NUKU’ALOFA, Tonga — Mormon missionaries serving in cyclone-battered Tonga and Samoa are accounted for and unharmed.
“All missionaries serving in the Samoa Apia Mission and the Tonga Nuku’alofa Mission are safe as Tropical Cyclone Gita moves through the region,” said Church spokesman Daniel Woodruff. “Missionaries in Tonga are taking refuge in Church buildings away from the coast and have taken necessary preparations to help keep them safe.
“We pray for all those in the South Pacific who are impacted by this powerful storm.”
Over the past few days, Tropical Cyclone Gita has hammered Tonga and neighboring South Pacific islands with what is being called the most powerful storm to hit that region in memory.
A tropical cyclone is the same type of storm as a hurricane.
The eye of Gita passed just south of the low-lying Tongatapu group of islands in southern Tonga on Monday with maximum sustained winds estimated at 145 mph, the Associated Press reported. The nation has declared a state of emergency.
Residents prepared for the tropical cyclone by nailing boards and roofing iron to the homes to try to limit the damage from coconuts, trees and other flying debris.
Gita has strengthened since hitting Samoa and American Samoa last weekend, where it caused damage to buildings, flooding and widespread power outages, according to the AP reports. U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday, Feb. 11, declared an emergency in American Samoa, a U.S. territory.
https://www.deseretnews.com/article/865 ... Samoa.html
As if she could see into the future like some kind of Prophet, back in January Sharon Eubank explained...
"If we change our perspective so that caring for the poor and the needy is less about giving stuff away and more about filling the hunger for human contact and about hearing meaningful conversations and creating rich, positive relationships, then the Lord can send us some place. Every single person can do this on his or her own. You don’t need a fund, but it’s going to take some commitment."
https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900 ... dents.html
So, not about giving stuff away, got it.
"You are the gift," she said. "You yourself are the gift. It’s not the clothing, it isn’t hygiene kits or school desks or wells. It’s you. What would it look like if each of us was our own well-stocked humanitarian organization, but instead of giving out tangible goods in foreign locations, we had the richness of dispensing healing and friendship and respect and peaceful dialogue and sincere interest and protective listening of children and birthday remembrances and talking to the stranger? What if that were what your humanitarian organization did?
Well Sharon, if that were what my humanitarian organisation did I’m afraid I’d have to resign.
