Diego and Manuel; rebuilding a home and building a relationship through God's love

“It was about ten minutes after the earthquake that a policeman drove by on his motorcycle saying that there would be a tsunami, I already knew and was getting my family ready to head to the hills. I knew because I have known the ocean my whole life, I inherited this from my father. I thank God that night there was a full moon and we could see while we ran through the brush up the hill. Through the darkness of the night we saw them come, there where three of them. The first one did not destroy it all, but after the first wave came, two more incredibly larger ones hit.

Up close and from the sky above the red arrow points to the blank area where homes were swept away

I waited until 7:00 in the morning to go down from the mountain to see how much had been destroyed. When I saw what once had been my house, the house where I had lived all my life with my wife, the house where I watched my daughter grow, I was devastated. A million thoughts ran through my head, how hard I had worked for that house that in seconds was torn away. I could only hope against all odds that my boat had made it through this catastrophe. Then a friend came and told me there was nothing left of my boat or motor. I stared in total silence at the devastation and thought about ending my life, there was nothing left. How would I feed my family? I had lost my boat, the tools of the only trade I had known during my whole life. How could I rebuild my home if I could not work? The boat had cost me $6,000 and the motor $14,000. I had started fishing on someone else’s boat until I bought my own, but there is nothing left of my efforts.”

The two sides of Iloca housing today

We kept working through the day on Manuel’s house. He would send his daughter to get us some Coke (one of the only things that seemed to not have been destroyed in the corner store). As we nailed the last board on the inside of his house, you could see a man that had suffered terribly, yet there was some hope in his eyes.

Building homes and hopes in the name of our Lord

I could only give thanks to God for all of you that have given so generously and made it possible for us to help people like Manuel. There is still so much to do, we pray that God continues to provide for the people of Iloca who have lost everything.

God led us to this man to give him and his family hope, not to preach a sermon, but to live out the good news of hope and restoration. We did pray for him and his family and as we left the house his wife said, “Now I can say this is my house.”

The anguish had turned to hope even in a small measure.   (Back to Stories)