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

Her name was JoAnn Canaleja. She went by Joan as that was the name her Dad called her. He called her that in reference to Joan of Arc. Joan broke out several bags of children’s coloring books, crayons, small toys, and other items to bless the nearby children who had suffered the Typhoon. I wasn’t sure how Joan got to the Catholic church, and I assumed she lived in the neighborhood. I found out her family actually lived nearby in the Tacloban area and, although their home had been damaged by the typhoon, they all survived. It seems Joan was living in Manila and had a deep burden to help children in Tacloban, so with meager means, she went out and bought items for the children. She then boarded a bus in Manila and rode the bus for one entire day to make it to Tacloban. Joan had accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior less than one year before at King Jesus Christian Fellowship, under the ministry of Bishop Eddie Deita and his wife, Gloria, and Gerson Deita and his wife, Joy. After receiving Jesus, Joan was ordained by Pastor Gerson as a missionary and went to Manila to work and serve the Lord. Now, she had braved the day long bus ride back to Tacloban to help minister. After ministering to some local kids, using flashlights to be able to read the books to them, we crawled into the tents we had set up to sleep in. Pastor Kelly was using his hand-crank gizmo to charge up his phone. With the wind blowing hard, and a slight rain falling, we all hunkered down for what we hoped would be a good night’s sleep.

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