Leyte November 29

Well its all but over. In some ways, it seems like months I've been away. So much has happened, so many new friends, so much conversation. But in other ways this 18 day trip has flown by.

During these last few days in Ormac, sadly my telephone text and email have not worked. No satellite connection on Leyte. I was desperate to call Susan the first night I was here to tell her that I'd arrived safely by Ferry and motorcycle. My cell did not work, the hotel could not access Canada and the public phones closed at 5 pm. It was 11 pm after the service was over. (we hadn't arrived till after it had begun) finally I asked a couple of women walking by the hotel if I could pay to use their cell. They had no load but were willing if we could reload for them. The hotel clerk ran somewhere (it was after midnight and everything was closed) got the necessary load and I was able to call.

Ormac is a lovely little seaside town on the Island Leyte. 15 years ago it made the headlines when the river overflowed and 15 feet of water drowned the city. 11,000 people died that day. When the pastor built his church a few years ago they dug up a few human skulls under the parsonage

Then in 2006 a mud slide a few hours away in Bernard buried 1000's more alive. Our Church had given several thousand dollars to help the living so I brought back pictures to show what we did to help.

The pastors of Leyte are a very humble group of men and women. Gulliver the district Supervisor has no car or motorcycle. No typewriter or computer. No office and only a small parsonage (about 300 sq feet) for his family of 6. But as poor as they are they worship with great enthusiasm and listen intently to the many hours of teaching. My schedule was full from arrival on Monday until departure on Wed afternoon.

There's a typhoon on the Islands so the Fastcat Ferry is making tracks to get to Cebu before they send out the signal to cancel all sailings. I'll be in Cebu tonight and tomorrow I fly to Manila to connect to the flight home. Yippee!