CREATIVITY AMIDST CONFUSION (STORIES FROM THE GROUND 2)

Meet Pastor Paul Villamor. Upon arriving in Ormoc City, we were at lost as to how we will go about the team's mission in finding evangelical pastors in the area. We had this person's contact number, and tried to reach him. On our second day there, he visited us at our team base, the City Tennis Court where we pitched our tents. He invited us to attend the Ormoc City Evangelical Ministerial Association (OCEMA), which happened to be set on that same morning.

We introduced the team to the pastors and each one of them recounted their stories of the typhoon experience. Pastor Paul was one of those who had the most emotional story.

The typhoon damaged his whole house and even his church. His family is now living under the rubbles. All their properties were destroyed. By the time we saw him, he said that he had only received 2 kilograms of rice and 2 cans of sardines. That was the only thing he received.

He emotionally shared to us how he saw that many of his church members and even his neighbors have far worse condition than he has. He was so hurt and devastated seeing them that way, and then he himself could not afford to help. He did not even have his own food to offer. He did not have a house to open to anybody. Being in that kind of situation breaks his heart. He said that he has survived the Cold War in Saudi Arabia a couple of years ago, but this disaster has made him feel more miserable than that.

In the succeeding days that we were there, Pastor Paul has shown to us so much creativity and helped the team in a lot of ways. He embraced the vision of justice and fairness in relief distribution during disaster response, and has since passionately lived this out while he deals with many different organizations in the province (aside from being a pastor, he is also the Provincial Coordinator of Values Formation in Leyte).

He has spent time with the team and basically became part of the family. He showed and taught us useful techniques such as opening canned goods with a spoon, and opening soda bottles with another bottle. His presence causes delight and joy to the team as he also shares his humor.

Pastor Paul is also so much dedicated to disaster response, that whenever we ask him to help us look for anything, he would right aways exhaust his resources and connections to be able to come up with results. Nobody forces him to do it, but he has an inner compassion for others that drives us all the more passionate to serve their community.

Pastor Paul is an active carrier of the gospel. He lives it out from day to day, and it has become evident for us during the short time we have interacted with him. I am pretty sure there are more people like him who, in their little ways, create a great impact to the larger community. God bless his heart!

Pastor Paul, wearing red shirt with a white vest - was taking notes of the disaster response plan during a meeting with the pastors of OCEMA

He passionately prays for God's comfort for him and his family, as well as all the other pastors in Ormoc that are also being led to comfort others.