TACLOBAN, Philippines (BNc) —Previous reports that no Christians were killed in the November 7 typhoon were inaccurate, missionary Michael Hildreth said yesterday.
Three disciples from the church in Tacloban perished in the storm. Tacloban City was struck by the most powerful part of the typhoon.
Michael visited Leyte Christian College, near Tacloban, and saw that the school and the student dorms sustained damages. No student was hurt during the storm.
“Upon arriving at Leyte Christian College I learned that the students were lacking clean water to drink. I gave them funds for that need and met with all of the students to deliver a message of encouragement and sing some hymns with them,” he said.
Typhoon Haiyan was the deadliest storm for the country in modern times. It became the strongest landfalling tropical cyclone, crossing the Central Philippines Nov. 7-8, 2013, according to Wikipedia. It was the second deadliest typhoon, killing 6241 people.
Michael returned to the Philippines in January carrying relief funds from American and Brazilian churches.
Michael’s overseeing congregation, the Sherman Drive church in Denton, Tex., continues to receive funds for the Philippine relief.
“We brought medicines from Cebu for a medical mission at the church building. We also distributed Cebuano Bibles to those who came. Dr. Napoleon Belo attended to the patients there. We also did much visiting and preached lessons to the evacuees in the evacuation centers in Tacloban,” Michael wrote.
As a result of his preaching in the evacuation centers and the gospel meeting held in the building of the Tacloban City church, two souls obeyed the gospel.
“I am confident that the Lord will add more to his church as the contacts we made will be taught further by the local preachers. I believe that the evangelistic effort in Tacloban was very successful,” Michael said.
The Filipino government is considering shifting the city away from the vulnerable coastline area.
2014-01-30 at 9:46 am
I think it is being a little presumptious on our part to ever make a statement that although 6241 people were killed, none of them, or three of them, were Christians. We can say that none of them were members of the Church of Christ but what if one was a member of an anti-instututional one-cup congregation? Do we count him? Rather than we try to sort out who was a Christian and who wasn’t we should say that 6241 people were killed, we feel sorrow for their families’ loss and that we hope many of them died in Christ.