Street Stories - A Ringside Seat To Over 4 Decades Of Taking Jesus To The Streets Of The World

Tacloban, where one reporter described in the immediate aftermath as a “corpse -strewn wasteland.” We knew this epicenter of disaster is where we wanted to reach out to. Our Typhon Haiyan disaster relief team boarded a plane at the Tom Bradley International terminal at the Los Angeles Airport late in the evening. We flew 14 hours to Taipei, then we changed planes and flew the final 2 hours and 18 minutes from Taipei and finally landed at Nonoy Aquino International Airport in Manila. After we retrieved our bags and disaster relief supplies and stepped outside the airport in Manila, we could feel the solemnity of a nation suffering under the heavy weight of, not only the physical damage of Typhoon Haiyan, but the emotional loss of thousands of loved ones and Filipino families. I got out my cell phone and called the number Gerson had given me to reach him once we landed. When the phone started ringing, it wasn’t answered at first. I was sure hoping that there actually was a Gerson Deita and that there really was a King Jesus Christian Fellowship waiting on us. I only knew of them on the internet and Gerson, and I had spoken a few times by international calling. I had found out that Frank Gresham, our friend who directed me to KJCF, had never actually met the Deita family but also only knew of them from their website on the internet. As Gerson’s phone continued to ring, I was praying under my breath, “Please answer the phone. Please be a real person that is waiting here in Manila to pick us up and head to Tacloban City.”

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