Meet Pastor Erly Garces. He is the pastor of New Harvest Turning Point. He is a member of the Ormoc Evangelical Disaster Response Network (OEDRN). The first time we met him at the meeting of the Ormoc City Evangelical Ministerial Association (OCEMA), his hand was wrapped with a handkerchief because it got injured during the typhoon.
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In this photo, Pastor Erly was introducing himself to Bishop Tendero on the phone.
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During that first meeting, he humorously recounts to us his own experience. Before the typhoon, he just finished building his dream house. He has saved up for it for many many years before he was able to build a nice house on top of the hill, overlooking the city. Beside his house is the church building, which is just also on its way to final construction - a nice concrete church building. Upon hearing typhoon warnings, he felt a little confident that their place on top of the hill, will be spared from extreme devastation and flooding, which he expected would be the worst effect of the typhoon.
That morning, however, when the strong typhoon landed, they were surprised to realize that the typhoon is actually in their place! The strong winds saying hello to their roof and to the walls of the church building. He and some of his church members gathered inside their church building, as they felt it was a safe spot. He joined them as the strong winds lifted the roof, slowly damaged the walls, leaving the whole church bare. He looked around and realized, "I have no more house!" He couldn't believe they were not spared by the typhoon. It wasn't flood that hit them, but the strong winds that totally devastated the church building and his own dream house. He got injured on his right hand due to debris falling on them.
The Sunday after we met him, he picked up the whole team to attend their worship service. The team felt really welcome and overwhelmed by the joyful spirit of the church as they sang praise and worship songs to the Lord, in their own language. Our team leader, kuya Dann, gave a short inspiring message to the church and everyone felt hope, felt God's presence, and a sense of peace within.
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| Pastor Erly and his family, standing in front of their dream house that was devastated by the typhoon in a span of a few hours (on the leftmost side of the photo is the location of the church building). |
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| The church building where some members gathered together to seek safety because it was made of concrete. It was not spared by the strong winds, however. |
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| Standing from where the church building is located, the whole City of Ormoc can be seen. On the morning of the typhoon, they witnessed how the whole city turned from an organized city into a devastated place. |
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| Pastor Erly while introducing PBCI team to his church family |
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He could still barely move his right hand due to an injury he acquired during the onslaught of the typhoon.
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That noon right after the church service, we rushed to the port to catch our noon ferry ride to Cebu City. He brought the team there and bid us a safe trip. While we were sitting on the ship waiting for it to leave, we realized we haven't eaten lunch so one of our teammates went out to buy lunch. Just right outside the ship, they saw Pastor Erly walking towards the ship ready to hand us bags of rice, chicken, and oranges. He knew we hadn't eaten lunch and he said he couldn't help but think of us so he bought lunch and went back to hand us our lunch. There we were, stunned at this pastor's thoughtfulness and generosity. None of us ever thought of buying our own lunch, but this pastor, whom we sought to comfort during this time of disaster, showed us a great deal of generosity and compassion. His genuine act of concern and care for the team moved us greatly.
A couple of days later, we were expecting thousands of relief packs from Manila and Cebu. At our new base, the roof was damaged so we had to look for tarps that we can use to cover the goods and protect them from rain. We tried to contact all the pastors from OEDRN to see if they could lead to someone who can lend us some.
To our amazement, Pastor Erly once again offered a great deal of help. He lent us tarps that we can use to protect the goods. He was planning to give away those plastic tarps to his church members, to be used as temporary shelters. He did not hesitate to lend it to us for a couple of days because he knew it would be very useful.
Those were simple acts of generosity and genuine care, yet this pastor demonstrated to us that those values do not stop flowing even in the midst of disaster. Especially after a disaster. His faith in God, love for his neighbors, hospitality, and generosity, are effective witness of how one can respond to a disaster. This one life has impacted many others, including mine. I am sure there are many more around us that can give life-changing witnesses. Open our eyes to them. :)
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