Finally Arrived at the Philippines Branch Day 1!

After many, many hours (26 in total) of flying we finally arrived at the branch in the Philiippines!! Getting out of the airport and taking the warm air and smells brought us back to many of our previous assignments in the tropics. The brother was there within 15 minutes of coming out of the airport and it is always such a relief when you see the brother holding the Watchtower sign up, knowing he is there for you:) We got in at 2am and were up at 6am, so just a few hours of much needed sleep and we were off!

Our day began with a tour of the branch facilities

where we made some friends instantly in the lobby, instant family:)

We met with our dear missionary brother Bert Hoefnagels, the disaster relief brother in the service department. He briefed us on our assignment and as you can see to the left a map of the path of Typhoon Yolanda (as they call it here). Josh and Eadie are another couple from Jacksonville FL who happened to be on our exact flights over. We will be on different islands but it has great spending time with them!

The pioneer spirit is incredible, love that 1 out of 6 publishers are regular pioneering, don't you love the little red guy with his hands up in the air, that's our pioneer!

Disasters in the Philippines unfortunately is a common problem, here is a brief chart of the most current disasters our brothers have had to contend with not including a previous typhoon, earthquake and now Typhoon Yolanda in 2013.

Our brother Bert here displayed on the bethel tour giving much needed comfort to our sick brother after a recent disaster.

Here is some information we know thus far.......2400 homes of our brothers have been affected by the typhoon. During the typhoon many of our brothers sought refuge in a Kingdom Hall but some of our brothers were overtaken by a tsumani type flood and perished. There is a relocation site about 20 hours drive and ferry ride from the branch where now 250 of the friends are living. We will not be going to that area but are going to Panay Island and will work in the vicinity  Roxas City, one of the other hardest hit areas. Over 400 homes are needed. The timing of the disaster has presented another challenge it occurred during district convention season, some of the facilities were destroyed so new locations needed to secured and the last of the conventions will be held this coming weekend much to the happiness of the brothers here at bethel and in the territories that were hard hit. Being only hours into this assignment has proven to be such an encouragement to us already. We will try to keep you posted on the our journey here as best we can. It looks like we will have some internet access just not sure how much yet. We leave on our flight tomorrow to Roxas City, we will be in touch! xo