To the editor:

Typhoon Haiyan, otherwise known as Yolanda, is the strongest storm this year. Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced. $14 billion dollars’ worth of property has been destroyed. Over 3,000 bodies have been found. 10,000 deaths are suspected.

To many Americans, these are just words and numbers. We sigh and turn the page or click the next slide. And forget.

But to me, this is real. The Philippines has been my home and I have lived there for five and half years.

When I heard about the typhoon, I felt “My home is being attacked.” The Philippines is still my home and they are still my people. I feel helpless.

So, today, I want to make it real to you. I want you to see it. The deaths are more than just numbers. They are people who had names, friends, family, homes, lives, and faces.

They are not a begging hand and starving mouth, they are people who are hurting.

I remember being in the Philippines during previous typhoons. Landslides came, burying villages in the night. We could hear the whirr of the helicopters going over our apartment and could see the big cloud of brown dirt that was raised whenever they landed to bring rice and carry away the dead and injured.

Somewhere, tonight, there is a father who will never be able to walk his daughter down the aisle. A little boy will never get to hear his grandparents’ stories. Starving people are desperately ransacking the rubble for food and water as they wait for aid that is stuck at the airport. A young wife sits on the jagged wreckage, with her head in her hands.

$14 billion worth of damage. Many people only earn about $6 a day. I have seen the houses of the fishing slums. Bamboo poles and sticks tied together to create stilts for the house to rest on over the water. How could such a house survive against 190 mph winds and rushing waves? They worked so hard for so little and now it is gone. They have no way to replace it. They have suffered so much grief and fear and they can’t even go home and hide under the covers. Their home is a pile of debris; their covers are washed away with the filthy floodwaters.

So, don’t forget about the Philippines. Stop and pray for them. Pray that families will be able to find each other. Pray that God will give the leaders wisdom to know how to rebuild. Pray that the aid will get to the people who need it. Pray that there will be peace. And most of all, pray that God would be very close to the people just had their world blown away.

Help them get their life get back. Sponsor the native organizations that know the people and their needs. If you do not know of an organization, you can go to Youth With A Mission’s website at ywam.org and find out what they are doing.

Still, the best thing for our hearts is to go ourselves. We want to go in today and rescue them. We want to put our arms around their shoulders and hold them and make everything ok. Contact organizations who know the country, the people, and have experiences in similar situations. You can email YWAM Cebu at ywamcebu@yahoo.com to ask about helping out. Without preparation, people who come to help can end up being only another mouth to feed. Do not let this discourage your compassion. This is such a devastating storm that the people will be suffering for years to come. They will need the help most months and years from now when they are no longer mentioned. When the news has moved on, they will need to know that they are not forgotten and that somebody still knows and cares.

Don’t forget. Don’t just give them a few sentences of your attention and move on. They cannot just move on. Whether it is with a financial gift, volunteering to help, and most importantly prayer, on the behalf of the people whom I love, I beg you, remember the Philippines.

 

Adriana Maxwell is a Buchanan native living in Edwardsburg.