Last Saturday, September 26th we received a startling phone text at about 12:00 noon from one of our teachers at the language school. After a few texts and a few broken phone calls from her, we were able to piece together a story of her morning that we would never forget.
Our Saturday started off as most Saturdays do, kind of lazily waking up and getting some late breakfast. We chatted with family on skype for a little bit, then I went upstairs to one of our missionary friends’ houses. I was only there about 10 minutes before we received a text from Beth, one of our language school teachers. She said something about being on the third story of her uncles house and the water was still rising. We had no idea what was going on, so we called her as quickly as we could. Through the broken connection and the rushing water in the background we could make out that she was in trouble. The desperation in her voice was clear as a bell.
Tropical Storm Ketsana over Manila.
It had been raining all morning long, and I remember sitting on my couch early that morning thinking that it was a very heavy rain. It just kept coming and coming. Since we don’t have tv or listen to the radio, we had no idea that a tropical storm, Ketsana, was parked right over the island of Luzon and more specifically right over the city of Manila. The winds weren’t that bad, but the rain was heavy and collecting quickly on the streets. With out much time here or knowledge of how rain affects the city, we had no idea what was in store for the people of Manila. We found out later that they had no idea either, as it had been more than half a century since any kind of flooding of this magnitude here in Manila. We received 16.7 inches of rain in less than 24 hours, and that is more than the normal average rainfall for the entire month of September.
As soon as we hung up the phone with Beth, we started pooling our knowledge, resources, and gear to see what we could do to help Beth and her three kids get off their roof and to a safe location. We prayed that the Lord would give us wisdom to know how to help. We called upon the name of He who can calm the storm with His voice to do so again and spare the lives of those we cared about – and many more that were in danger. We quickly got everything together, and headed out in our friends’ vehicle that is built for tough terrain and high water. We left at 1:30 pm and tried every route we could think of from the south of the city of Marikina (where Beth lives) but to no avail. At 4:00pm we decided to try coming in from the north and that got us the closest, but we still were 1 1/2 miles away from her. We were sitting in flowing water up to our headlights. By that time the worst of the storm was over and we could tell that the water was receding based on the poles and vehicles that we could watch next to us. We waited until about 10:00 that night for the water to go down enough for us to get closer to her. We were able to get within about 1 mile but were stopped again due to the high water.
People wading through water as we wait to get closer to Beth.
We did come with another backup plan and that was the inflatable kayak that I shipped from the states just a few months ago. I thought that I would be using it on the pristine beaches on some of the islands south of us, but its maiden voyage was in the oil slicked, sewer infested, muddy waters of Manila. And we were so happy that we had it. We were able to get within blocks of Beth’s house with it, and started asking some of the thousands of people walking in chest deep water if they knew Beth or where she lived. We only had the name of her street from the text she sent us, but no physical address. That coupled with the fact that it was dark, and everywhere around us was a sea of rushing water, debris, and crowds and crowds of people, made it seem impossible that we would ever find her. As we asked questions, we began to gather information about a group of people on one street that were able to cling to the roof of their house and ride out the worst of the storm – and that she was probably one of those people. We looked at the route to get down to her street, and it was a 16-foot deep white water section with whirlpools, and a maze of cars and debris that couldn’t be safely passed. So we had to find another route.
Cleaning the mud, oil, and diesel fuel off the kayak later.
While we were looking for another route, we found a man that seemed to know of this group of people clinging to the roof, and where they might be. So we enlisted his help in finding a route to them. He showed us a place to put the boat in, and after a few alleyways (and deflating and inflating the boat to make the turns), we were able to make it to her street. At about 3:30am we paddled up to the house where we thought she would be and called out to the people on the balcony. Sure enough, there she came with her three kids in tow. What a beautiful sight, not only were they all safe, but one of the kids was even asleep. We were so relieved to find her more than 12 hours after we set out to help – and praise the Lord He preserved their lives with so many miracles along the way.
Just finding Beth was one of the miracles.
The morning of the flood, Beth and her husband had been on their way back to their house, but they had taken two different modes of transportation. Beth made it back to the kids before her husband did, so she didn’t know where he had ended up when the flood hit. Her husband had sent her a text saying that he was outside the worst of the flood, and was going to try to get a boat for her and the kids to be rescued. Fast forward about 20 hours… when we were getting Beth off the balcony and into the kayak, I asked her, “Did your husband make it back to you? Is he there with you now?” to which she replied, “He is in the boat with you”. Amazing. Beth’s husband was the one person we found among the thousands out there that knew where she was - and he was our guide for getting us to her that night. We had no idea that we became the boat he had been looking for. Is that a miracle or what?
After we got them to a safe, dry place, Beth started to recount with tears in her eyes the events of the morning and the ways that God showed His faithfulness to them, sparing all of their lives. She told us that when she made it back to their house that morning, the kids were already up to their waists in water. She quickly wisked them out of the house and down the raging streets of water to her uncle’s house that she knew was two stories high. All the kids were up to their necks in water as she guided them down the street to their uncle’s house. I’m sure she felt a sigh of relief when they made it that couple hundred yards to the house, but that was quickly replaced with more panic as the water continued to rise and rise. They worked their way to the second floor and the water kept rising.
They finally had to go to the roof of the second floor as the water continued to rise above the overhead power lines on the street. We estimated that the water rose around 20 feet from the street level up above the power lines. It was right then that she texted us and asked us to pray for her. At about 12:00 noon and we began praying and asking any and everyone else to pray as well and if God had not intervened and calmed the storm, they would have been swept off their roof with no chance for survival. None of the kids nor Beth know how to swim, but that wouldn’t have mattered any way because of the rushing torrent that was coming down their street. They were on their roof all day and into the night watching and listening to the screams of people that didn’t make it to higher ground and were swept away by the flood.
The two story roof that Beth and family clung to during the storm. The water was above the power lines!
This is a story of God’s faithfulness and Grace to one family among 1.7 million people that were fighting for their lives and displaced from their homes do to this tragedy. Thank you to all of you who heard the story I posted on facebook that night and prayed for Beth and many others that were living this nightmare. Keep praying for Beth and her kids minds, as they deal with the mental aspect of this tragedy. Pray that their minds would be renewed each day. Pray too for the many others in our immediate NTM family who have lost homes, furniture, vehicles, and have been without water, food, and electricity for days now. We have been able to go out every day since the flood to help with some of these needs, but as you can imagine the needs seem to be endless. Don’t feel obligated to help, but if you would like to help you can go to the NTM Website to see how give there.
Please keep us in prayer as we have Super Typhoon “Pepeng” supposed to hit the northern part of Luzon within 24 hours.
Thanks for praying for us and supporting us so that we can be here to help,
Joel, Missy, Ryley, and Camryn Davis
Joel and Missy Davis Expanding the Reach of the Gospel in the Philippines 
Am I so cute or what?
