MEMORIES OF ONDOY
It is now more than two years ago when the tragic typhoon Ondoy unleashed its fury in Metro Manila. I remember that day, I was not at all worried even though it rained very hard for a long time. We were watching people passing by the flooded streets with their belongings evacuating their homes which are located in the lower part of the subdivision. Since we lived in our house in 1983, flood never came inside our house. Whenever it rained hard, only the streets get flooded, and when the rains stopped, the flood would quickly recede.
But on that fateful Saturday, at past noontime, floodwaters started getting inside our house. When it was already about a foot high inside my house, we thought we could just sleep in my daughter’s house located at the back of my own house, which was a foot higher than my house. But as the rains continued, flood waters kept on rising, and when the flood inside the house was already up to my chest, we asked our next door neighbor who has a two-storey house to please accommodate us. So, at about 6:30 pm, we moved out of our house and moved in to our neighbor’s house. There we stayed from Saturday evening to Monday morning.
On Monday morning, we went back to our house. It was a complete mess, mud on the floor, most of the wood parquet flooring and narra plywood walls peeled off, the refrigerators fell face down, books, clothes soaked in floodwaters.
We immediately got to work to clean up the mess. We disposed of the dividers, books, mattresses, and a dresser. We cleaned up for 3 weeks, and yet, there were still much to be done. We were really exhausted.
In spite of all these, we are thankful to God, because He spared us from the worst. Everyone was safe and did not get sick. As compared to others, we were still blessed because in other places, the people had to climb to the rooftops of their house and some even got drowned.
Indeed, God is faithful in His promise to provide our needs in any circumstances. In this particular calamity, He provided good health, food and hope in the midst of uncertainties.
Hebrews 13:5 "...He (God) hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee."
Thank you, dear God, for sparing us from the worst that could happen to us.
Yes, Ate, I saw that devastating flood that entered cities on TV by the Ondoy. Your locality is quite low known for city flooded area. Weeks of clean up, seeing important furniture, part of the housing got damage will really allow us to think hard why does unnecessary things need to happen? Yet the calamity somewhat made us stronger in character, became much closer to the family members, prayerful and bolder to grasp and embrace God’s promises in times of trouble. For some received Christ as their Savior and Lord. Testimonies I heard that a brother of him wherein there was no contact for many long years crossed their path, fixed the mess in their relationship and got reconciled. Amazing hard lesson but to God it is necessary because of a purpose and that to make us all closer to Him. (comment from Butch de Jesus)
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