John's Site

Please pray for this situation as it looks like all have died and what brings this home to me is that the boyfriend of Rhea's sister Claire was working on the boat and is probably feared dead.

Philippine ferry carrying over 800 people sinks

• June 22, 2008 - 2:59PM
• Page 1 of 2 | Single Page View

A ferry carrying more than 800 passengers and crew sank in heavy seas killing at least four people after Typhoon Fengshen lashed the Philippines, officials and reports said today.

The MV Princess of the Stars went down several kilometres off the coast of Sibuyan Island in central Romblon province after being battered by huge waves overnight when its engines failed, officials said.

Four bodies have been found washed onshore but the death toll was likely to rise with the fate of the rest of the passengers, including 50 children, and crew unknown, officials said.

"I am still hopeful for survivors," coast guard spokesman Armand Balilo said.

Search and rescue boats were struggling to reach the submerged ferry which left the capital Manila on Friday for the central island of Cebu.

Coast guard and navy vessels were turned back by massive waves overnight when the ferry, stranded and taking on water, sent a distress signal.

Local mayor Nanette Tansingco said four bodies had been washed up including a couple that had been tied together, along with debris.

"There were many plastic slippers of children also found floating on the shore but no survivors," said Tansingco, mayor of San Fernando, a coastal town on Sibuyan about 260 kilometres south of Manila.

"I sent a speed boat to check on the report, and they saw the boat submerged with a hole in the hull. They saw the name Princess of the Stars," she told DZMM local radio.

Local resident Melanie Rotoni said she had seen one body as well as debris but no survivors so far.

"Life jackets and debris litter the shore. I saw a dead woman in her 40s along the shore but she was the only body I saw. There is no one else," she told DZMM radio.

The coast guard said the ferry's manifest recorded 702 passengers, including 50 children, and more than 100 crew.

Typhoon Fengshen, packing winds of up 120 kilometres per hour near its centre, struck the central and eastern Philippines yesterday, leaving a trail of destruction

The Philippine government in Manila has banned organ transplants for foreigners to try to stem a surge in the illegal trade of kidneys taken from the poor.

Hundreds of foreigners visit the country each year for such transplants, attracted by the relatively low prices.

In 2007, some 50% of all transplants performed involved foreign recipients, according to official figures.

However, foreign blood relations of Philippine citizens are exempt from the change in the law.

'Moral imperative'

Under Philippine law no more than 10% of organs should be donated to foreigners and the sale of organs is banned altogether.

However, the government says that there is a growing black market in organ sales, often involving dubious middlemen.

"The Philippine government faces the ethical and moral imperative to protect Filipinos, particularly the poor, from black market sale of internal organs," Health Minister Francisco Duque said at a news conference in Manila.

Criminal gangs are thought to be targeting the slums of the capital Manila in search of easy prey, the BBC's Greg Morsbach says.

Even though poor families can receive several thousand dollars in return for a kidney, there are many potential health risks, our correspondent says.

Police recently raided apartments at which operations were being carried out under unhygienic conditions.

There have been numerous media reports of donors dying shortly after surgery because of complications.

Health officials believe the trade in organs is booming in the Philippines because other countries traditionally associated with this problem - such as Pakistan, China and Colombia - are gradually eradicating the illegal business.

Hello everyone,

sorry it has taken so long to add to this blog but thought i would let you know how life is now!!

Although Rhea & I are back in N.Ireland praise God the feeding program for the street children continues every Saturday afternoon with anywhere from 50-100 coming to hear the Gospel and get some food.

Recently i got a message from the Pastor in Ozamiz City asking if it was possible to send some of the Street kids to school because their parents either had abandoned them, were alcoholics or just could not afford to send them. And after speaking with Ronnie (dropinn ministries) praise the Lord we are planning with God's help to send 25 children to school. If any of you want to help in anyway please contact me for more info and be a part of what God is doing in the Philippines.

Although as i said we are now back in N.Ireland our heart is still in the Philippines and we pray daily for God's guidance!!

On a final note my wonderful daughter Chloe is about to turn 1 on April 9th (if she would have waited 1 more week we would have shared the same birthday) I am having problems uploading photos but will keep trying..

In Christ's name;

John, Rhea & Chloe

Hi everyone,

well just thought i would drop you an email to let you know that Rhea, Chloe & I arrived in Cebu yesterday and have moved into our house. We have been busy getting everything sorted at the house and now it feels good to have most of the work done.

Although we are not living in Ozamis now we are still able to continue the work we started with the Street Children's feeding program which will still take place every sat with normally anything from 40 - 100 kids turning up although the numbers have been a little lower recently because the parents of these kids are making them work instead of coming for the program and food which is a real shame.I am thankful to Rhea's sister Claire & her friend Julie who will be the workers there. We were able to spend our last day with the kids as the Social Services organised a sports day/talent show for them and thanks to all the supporters of "Dropinn Ministries" we were able to feed everyone who turned up for this event.

Both Rhea & I are excited to begin our new work here in Cebu and over the next few months i will keep you all informed of the work we will be doing.

If anyone is interested in coming to the Philippines in 2008 with Dropinn Ministries please let me know and i will put you in contact with either James or Ronnie.

On a personal note i would like to congratulate Steven Jones on his new position with the youth in Lisburn Elim Church. I worked with Steven a few years back at Dropinn and he has an amazing heart to serve God so please pray for him and his new Ministry..

Also for all those die hard Liverpool Fc supporters like myself we gave it our best in the Champions League Final but it was not enough. I stayed up late here as the game started at 2.45am and just after half time we had a power cut and i missed the rest of the game, i know there is not a lot of sympathy out there for me lol

Of course i could not send an email without mentioning Chloe who is doing amazing. She had her first trip on a boat without any problems. She is getting more and more like me everyday as she will cry when she does not get her own way ha ha.

Well if anyone wants to send an email to me its john_dropinn@msn.com

Bye for now,

John,Rhea & Chloe

Hello,

just thought i would let you know about the Elections here in the Philippines. Being from N.Ireland i am used to alot of tension when it comes to Politics & Elections but i have never witnessed anything like what i have seen over here. So far there have been at least 130 killed in connection with the Elections. It seems over here if the guy you are running against has a better chance of winning than you then getting them killed is your best option..Just to give you an idea of a typical day here on the Island of Mindanao i got this from a friend who lives here.

6:27 pm - Comelec declares failure of elections in 11 ARMM municipalities.

2:34 pm - Armed men fire into crowd of voters in Tupi, South Cotabato.

2:32 pm - Town of Maragusan, Compostela Valley placed under high state of alert due to election violence.

1:18 pm - Election volunteers in Cotabato City report that 45,000 names on voter’s rolls are spurious!

12:07 pm - In Basilan, a firefight broke out between mayor candidates in Akbar town. One person killed, two injured. No names released yet.

11:31 am - In Basilan, Congressional candidate Wahab Akbar is complaining that his rival, Jim Saliman is buying votes in the race.

11:28 am - Pantar, Lanao del Sur postponement of elections due to some 2,000 newly registered voters being added to the voting rolls without any approval from the Election Registration Board.

11:26 am - Valencia City, Bukidnon placed under Comelec control.

11:23 am - Misprinted ballots in Zamboanga.

11:18 am - Two suspects in Dapitan grenade throwing incident arrested.

11:14am - Missing Ballots in Maguindanao and Zamboanga Provinces.

11:11am - Two bombs exploded outside a polling precinct in Dalican, Sharif Kabansuan. No injuries.

11:10am - Voting started late in Marawi City due to missing election materials.

11:00am - COMELEC has postponed elections in Pantar, Lanao del Norte, after some ballot boxes were reported missing.

I do not think i have ever been to a more corrupt Country than the Philippines especially in the Government with so many willing to take bribes...

For example nearly everyone who runs for this Election will buy peoples votes, they give you on average of £1 if you vote for them. So if you have no money to give out you will not get any votes or very little.

Corruption is very ripe in the PNP (Philippines National Police) if you are ever caught speeding or you do not have a licence it does not matter when you are caught as long as you have money to hand out you will be allowed to drive on.

But i know the God i serve is a big God so keep praying that this nation will be turned around for His Glory!!

John, Rhea & of course Chloe

Hi everyone,

when i sent you my last email i attached a photo of a little boy called Paul who was born on the 19th April with the problem being that he had only been in the womb 6 months & 3 weeks. He was moved to the Intensive care unit of probably the best hospital in the Philippines which is in Cebu. He was brought there recently via a private plane to get the best care but just a couple of hours ago his fight for life ended. As you can imagine everyone involved in his short life is devastated so please pray especially for his parents who are only around 20 years old.

Hi everyone,

sorry it has taken a while to get another email to you to let you know how everything is going here in the Philippines...

Well as you know last month i was in Cebu helping in anyway i could with all the people made homeless because of the huge fire. There was about 12,000 people left without a home because of the fire but thankfully because of a great gift from dropinn ministries and the help of the local churches in Cebu we were able to help many of these people with food, clothes, pots, etc.

And as you will know also we have been blessed so much with the arrival of our Gwapa(Beautiful) daughter Chloe,Aleah,Rosolada McCullough. The Rosolada name is Rhea's mums maiden name and has to be used by law, strangely enough!! But Chloe is doing great, she only wakes, crys when she has a need but sleeps 3-4 hours at a time. I cannot help but just stare at her beautiful face. Back to changing nappies again and i have not done that since Danny Nash was away from his mum for the first time when we went to America lol.

And to give you an update on the work here, Rhea & I will be moving to the city of Cebu probably sometime in June as doors of opportunity have opened up for another feeding program, a radio ministry that will reach about 3 million people and we are praying about the opportunity to help the young girls in Cebu that because of poverty are involved in the sex trade which is a big problem. Please pray that God will direct us in this new work. We will continue the feeding program with the street children in Ozamiz as we will be handing this ministry over to some of our trusted friends.

I have not heard anymore news about little Stephanie who i showed you pictures of recently, she was the little girl who weighs 7lbs and is 7 months old but when i know i will send you all an email.

Above photo

I have an urgent prayer request as a young woman from the church here was just under 7 months pregnant when she went into labor today and the baby boy was born but weighs just 3lb 7 ounces and i have been told that he has a 50-50 chance of survival. He is in a hospital here in Ozamiz,(the same one Chloe was born in) but they are not equipped to deal well enough with him so they are hoping to move him in one week if he survives that long to Cebu.I will keep you informed of how things go.

God bless,

John & Rhea

Update

Little baby Paul has now been moved to a much better Hospital in Cebu where he will get the best treatment. As of today 25th April 2007 his condition has improved. Thanks to all of you who prayed but the fight is not over yet so keep praying..

This email is coming from a very happy and proud father!!!

Rhea started her contractions at 5am our time today the 9th April (UK 7 hours behind)

At 4.15pm she went into labor and one hour later little Chloe popped out. She is so beautiful with Black hair, Brown eyes and white skin. Already she is so alert and so hungry lol

She weighed exactly 8 lbs!!

I will be putting photos and a very short video on this site in the next few hours so i will email you to let you all know..

Hi everyone can you please pray for a Hostage Situation that is happening as i write this in the capital of the Philippines, Manila. This man is already known in the Philippines because 20 years ago he took two Priests hostage but thankfully that ended peacefully. The man called Jun Ducat actually owns a Daycare centre for kids in Manila. He hijacked a bus that had 32 children aged between 5-7 yrs old and 2 teachers. One of the children became sick and was released.

It seems the hijacker is protesting about the Govenment and all the corruption that is going on which is already known to be true. He actually is complaining that local kids in his area are not being given enough help in education etc so for some strange reasoning going on in his head he seems to think kidnapping children will solve the problems.

He is known to have a gun and hand grenade on board the bus.

Please pray for a peaceful outcome!!

Update - Just to let you all know the Hostage Situation has had a peaceful ending, thank you for your prayers!!!!

Hello,

i am writing this just shortly after being contacted by a Missionary friend of mine who lives in Cebu which is a ferry ride away from where i live which is about the following;

Barangay Mantuyong in Mandaue City is brighter than at any other time its folks remember. A fire leveled a large part of the barangay, then finding nothing else to feed on, spread to Barangay Guizo, which is near the famous Cebu International Convention Center.(Sun.star photo/Alex Badayos) A FIRE that broke out yesterday afternoon in Barangay Mantu-yong, Mandaue City raged for close to four hours and leapt to neighboring barangay Guizo. A 37-year-old man died as he was trapped while trying to save some belongings. Three firemen and a teenager were injured in the blaze that started about 3:45 p.m. Mandaue City Fire Marshal Oscar Mayol said in an interview last night that they have yet to tally the number of houses burned and determine the damage estimate and what caused the

My question is this can you help in anyway as it is a desperate situation? I will be leaving on Monday 12th to head to the area to try and help in some way. These people will now be without everything they ever owned.I asked my friend Emily if the Government are helping, she said yes they give the people rice which sounds good only they have nothing at all to cook it in, typical!! If you want to help by giving towards rebuilding these peoples lives then let me know and i will give you details of how to do this. Please pray for these people!!

God bless,

John

Hi everyone,

well it is hard to believe that Rhea & I have been back to the Philippines now for nearly 2 months, time has gone by so quickily..

Since my last email i have been able to preach in the local Prison which was a great experience especially seeing so many prisoners worshiping along with us. I spoke to them about the importance of continually putting God first in their lives and that even though they are in prison that "In Christ" they can be free..

A great blessing for me was to meet and get to know the team from "Mercy In Action" who are from England.. Both Pastors John & Alison have been coming to the Philippines for many years and have ministry in Cebu & Ozamiz City. They have missionaries here in the Philippines, Emily & Tim Rosal who have become good friends of mine. The team were also from USA and what a pleasure to meet them..

I am excited about some opportunities that are coming the way for us and one of them is a new venture for "Dropinn Ministries" and that is every Sunday morning at 6am i will be presenting a Radio Broadcast from here in Ozamiz City that will cover most of the region. I will have the freedom to preach the Gospel into many homes and play some modern worship music to homes were the people follow different cults and some are from a Muslim background. I am very excited about this so please pray that God will move in a mighty way.

Also from the first Saturday in March we will be starting a feeding program for the local Street Children and at this time will be able to feed 100 kids every Saturday afternoon. Every time i go down near the local fast food shops there are always kids begging for food so at least for now we can help 100 of them get some good food.

Many of you continue to ask how Rhea is doing now that she has only 6 weeks left before she is due to give birth. She is doing good although as expected is getting more and more tired. She is nervous about the labour( only mothers will understand the real pain of this) because she is going to go through it all without any pain relief. If us guys had to do it then there would not be anywhere near the amount of people on this planet lol.

I want to share an experience i had just the other day while i was doing visitation with one of the Pastors. We were in a very poor area of  when i got chatting with a woman who was part of a big cult over here in the Philippines. I shared my testimony with her and what a joy to lead her through the sinners prayer.Her name is Ge Ge (which is a common enough name here) Please pray for her that her husband accepts Christ also..

I thought i would tell you a little about the Good, Bad & Funny things about the Philippines.

Good - The filipinos have a great sense of family over here that we can learn much from in other parts of the world. I saw this on a trip to West Africa once also.. When one person is in trouble and needs help they all rally around and help. If its a birthday, Anniversary, most celebrations they make a big deal of it no matter what money they have.

Bad - The sex trade is a big problem here in the Philippines with even peodiphiles coming here to prey on the children. Many young girls in places like Manila & Cebu are having to dance and have sex with older men just to make enough money for food for their familes.

Funny - To give you an idea what some people will do a friend of mine called Pete was telling me that in one of the airports here that somebody actually stole the landing lights. No one was hurt but imagine actually stealing these from an airport. I was also asking why there were no traffic lights here in Ozamiz when Rhea said there are one set but someone stole the bulbs in them..

Well i know this is a long enough email and if you have read this far you are probably ready for a nap lol, so thanks for taking the time to read this...

If you want to help in the work over here then please let me know. Here is a link to dropinn which is one of the ways you can support the work. If you are interested in coming out here sometime let me know also and i will give you more info..

www.dropinn.net

God bless and thanks for your prayers...

John

Hi everyone,

we just got word that Rhea's Grandmother  passed away just 3 hours ago.

She had been sick for a while and Rhea's mum who's mother it was had just left today to go and visit.

We are very thankful that she was a Christian so there is the comfort of knowing she is now with the Lord Jesus Christ..

Thanks in advance,

John

Hi just to let you know that my eljohno2001@ yahoo.com email address was hacked into and my password was changed so if you are going to email me please now use this email address until i get it sorted out with yahoo, it is   john_dropinn@msn.com

For those of you who i normally chatted with on yahoo messenger if you use msn messenger then just type the above name into your contacts list and i will stay in touch.

Thanks,

John

Hi Everyone,

i thought i would send the first newsletter now before i got to far behind..

As many of you know i left on the 1st January 2007 and headed to the Philippines to start my new life and challenges as a missionary for dropinn ministries.

We had a stopover in Hong Kong and got to see some of the sights thanks to missionary friends of Stevie Jones. We actually got to see quite alot in such a short time.(Some photos on this website)

We arrived in Cebu, Philippines on the 3rd January and stayed in a penzion house(like a hotel only cheaper and not as nice). We had the chance to go to a wedding of a friend of mine Gary who is from my home city of Lisburn and Mary Ann who is from Cebu. After the wedding we were able to stay with some missionary friends of our in Cebu. Emily who has worked in the Philippines for a long time and her husband Tim who is from Mindanao and of course their 3 great kids..   We were meant to just spend about a week there and go for a short vacation to a local resort for our belated Anniversary break which we did but because most of the ferrys were booked it took a little longer to get to Ozamiz. We actually thought we would get stuck in Cebu because Rhea was 6 months pregnant the people on the ferry were not going to let her travel. Ronnie Dawson asked if i could not have fitted her in my suitcase, my reply was that at 6 months pregnant i was not sure if she would fit on the ferry and in the room we had booked. I am sure you can guess i do not send this newsletter to Rhea haha.

We arrived in Ozamiz City on the 16th January and were blessed to be able to move straight into a house we were able to rent. Most of the houses here are either small or made of wood so to get a house with 3 rooms and an attic(were Danny can stay if he ever gets on a plane) was great. So if anyone is thinking of coming over at least you know there is room for you!! 

It has been great meeting up with friends that i have made here before and of course Rhea's family who have been a great help to us but the highlight for me is seeing all the kids at the home again. But as some of you know the one child i having been waiting to spend time with again is little Gail who is just 2 years old. I first met Gail when she was being held by Rhea and she was only a few months old, little did i know then that i would fall in love with both of them. We both hope that one day we will get to bring Gail home with us and raise her as our own daughter.

I have been able to speak at one of the small new churches and was able to give my testimony, i am thankful to God that 10 people made decisions to follow God wholeheartly...

I have left some pictures on this website for you all to see and i will be putting more on soon, especially when our daughter pops out!!

Thank you for taking the time to read this and if you know of anyone that wants added to my newsletter then just email me..

God bless for now,

John & Rhea

Hi Everyone,

just to let you know Rhea had another scan here in Ozamiz and now we know that we are going to have a baby girl which i am thrilled about as it was a girl that i wanted. Also her due date has been brought forward to April 4th..

Thanks for all your prayers!!

John

UPDATE 28/09/06

Well it looks like Rhea & I will be going to the Philippines earlier than we thought. It is likely that we will be going as Missionaries with "Dropinn Ministries" which is very exciting. We are aiming to go around the 2-3 January 2007 in time for the wedding of our friends Gary (Lisburn,N.Ireland) and Mary Ann (Cebu City, Philippines) who are getting married in Cebu on 05 January. So we will be starting the process of selling most of the items in our house so we can buy the same over there. It is a big step to leave all my family & friends but the will of God is the most important thing in life and i am certainly looking forward to the challenge. So your prayers are very welcome as we start this new chapter in our lives.

PS if you would like to support us or the work we are involved in these please contact me and i will give you my bank details....

Well what can i say as there has been a lot happened in the last year or so. It all started when i got invited to go to the Philippines( Ozamiz City, Northern Mindanao) and while i was there i heard about a church called "Happy Church" which has 9,000 members and i got to speak at a Pastor's Conference, a Prison and one of the services in the church. While i was there i met Rhea who i married on 26th November 2005.We are presently living in N.Ireland and expecting our first child in April 2007 and then we hope to start our missionary work sometime later in 2007 with an Organisation already mentioned on this site called " Dropinn Ministries" Feel free to contact me with reference to anything on this website.

John