PHILIPPINES | ORO BIBLE COLLEGE

Sadly, the city of Cagayan de Oro has again recently experienced very heavy rain and the area of the city in which OBC is situated has again been flooded. Please pray for the faculty, staff and students as they continue to clean up after the flooding, and pray that the Lord will provide the funds needed to provide medicine to protect the students from infection and to replace damaged furniture and infrastructure.

OBC Director Mrs. Nely Gamayon reported as follows…

“By now, you may have already seen pictures of the flooding in Cagayan de Oro that occurred on January 16. This is the third time that flood waters have entered the campus of Oro Bible College. This time there was more water and mud, garbage and debris that entered the campus, offices, preschool building and classroom building than any preceding flood. Flood waters from the basketball court and the side gate facing the Muslim mosque almost entered the faculty apartments. There was no electricity on the night of the 16th and the day of the 17th.

We could not control the flood from entering into the campus and buildings. The flood control installed a few years ago could not match the strong current of the water from the street. The street looked like a river with waist deep water. Water entered into the medical clinic, canteen, girls’ kitchen, stock room, lounge and laundry area.

Above: Our way of preventing more water from entering the building. Had we not done this, water that went into the offices, conference room and hallway would be deeper and the mud would be thicker. Students are working to get the sticky mud outside of the building. There is more inside the offices, but we could not take pictures without electricity. We are afraid, after the flooding the main building, classroom building and the preschool will again be attacked by pinhole borers (“Anay”).

Property damaged:

• Seven computer tables and eight office tables destroyed,
• Concrete of the passageway up to the basketball court,
• Electrical installations – full of water,
• Connections for the office computers were covered with mud and no longer usable,
• Wood flooring replacement, and
• Lower portion of doors have started to bloat after being wet and covered with mud.

Classes were dismissed for several days during clean up. There are still plenty of clutter, garbage and etc. we need to clean. The students were not able to cook their food in their kitchen, because of the water and mud.

Water from the road to the gate that entered through the main door was knee-deep. The wet portion of the concrete wall shows how high up the water rose. Photo at right: The boys’ kitchen and back door of the main building. The marking on the wall shows the height of the water that entered the building.

We also need food and medicine for the students who have braced the flood in protecting the school from deeper water and mud. On Monday night, we slept at 1:00 a.m. On Tuesday, we woke up very early to clean and remove the clutter and mud inside the buildings. Since most of us waded through the flood waters, we need to take medicine to protect us from leptospirosis.

This is the first time that flooding in the city was this deep, cars floated everywhere, and houses were destroyed in the city. We just thank the Lord, there are only eight reported deaths at this time, unlike the last time with Sendong, when thousands died.

The proposed new building for OBC is estimated to be much higher in elevation to prevent incidents like this one.

Thank you very much for your prayers. “