The flood waters stirred up in Manila, Philippines, by Typhoon Ketsana on September 26 were still at their peak when Pastor Byunggi "Timothy" Kim and his wife Lydia decided they must help people from Faith Church of the Nazarene, in the Napindan community near Laguna Lake. The couple was concerned for members of the new church plant, whom they’d joined for Sunday afternoon prayer for almost two years.
Pastor Ronnie Cruz (left) helps Pastor Byunggi "Timothy" Kim unload clothes
and other supplies for members of a new church plant who lost homes and
belongings in the floods from Typhoon Ketsana on September 26 in Manila,
Philippines. Photo courtesy Ronnie Cruz.
Pastor Kim wrote to his son Inn-Gee, who is studying at a university in the United States, "When your mom was preparing several things to give away, all of sudden I was reminded of the box of your clothes kept for the last year in the closet of Yong-Gee (13-year-old son). I brought them out and wanted those included in the relief supplies."
The clothes were some that had been handed down to Inn-Gee from someone else. and he had outgrown many of them, Inn-Gee wrote in an e-mail to Engage.
"So, when I heard that they were given away, I was somewhat glad that they were put to greater use."
Packing up the donation, which included the teen boys' T-shirts, jeans and children's pants, as well as women's tops and pants, shoes, blankets and bottles of water, Pastor Kim began driving toward the Napindan area.
"While driving on, I realized that some areas are still covered by the water, so roads were closed."
Photo courtesy Ronnie Cruz.
He took a circuitous route, looking for passable roads before finally calling Pastor Ronnie Cruz of Emmanuel Church of the Nazarene in Pateros for advice on where to go. Cruz warned him that it was still dangerous to attempt driving in Napindan and suggested he come instead to Emmanuel Church, which was the "mother" church that had planted Faith Church. The congregation would take responsibility for distributing the donations to Napindan as soon as possible.
Vicente Liguan, a member of Faith Church of the Nazarene, tries to save belongings from his flooded
home. Photo courtesy Ronnie Cruz.
"I had to drive through three flooded areas and two areas were not easy to drive through but I could not stop going on," he wrote to Inn-Gee. "Finally, when I had arrived at the vicinity of the church building, I saw it was full of water.... When I successfully drove into the parking lot, I had no other choice but step into the water wearing my shoes.
"Pastor and his wife were very glad to see me coming with some relief supplies for people of their daughter church. And Inn-Gee, I consider you are a part of this mission."
In all, the family was able to distribute three boxes and three small bags of clothes, as well as a small amount of money that would buy food.
Pastor Reycie Cruz of Faith Church organizes the clothes from the Kim family. Photo
courtesy Ronnie Cruz.
It had taken Pastor Kim so long to arrive -- the normally 50-minute drive had turned into nearly three hours -- that he missed lunch. Pastor Cruz served him some bread, which he ate gratefully.
Pastor Kim's family was fortunate that their home was not flooded because it sits on high ground. So Lydia invited over Joseph, a classmate of Yong-Gee. Joseph's house had been flooded by several feet of water and he'd been stranded at school for two days while the family waited for the water to recede.
The couple also offered their cleaning help to a Nazarene missionary family in the neighborhood whose first floor of their home flooded, and whose car was damaged by the collapse of a wall.
"It was really devastating to look into the situation," Pastor Kim wrote later, "It means that not only many material things were gone, and also many good memories of them, but the children also lost their belongings."
Inn-Gee said he wished that he could have done more than simply part with his used clothes.
"When you are surrounded by the less fortunate, like you are in the Philippines, you realize how daunting the problem of poverty is," he wrote. "So I wasn't overflowing with happiness when I heard my clothes were given away to the needy. Instead, I thought that it was a shame that more couldn't be done..."
-- Once belonging to a family of strong ancestor worship, Pastor Byunggi Kim met Jesus in 1974. He graduated from Korea Nazarene University (then Korean Nazarene Theological College) in 1984 and was ordained in 1988. That same year he was commissioned by his local church to the Philippines where he received his Master of Divinity degree from Asia Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary in 1991. He and his wife Lydia Kim became global missionaries in 2002. Lydia works in the Philippine Field Office as treasurer and Byunggi for Church Revitalization. They have three sons, Inn-Gee, Yong-Gee and Jin-Gee.