Zamboanga City, Philippines: As of Monday, September 16th, a Nazarene Disaster Response (NDR) team, comprised of six Philippine Nationals representing the Eastern Visayas and Western Mindanao Districts, is enroute to the major area of conflict in Zamboanga.
Nazarene Compassionate Ministries (NCM) has already shipped several boxes of medicine and the team will arrive to follow up with trauma counseling as well as provide further assessment for how NCM and the Church can best respond.
The responding NDR team will be partnering with the Christian Missionary Alliance Church that is already on the ground. While there is not currently an active Church of the Nazarene in Zamboanga City, we have had a Nazarene Church there in years past and many of our Nazarenes from the area have families in Zamboanga.
According to local news reports, about 44,000 of the more than 62,000 evacuees have sought shelter at the Joaquin F. Enriquez Memorial Sports Complex.
Please continue to pray for the safety of the team as they travel to Zamboanga City, and for the relief efforts as they reach out to so many who have been affected by this ongoing conflict.
