Typhoon Durian (“Reming” in the Philippines), with winds of up to 230 kph (140 mph), is bearing down on the western coast of Luzon island, and is threatening to hit Metro Manila directly Friday morning (in about 24 hours). So, we’re preparing again for a power failure, no water, no phones, and no Internet for a few days.

Rachel has a 4-day weekend beginning today, Thursday, and we had planned to go on a mini-vacation in the highlands of Tagaytay, Cavite province. It’s very calm right now, but cloudy. We still plan to go, but we’ll be monitoring the weather very closely.

On Saturday, we’re travelling up north to San Carlos, Pangasinan province, where I’m preaching the following morning. I think the typhoon will have passed through by that time.

About two months ago, a big typhoon (Xangsane) hit Manila, toppling those ugly, racy, giant billboards, which resulted in a few deaths and a lot of property damage. After the disaster, there was a lot of talk about dismantling them, but as usual in this country, nothing was accomplished after all the claptrap. We’ll find out soon enough if God Himself will destroy those billboards. “Hello? Is anybody home?” (Jude 1:7).