http://www.jw.org/en/news/ Wouldn't it be nice if they said 'you know what, we've made millions in property sales recently, lets donate a couple million to a philipines relief fund..' No. Ten vans full, probably just for jw's. Cynical i know, but we could do so much more.....
philipines disaster news up on jw.org
by Captain Blithering 112 Replies latest jw friends
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Laika
The Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses is coordinating the international disaster response from their world headquarters in Brooklyn, New York.
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The Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses cares for expenses related to their relief efforts by utilizing funds donated to their worldwide work. The Governing Body also assesses the need for skilled volunteers, and works with their global network of branch offices to provide qualified personnel to assist with disaster relief work in cooperation with local authorities and other relief agencies.
Perhaps it's because I've not been paying attention long but the constant attempts to talk up the Governing Body is a relatively recent thing right? I mean, it's not as if they could actually be doing all this, it's a lot of work.
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Captain Blithering
They'll have the ultimate say but they'll delegate to others i'd imagine...
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emeth
a team of doctors, medicines and nurses is also there since last tuesday, and some trucks with relief goods are also on their way.
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never a jw
Their already big heads keep expanding. How about "Jehovah's Witness care..." After all the money the GB uses comes from donations from all JW's, and ultimately the heavy lifting of the relief efforts will be done by rank and file. Imagine Home Depot donating and the president of the company saying "The President of the Home Depot cares..." instead of the more appropriate reference to the Home Depot as a company.
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Calebs Airplane
This is yet another opportunity for the WT to cash in while patting themselves on the back...
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DATA-DOG
They have Billions of dollars. They could do more. We all could. We shouldn't need a disaster to remind us of the need to help our fellow man, but human nature is to be egocentric. We just don't always think about each other like we should.
The real problem, imo, is the WTBTS's judgmentalism. They judge other religions, and they are guilty of many of the same shortcomings. They judge worldly businesses and commit the same unethical actions. I am glad that they show up and help, but they shouldn't need to advertise that. Who are they trying to convince? If they were doing their job as Christs Brothers, then all the world would know who they are. There would be a JW charity center in every major city. They would be famous for their charity work AND bible education. YES, you can do both!! Instead, they are 8 million out of billions, and no one knows what they stand for. They just know they don't celebrate Christmas, or take blood and they make bible-based literature.
They will show up at your home with a tract, not engage in a logical discussion, and then not help with the local food drive. JW.ORG is for JWs. It's to keep their brains muddled and their thoughts foggy. It's not for the public. No one cares about JW.ORG except for dubs who worship the ORG.
DD
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AndersonsInfo
Here's more news from JWs
http://theworldnewsmedia.org/Update+on+the+brothers+and+Typhoon+Yolanda
The following email was received via a sister in Brooklyn. -
WorldNewsMedia YesterdayHello friends,
In response to so many of you who are concerned about our brothers and sisters and relatives in the Philippines in the aftermath of Typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan, I have the following to report that is about as accurate as we can get at this time. Please keep in mind that as information becomes available, the situation will change. Also, I am relying on information that has been given to me by Jona, her family members and others, including a brother in our congregation whose wife is alive in Cebu.
As of yesterday (Monday) evening, Jona received a report from a brother who visits the Philippine branch office in Quezon City on an almost daily basis. According to him, there are an unconfirmed number of 34 brothers dead from the typhoon. That report was modified by the branch, which issued a report of 26 confirmed dead. All of them had sought shelter in a Kingdom Hall in Tacloban, and were killed when the storm surge swept the building away.
Many more are missing and a thorough search is being conducted to locate survivors and victims. The primary area of death and destruction stretches along a path from east to west in the middle of the country in the Central Visayas from Leyte province where the storm first made landfall to Iloilo in the west, then to Palawan a couple of hundred miles in the South China Sea.
To give you some perspective, the Philippines is about the size of California and similarly is long from north to south. If the storm had hit California, it would have entered at Death Valley in the east and traveled westward through Bakersfield and exited near Morro Bay. Angeles would be equivalent to just north of Sacramento, Manila at San Francisco, GenSan at San Diego and Tacloban just west of Las Vegas.
Cebu Island and Cebu City also suffered a lot of damage, destruction, deaths and injuries, but reports are incomplete since the primary focus of attention has been Tacloban, Leyte Province. We do not have any reports from Iloilo or any other places yet. In all of the Central Visayas, there is no electricity, little or no cell phone service, looting has stripped the areas of food and gasoline and martial law is in effect. As soon as I hear anything further, I will let y'all know. The official death toll as of 8 am EST today was over 1700. It is expected to top 10,000. Many JWs could be among that number since not everyone has been accounted for and the search continues.
Many of you have asked about Jona's family. Her parents live in General Santos City (commonly called GenSan) in the far southern end of the country on Mindanao Island. They experienced a lot of rain and tropical force winds, but they are fine and have no damage. The rest of her family, and where we lived while I was there is in Angeles City, 60 miles north of Manila on Luzon Island. Being protected in a central valley and surrounded by mountains, they had only tropical force winds and lots of rain and some minor flooding, which is considered normal for the area. Everyone there is fine.
In the meantime, some have inquired as to the best way to make a donation to the relief effort. Here is my suggestion: if you send a check to the Philippine branch, it will take at least a week to get there, maybe two. Then, it will take at least 45 days for the check to clear and the funds won't be available for two months. If you put a check in the local contribution box marked "Worldwide Work," it will be sent to Patterson at the end of the month. That will also take time. If you send a check directly to Patterson, as our part on this week's service meeting allows, they can wire the money directly to the Philippine branch and the money will be available almost immediately. Remember, this is my suggestion from my personal experience having lived in the Philippines for nearly a year. You should corroborate this by asking your congregation service committee for more specific direction. -
AndersonsInfo
More news from JWs:
Brother Howard posted this update on his page: -
WorldNewsMedia Tuesday
Kingdom Hall @ Bingawan, Ilo-ilo, Philippines after super typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan)
Latest Update:
Sadly, 32 of our brothers & sisters from Tacloban City (the worst-hit place) are confirmed dead from super typhoon Haiyan, many are still missing and 1 Kingdom Hall destroyed.
Brother Armstrong (the DO) has visited the brothers and sisters. They said they always get hit by storms all year round but never as strong as this.
Many people along with their shanties have been washed away by the sea.
The society is of course on the move to come to the aid of our friends. They need all the prayer, water, food, clothing they can get. Their situation is so heartbreaking.
---The following message is from Brother Bert Hoefnagels... -
WorldNewsMedia Tuesday
Dear friends,
This is just a short update, as we know that you are all waiting to hear from us.
Bert and 3 other brothers are this week at the Island of Bohol. That is where the 7.2 earthquake was 2 weeks ago. They have had meetings with all the brothers and met with the families of the 3 brothers who have died in the quake.
There are 8 Kingdom hall destroyed and another 7 will need repairs. Also there are about 200 homes that need to be repaired or even rebuild. The homes there are made mostly out of a hollow block layer with coconut lumber on top, so that can not withstand a quake of this size. They could not rent a place to set up shop, so now we are using the parking area of the Kingdom hall. We can use the brothers of the Kingdom Hall Construction teams to help out. From the last storm 'Pablo" we have a nice system to rebuild homes fast. Some of our local brothers are able to do the work themselves and they will be helped with construction materials.
That was till last friday…
Then the super typhoon hit. For the island of Bohol it did bring a lot of rain and it did storm, but not as strong as they expected. It added a few homes to the list of repairs but not to much.
Now the rest of the country, that is another story. You might have seen on TV that it looks like a true war zone. Communication is very difficult as power lines and cell sites are down. The circuit overseers are visiting the brothers and local elders are caring for their sheep.Tomorrow a brother from the Branch Committee will go and visit the Taclooban area to see what needs to be done.
This storm came at our District Convention time. Quite a few of the Bethel speakers are stranded at airports. Others arrived to find the assemblies cancelled and the venues turned into evacuation centers by the government.
Metro Manila with it almost 19 million people, escaped the storm completely. They have been cleaning out gutters and drainage-ways for days. Some of the low areas had emergency rubber boats for evacuations given to them, as we expected heavy floods there too. We did get a part of the storm, but rain was not enough for flooding.
I wish I could tell you more, but we have no more information at this moment.
The Philippines always get a lot of typhoons during the rainy season, but the people never seem to loose their smile. Jehovah will help our brothers as he always has.
This is it for now.
For all my lovely Filipino friends, please send no balikbayan boxes. We do appreciate you concern, but at this time, due to the large scale renovations that are going on at Bethel, we can not handle relief goods. Most of the needs are focussed on rebuilding and feeding our brothers. That will take a lot of financial support. Therefor such funding can be sent to the Branch and is so desired, earmarked for Disaster Relief Philippines.
---Sad news just in that 47 of our brothers have died in the worst hit area (Tacloban City Philippines) and there are many still missing
Brothers,
Just to let you know I have had contact with Bro Andrew Struyf who is on international construction assignment in the Philippines with his wife Gabrielle constructing new translation offices. They are in Bacolod which was about 180km SW of the path that the eye of the typhoon took, however as the typhoon covered an area of some 600km they were well and truly effected.
8 Kingdom halls and 147 of our brothers homes have been destroyed, but none of our brothers in that area have lost their lives. The project is underwater and has ceased as focus turns to the Disaster relief efforts required there now. Much of the communication is still down in the worst hit areas and no doubt more information through the appropriate channel will follow shortly. Whilst I am not in the habit of dispersing this type of information I thought it may assist you in your assignments as no doubt many of our brothers will be keen to know how our brothers are getting on. May we all continue praying for them all.
Kindest Regards,
Chris Hagan
Project Development -
DATA-DOG
This is watchtarded: " If you put a check in the local contribution box marked "Worldwide Work," it will be sent to Patterson at the end of the month. That will also take time. If you send a check directly to Patterson, as our part on this week's service meeting allows, they can wire the money directly to the Philippine branch and the money will be available almost immediately."
The WTBTS has billions of dollars. They should take care of relief efforts from the massive amount of already donated funds at their disposal. There is no need to send them any more money. They should be ashamed of themselves. Their surplus should offset the deficiency of Brothers in the Phillipines.
