Surviving a Typhoon: Baptism by wind, the Spirit, and water!
The Franciscan friars of the Province of St. John the Baptist have been serving the people of the Philippines for over 60 years. Fr. Blane Grein, OFM, remembers his very first typhoon in 1965.
Fr. Blane Grein, OFM, in the 1960's.
I arrived in the Philippines with Fr. Elgar Nadon, OFM, and Br. Cletus Riederer, OFM, in October of 1965. After a brief visit to our parishes on Biliran Island, Fr. Elgar and I returned to Manila for language school at Our Lady of the Angels Seminary in Novaliches, Quezon City. We finished at the end of April, so by the first of May we were heading to our assignments, Fr. Elgar to Biliran and me to Maripipi.
Fr. Joques Englehart was Pastor at Maripipi and had been there for over three months without any R & R. When I got there he took me on a tour of all the barrios, introducing me to the pillars of the church in each place and some school principals. He and I were together less than a week when he said, “I’ve got to get off this island. It’s all yours till I get back.” Shortly after he left it started raining so I stayed in, typing letters stateside, saying to myself, “can’t do much outside because of the rain.” Unknown to me, a typhoon was coming.
I soon found out why it was raining so hard. The night it hit I was wiping up water in the bedrooms and sala [living room] the whole night. Then early in the morning Felipe, one of our boat operators, came knocking on the door saying that our boat was being destroyed on the shore.
The locals took their engines out of the boat all the time, but Fr. Joques had built a covering with locks to protect our engine. The eye of the typhoon went right over our island. There was an eerie calm for about 25 minutes. That’s when Felipe and I were trying to save our boat engine, a 10-horsepower Briggs and Stratton motor. We were shoved around a lot by the waves and eventually we got the engine out, but by then it was ruined by the sand and salt water.
Once the eye passed, the winds came out of the other direction, causing considerable damage to the coconut trees, first shearing off the tops. We also lost almost a hundred feet of a stone pier that Fr. Carl built in front of the church that we could tie our boat up to at low tide. We lost some windows and wood in church; our convent survived well except for getting a little waterlogged. There was extensive damage around the island, especially to school buildings and houses near the sea.
Fr. Blain Grein, OFM, today.
The first of anything always makes an impression, as did this typhoon. It prepared me well for a number of other typhoons – but no other direct hits that I experienced in my 10 years in the Philippines.
---Fr. Blane
Fr. Blane Grein, OFM, has served many places in his career as a Franciscan missionary including working with the Navajo native Americans in the Southwest United States. He is currently preparing for his new assignment in Jamaica.
By the grace of God, our missionaries in the Philippines survived Typhoon Haiyan, one of the most devastating storms in history.
But tens of thousands lost everything they own – and in many cases, everyone they love. Just as they have since 1956, our Franciscan friars will be working to support and sustain those who are most in need.
With your help and their efforts, we can give the people of the Philippines a reason to hope, and the means to rebuild. Please donate whatever you can to our relief efforts. Please remember to select “Philippines” on the drop down when asked how you would like your gift used.
