Philippines, Thailand and Nepal News

The Philippines endured a super typhoon this week named Rai (aka Odette in the Philippines).  Today, I read where 169 lives have been lost in this Category 5 typhoon that hit on Thursday.   It started out as a Cat. 1 and increased to a Cat. 5 when it began to make landfall in the islands.   It was a direct hit for Casa Esperanza of Angels' orphanage.   

We had our first news from Gigi this morning saying they are all safe.  It has been hard to wait for news from them but we knew their power would be out.  A short video posted on Facebook shows water all around the houses.  There was flooding and much damage but I don't have a breakdown of what they lost at this time.    They are still without power as this island had some of the worst destruction.   We are thankful they are safe.    The last pictures I saw on the Facebook page before the short video shows Ronald meeting with the 25 children in the two houses to explain about the storm coming and giving instructions.    We are so relieved that everyone is safe.   Everything else can be replaced even though they have a long road ahead cleaning up and trying to restore everything. I will post pictures whenever I receive them.  Thank you for your prayers for their safety.  

Ranjit returned home from the hospital a couple of weeks ago but he is still not doing very well.   He has had a fever the last three days so they were taking him to the hospital today.   He is sitting down in the picture giving some clothing to one of the girls.    Please continue to pray for Ranjit.

 

  

This is the back entrance to the house.   You can see the nice neighborhood with expensive houses surrounding our safe house.    Just down the street is a nice resort.   The location is safe and an ideal place for the girls to enjoy.  The kitchen is small but I think girls can take turns cooking and  two can work together without difficulty. 

Ron has set up the office in the dry bar area so this is good utilization of this space.    

Ron has located a couple who wish to be the house parents for the new safe house in Chiang Mei.  He has been working as one of the ministers at a church of Christ about an hour away from the new house.  They have one son in college.   Neither speak much English but they are willing to study and learn.  Ron is having some basic English lessons with the minister.    I hope they will work out to be SAS's new house parents.    

He should be able to close on the purchase of the house soon.   Once that has been accomplished, house parents can move in and determine what other furnishing are needed.   Ron can begin to work with them to find girls and spend time instructing and training them.    I expect this process to take most of January.  

The border to Laos has recently opened and if Omicron does not spread to Asia quickly, Ron hopes to travel to Vientiane, Laos to meet with workers Hong and Phet who oversee the five safe houses in Laos.

Thank you again for following our work and for your support and prayers.

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!