APNTS provides refuge and care for flood evacuees

About 10 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 26 (Manila time), a torrential rain hit the campus of Asia-Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary (APNTS) and its environs. Within six hours about 14 inches of rain fell from Typhoon Ketsana (called Ondoy by locals). Quickly, the small Kaytikling Creek that runs through the middle of the campus flooded and overflowed its banks for the first time in more than 26 years.

People began to pour into the seminary seeking shelter. By Saturday night 289 people had registered and were housed in buildings on the APNTS campus. Most of these were from the Rowena informal settlers community that lived on the two sides of the creek adjacent to APNTS. APNTS had already been ministering to this informal settlers community in various ways over the previous years.

At least two children from the community lost their lives in the flood. Professors and students on campus responded effectively to the immediate crisis.

Two areas on the APNTS campus provided housing Saturday and Sunday nights. The APNTS community prepared Sunday morning breakfast for the evacuees and provided other food throughout the day. The Student Body Organization collected dry clothing from students and faculty. One student, a medical technician, treated the minor cuts and scrapes of about 150 persons. Nazarene Compassionate Ministries (NCM) had stored some Crisis Care Kits on campus, and these were distributed.

Water pipes on campus broke. Clean drinking water had to be purchased for both the evacuees and the campus residents. It became difficult to purchase food at nearby markets. The great number of evacuees on campus and lack of water taxed campus facilities. One student volunteer from Burma cleaned the restrooms using rain water. The 300 evacuees stayed on campus until Monday morning, when the municipal government was able to relocate them.

When the water receded, much mud and contamination was left behind, creating a massive clean-up job. Various walls along the perimeter of the campus and within the seminary collapsed, and further rains on Monday threatened more landslides. Not until Monday afternoon was General Services Manager Eric Sanchez able to leave his own home in Marikina, which was flooded waist-high, to inspect the damages on campus. On Monday, students and faculty cleaned the chapel in the middle of campus, which was saturated knee-deep with mud.

The typhoon hit APNTS at the end of its Reading and Research Week; many of the students and several of the faculty were in Baguio, a city to the north, attending the wedding of an APNTS instructor. Major roads to and from the campus were flooded and delayed the return of the students and professors to the campus.

Please pray for:

  • Wisdom for Dr. Lee San Young, officer in charge in the absence of President Floyd Cunningham, and the administration, faculty, staff, and students
  • Health and strength
  • Opportunities for sharing Jesus with those in need
  • Safety for those who remained stranded in their homes in surrounding places

 

— Beverly Gruver and Floyd Cunningham contributed to this report.