A Glimpse of a Widow 's Heart

When the sun rose, we were wondering where to stay after the flood. We cannot stay at our house in Nazareth because it is occupied as a Pre-school and our other house in Tin-ao is also occupied since my niece is currently renting it as a Car Wash business. So, we were in quandary where to stay at that moment and besides there was no public transportation at that time. Later on, my nieces and a nephew arrived and invited us to eat breakfast in their house which was not affected by the flood as it was located in one of the subdivisions at the upper level of the city.. There, we were able to take a bath and take a rest for a while, and then he brought us to our house in Nazareth as we had decided to stay there anyway, because there were still no classes because it was Christmas vacation.

In Nazareth, Jinggoy, my son who is in Vietnam called us that he contacted Boboy (his cousin) who arrived just in a few minutes while we were still talking, together with Agnes, his wife. We decided to stay at their house in Bukidnon, a 45 minutes drive from Cagayan de Oro. While the couple went for their grocery, my nephew who drove us before the flood arrived with his family and my sister in law (his mother) since there were looking for a place to stay too. We told them that we will be staying at Boboy’s house and invited them to be with us. So all of us, my 2 daughters family and my nephew’s family went up to Bukidnon. This was the second experience we encountered flood because we were near the river but those living at the roadside it was their first time experience .. This is also the first tragic calamity that occurred in our city. We found out later that many had died in Balulang, our place and also in other places . More than half of the population in our city experience the calamity for the first time. I can not just imagine that also the place of my close friend who called me of the coming tragedy were affected when they are very far from the river. It was a worst tragedy that encountered by the residents of our city for the first time in their lives. Back to the house of Boboy, we were all accommodated. It is a huge house plus a guest house and his family is not staying there but only his sister's family. He is connected with Del Monte Philippines as one of the executives so he is provided with a house at the company's compound. I thank God for His faithfulness during that moment. Imagine, It was a therapy for my grandchildren from the trauma they encountered because they have a sprawling ground that they played and run around to their hearts delights. Again, we thank the Lord of His faithfulness in our lives,

This was our car turned up side down, in which after an hour my son in law left the scavenger stole the engine and the accessories that were left on it.

This is one part of my sound system that was dig out from the soil. From a far distance was where my house was located. But after a few minutes when my friends left it was gone because many people came and dig out our things that was buried in the soil.


This was the house of Mayette, my other daughter, again it was smashed by a big tree.
Oh! As I was posting this, my grandchildren exclaimed that they miss their lives at Balulang. Yes! how can we forget the serenity, the cool breeze, and the clean air we were experiences compared to where we are staying right now.

I was watching Korean drama in the internet while chatting with my daughter when my best friend called me up informing me that the river flow was rising up according to the radio broadcast she had been listening at that time. You see, my room was closed so I was not aware of my surroundings. I was not aware of the strong winds and rains which Mayette, my daughter has seen, that when I called her up she had contacted already Beam, my other daughter . She was worried at that time because her and Beam’s husband were not around. So, I called up my nephew who were residing on the roadside to check the river flow… Yes, he arrived and told us to vacate the place immediately as he saw the river was increasing to high level .While preparing our getaway, the lights went out.He drove the car and we went up to our church building which is located at the roadside.

There in the church while preparing the bedding at the stage of the church for my grandchildren to sleep a loud noise occurred and saw that the door opened up with the water coming inside the church. My grandchildren panicked and cried, and Many, the hubby of Mayette which had arrived earlier in the church decided that we climbed up at the roof top passing thru the sink which has iron grills at the opening. We were in the roof top wet while still drizzling and just prayed and sing worship songs. We waited for the water to subside for more that 3 hours.

Praise God! For all of us were saved…. (more for my next post)

YES! After so many months I am here again in blogsphere..I am sure you have heard the news of what had happened in our city , Cagayan de Oro, Philippines, the calamities we encountered because of the typhoon . ‘SENDONG .” It was published in the newspapers and broadcast around the world that our city was known for the first time.

Well, I am one of those affected, also my 2 daughters family. Our houses were washed out because it was hit by many big trees. So sad, but Praise God! He spared our lives. We felt sorry for those families who perished during the tragedies.

I will be writing my experiences and how God works in our lives during those painful and memorable moments in our lives in my next series of post.