Bible Society Sends Scriptures to Typhoon Victims
U.K.-based Bible Society is urgently appealing for donations to help send booklets of Bible passages to victims of two typhoons that ravaged the Philippines in recent weeks.
Bible Society says it has already sent 5,000 of the booklets to aid agencies working in the disaster zone but urgently needs nearly $100,000 to print and distribute another 50,000 booklets and 50,000 copies of the Bible.
The booklets were previously used to offer comfort in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in New York.
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Bible Society was in the midst of a campaign to bring one million Bibles to the people of the Philippines when the typhoons struck. Now it fears many of the Bibles already handed out will have been lost in the storms.
Some of the charity's own staff were among those badly hit by the typhoons, which have killed more than 300 people and displaced some 630,000.
BibleSociety Marketing Manager Perry Catera said her family was forced out of their home, located in one of the worst hit areas, Marikina.
"The floodwaters rose so fast, they were more than 10ft deep in just about an hour," she said. "My mother and nephew left when the waters were waist-deep inside our house, by climbing to the roof. The water was already 7feet high outside."
Nora Lucero, general secretary of the Philippines Bible Society, said the new Bibles would be crucial to giving the survivors fresh hope.
"In all, 3.1 million people have been affected by this disaster. Bibles have been washed away from homes and many churches left underwater. Now more than ever people need God's Word to give them hope and sustain them in the coming months."
