Life is always full of surprises — sometimes it makes you cry, other times it makes you celebrate.
Four years ago, in just a day, Super Typhoon Yolanda (Int’l name: Haiyan) left Rolando, 58, and Artemia’s, 52, family homeless. They took shelter at the nearby school without anything with them except for the clothes they are wearing.
The Gadoa family in front of their old house before the Super Typhoon Yolanda damaged their properties.
Thankfully, a church offered help and later on referred them to Operation Blessing Philippines’ Community of Hope (COH). Fortunately, they passed the interviews and requirements and became community members of COH in Palanog, Tacloban City.
But other than the house, Artemia shared that there’s more to their free and comfortable house — it was the change in his husband. “Since we transferred here, my husband has magnified his virtues and minimized his vices,” the proud wife said.
“I was in love with this community. I never wanted to go back to our old house because I can really say that this community helped my family to improve our lives,” Rolando said.
The Gadoa family during the family camp before they transferred to the Community of Hope.
“Since we lived here, I can now sleep comfortably especially when it rains hard. I really need this since I am not getting young anymore.” Artemia added, “Our main problem here is the farm-to-market road but we are already used to it. Our only problem is those people who do not obey the rules and regulations.”
For this family, whatever the problem is there is always a solution to that.
“We already know Jesus. But since we had a deeper relationship with Him, we started experiencing harmony and comfort within us and others,” the old woman said.
Having five children, Rolando works as a tricycle driver in COH-Palanog to help sustain their needs. As a teacher, their eldest is also giving support to them.
The Community of Hope-Palanog is the first permanent shelter project of Operation Blessing Philippines for the Super Typhoon Yolanda survivors. Help us help more families who are still trying to get back to normalcy years after the super typhoon.
Visit www.obphil.com for more info on how you can help.
