God’s Faithfulness

By Pastor Rolly and Pastor Joy Bascos

Glad Tidings church,

 Eastern Samar, Philippines.

Trials and tribulations come with both a purpose and a reward. Through all of life’s trials and tribulations, we have the victory through our Lord, Jesus Christ. God has given us His Word to guide us, His Holy Spirit to enable us, and the privilege of coming to Him anywhere, at any time, to pray about anything. He has also assured us that no trial will test us beyond our ability to bear it, and he will also provide a way out.

 On Nov 8 2013 Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines with winds of 195mph, with such catastrophic damage that it was predicted to be the strongest tropical cyclone to make landfall in recorded history. The wind started howling and the rain started coming, and soon the babies and the children were screaming in their homes as the winds tore at the foundation of the homes. The noise of the wind was deafening and the winds tore into the buildings shattering the glass window panes and smashing into the concrete walls, crumbling them.

We huddled together in our home, praying for His protection and when our house roof was blown away, I rushed my family into the church next door. The wooden box that we used as a pulpit stood there and my family and I (3 adults and 3 children) squeezed into this box. We stayed in this box, three and half feet wide, four feet in height and two and half feet in depth for seven long hours. While the storm raged around us we kept singing the song “you are my hiding place”. When the storm subsided we crawled out of the box and saw that the whole church had been destroyed and all that was left standing was this wooden box. We immediately fell to our knees to thank God for His protection. There was absolutely no way we would have survived if not for His divine protection. Looking at the wooden box we could not believe that 6 of us could fit in there and when we tried to do it again later we simply could not.

We had lost our home, our church and our belongings but God spared our lives and he opened my mind to see His faithfulness and to understand that He had a plan and purpose for our lives. It was really hard when we saw the extent of the damage caused by the typhoon. We just did not know where to begin. We woke up every morning with the same question” where do we go from here? Where do we start?” All around us we saw nothing but chaos and destruction. People walking

  around in a daze, their homes and their lives completely wrecked. We were so blank, so discouraged and felt such a wave of hopelessness sweep over us. My wife Joy and I prayed to the Lord to help us to start over again and God saw the desires of our hearts.

In March of 2014, God answered our prayers when Rev Eric Fung of Asian Outreach Ministry Malaysia was brought here to visit by a local pastor in Tacloban. We know it was definitely not by chance but all in God’s plan and God’s time. Praise God after seeing the destruction of our church, Rev Eric committed by faith to help us rebuild our church. Other organizations had come and promised us too but we never heard news of hope from them. But this time as Rev Eric handed me his calling card I felt in my heart that he had been sent here by God and we will trust him to make it happen. Every prayer meeting  the believers and I would bring out his card and pray that God will help Rev Eric raise the funds needed to rebuild this church and we never stopped praying until this promise is fulfilled. Every time the congregation gathered to pray we felt the strong presence of God and we worshipped with a thankful heart believing that He is truly a Faithful, Miraculous, Amazing God and all things are possible with Him.

A year later on the 15^th of April 2015, we proudly gathered at our new church to dedicate the church to the glory of God. Rev Eric and his wife Deborah was with us to celebrate this wonderful occasion. As I stood in the new church I could see the congregation shared my joy and happiness of how faithful God has been to us. He made something beautiful out of the rubble and raised up our church even better than what it was before. The experience of Typhoon Haiyan has taught me that God is sculpting us into Holy vessels. The process can be painful but He will turn our sorrow into joy, our mourning into rejoicing and He will comfort us and give us gladness.

Psalm 30:11

You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing. You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy.