Kentucky Baptists minister to Filipino brethren
September 24, 2014By Debbie Davenport
KBC News
BOSTON, Ky.—A team of Kentucky Baptists brought healing and hope to hundreds of Filipinos still recovering from Typhoon Pablo, a devastating storm that struck the island nation two years ago.
Sue Fannin, a nurse from Elizabethtown, does a blood pressure check during a mission trip to the Philippines. She was part of a team of Kentucky Baptists who spent 10 days in the Philippines on a medical and pastoral training initiative. (submitted photo)
The six-member team, including members of Rolling Fork Baptist Church in Boston, provided medical exams and treatment to nearly 900 people in the Philippines between Aug. 24 and Sept. 2. They also held several worship services and led two pastors’ conferences.
Rolling Fork pastor Bruce Nichols said much work remains for the people trying to rebuild.
“Some of the areas still are wiped out,” he said. “It will take time. They’ll just have to work at it a little at a time.”
Typhoon Pablo was a Category 5 super typhoon with sustained winds reaching 175 mph. Some 1,900 people died as the December 2012 storm wiped out bridges, caused mudslides, flattened entire villages, and left thousands homeless.
Despite the slow recovery, Nichols said Filipinos seemed resilient. At the hard-hit Cateel Southern Baptist Church where only the tile floor remains where the pulpit once stood, local church members worship under a makeshift pavilion. They hope to raise enough money for a new building soon.
Nichols, having completed his fourth trip to the region, said he again was struck by the faithfulness of the Baptist islanders.
“In Cateel, the congregation has next to nothing in terms of resources,” he said, “but they have such energetic worship. Even in the areas where the persecution is, they’re still standing firm in the faith.”
Nichols said the ones serving on the mission trip, especially the first-timers, always return home forever changed by the experience.
“They realize all the things we take for granted (in the United States),” he said, and many come home with a different perspective after seeing how people live in other parts of the world.
Eric Allen, missions mobilization team leader for the Kentucky Baptist Convention, said short-term missions always proves to be eye-opening for Americans.
“I can’t encourage these kinds of short-term mission trips strongly enough,” Allen said. “In every instance, they benefit our churches as much as they benefit the people they’re reaching out to. I appreciate that Rolling Fork and Redeemer Fellowship are so willing to reach out with the gospel in their local communities as well as to the uttermost part of the world.”
Nichols said the mission trip has made him grateful as well. He expressed thanks for Kentucky Baptists’ prayers and financial support.
“Most of all, I am very thankful that God would use people like us to carry out a mission as big as this one was,” Nichols said.
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