanted to go back to help and then left on November 23, 2013.

I can't remember now all the miracles that happened in order to get us to the Philippines on that date. So many!!! But I need to list a few for my own personal records:

-prayers answered

-the church starts working with us

-Jared and I get sponsored to go over there

-3 employers give their blessing and 2 weeks off of work

-Jared's professors give the ok and support our efforts

-$5,000 is raised for the church's humanitarian fund through the crowdrise fundraiser

-many, many people start donating supplies including expensive water filters, flashlights, Solar panels, etc

-Home Depots all over Utah donate $1,000s of dollars of supplies we take over

-We ship literally tons of supplies to Cebu with no shipping costs including chainsaws

-We were able to buy our flights just days before leaving

-We had an awesome team that flew over with us and everything worked out for them as well

-Charity Vision is a great organization we were associated with that helped us along the way

-The Church was supportive of us going and we were able to work with the command center and main guy in charge, Philip Tan, in Ormoc City, Leyte.

There are MANY many more I'm sure...

But this was just the beginning of the tender mercies and miracles we were able to see and participate in during this journey. I will update more later.

Thank you for your support, prayers, and love for me and my husband, for our team, and for the Filipino people we love.

heart,

tori and Jared