Pray For the Philippines--Again

The Philippines are still getting hit by natural disasters.

In the summer of 1974 I was in the Student Mission Corps, a summer program of the Church of the Nazarene which sends college students to work in mission areas. The program still exists, but is now called Youth In Mission. That summer, I and 3 other North American college students were assigned to the Philippines, where we were teamed with The Woodland Trio, 3 young Filipino musicians. We did music for evangelistic crusades. Since the other 3 SMC members were girls, I was often billeted with Tommy, Alfredo and Carlito. It was a formative time in my life. It's when I saw missions first-hand, and came to understand the leadership and talent of local people in areas that had formerly been led by missionaries.

After that summer, I exchanged a few letters (that was something written on paper with a typewriter or a pen) with my Filipino friends. A few years later the Woodland Trio (with one personnel change) toured in the US, and I was able to see them briefly. I later heard that one of them died, and was let to believe that it was Tommy. It was actually a later member that I didn't know, but for years I have believed that Tommy was dead.

This past summer while on home assignment, after we had spoken at the Canada West district NMI convention, a Filipino man stepped up to me and said "I knew an Andy Bennett in 1974 in the Philippines--that couldn't be you, could it?" I looked down at his name tag and say "Alfredo Velasco." It was a great reunion. Alfredo is now the pastor of a growing international church in Toronto. From him I learned that Tommy was still alive and well. Later Alfredo helped me to link up with Tommy (now more often called Thomas) on Facebook. It's been fun catching up on his family. One of his sons is even my Facebook friend now.

Its the mountain area around Baguio where Tommy and his family live that has been hit the hardest by the latest flooding. I heard from his son (who lives in Korea) that he has had SMS messages that indicate the Tommy and his family are well, but they don't have internet access, so I haven't heard directly from them.

Luzon Nazarene Bible College is located near one of the villages that has been severely affected by mudslides and flooding. I don't know if the campus is directly affected.

Please be praying with me for the people of the Philippines during this latest disaster. Pray that lives would be spared, and that people would turn to Jesus as a result of this experience.

The photo is from Associated Press.