November 18, 2013
You may have heard about the awful Typhoon that hit the Philippines recently. It has been devastating to see the destruction. Of course I have been following the stories of the 204 missionaries serving in the Tacloban Mission where the storm hit.
Well there is this amazing story of 10 Sister missionaries that were all staying in a 2 story apartment during the storm because they were told to come more inland as they had been on the coast. They did have their 72 hour kits etc. But by 5:00am the flood waters had risen so high it quickly was over their heads on the second floor - I can't even imagine. They were swimming trying to find a way out - some sisters couldn't swim so they were hanging on to other sisters. One sister was able to kick a hole in the flimsy wall and they made there way out but they were still swimming and the current was very strong! Those who couldn't swim were still hanging on to those that could. One sister threw a rope and managed to get it tied around a gutter so they could all get to safety on a roof top - They said the waters were rising so fast that soon it would be over the roof top - they prayed and in the prayer they asked that the flood waters would stop rising and in that moment nothing short of a miracle happened - they described as the sea just stopped and the waters stopped rising! I was just crying reading this. Finally all missionaries were accounted for after lots of miracles and coordinating - some scraping $$ together to take a boat - others walking for hours on end they got to the airport - the airport had massive holes blown out of the side of the walls - it didn't appear that they were going to be able to get out of the area (There were mission leaders or Zone leaders and Mission Presidents helping to coordinate it all) but the prospects looked grim when suddenly this happened - This is copy and pasted:
Some sisters, their feet blistered, could barely walk. The looting had become more severe, and the missionaries had heard rumors that prisoners at the jail, which had lost its electricity and its guards, had simply walked out. The assistants stood at the front and back of the long line of missionaries — dozens and dozens — as they made the long march to the airport.
As they walked, Elder Ardern tried to arrange a flight out. He had booked flights in Manila, but thousands of other survivors had mobbed the Tacloban airport. The ticket agent told him if he wanted a flight out, he’d have to pay more to get his 204 missionaries to safety.
As Elder Ardern tried other options, the missionaries milled about what was left of the airport terminal, its walls blasted out by the gale force winds of the storm. And then, a final miracle.
An Army sergeant with a C-130 airplane, assigned by the U.S. government to fly Americans out of the disaster area, said he had a feeling he should walk through the terminal one more time. As he did, he saw out of the corner of his eye what looked like the nametag of a Mormon missionary. The sergeant, a Mormon himself, asked if the missionary was American. When he said he was, the sergeant told him he could arrange flights out for all the Americans and foreigners in his C-130.
This Sargeant managed to get all missionaries out.
Well my love I thought this story was awe-inspiring and just another example of Heavenly Father's Omnipotence and the power of Divine intervention.
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