On March 7th, around 400 friends of IDEA gathered at the Billings Hotel in Billings, Montana for an evening of renewing old relationships and showing their support for the ministry of IDEA. Around 100 people in attendance had actually been to the islands of Bohol and Leyte as volunteers for IDEA over the years. Along with some wonderful food, many friends donated items for a silent and live auction in order to raise funds to financially assist the work of IDEA. It was a lot of fun!
Bill Cunningham and Ron Todd where part of a Faith Chapel Short Term Mission Team that just returned from the island of Bohol where they had been doing repairs on the quake damaged classrooms for the Deaf in the town of Loon. They took a few minutes to share from their experience.
Dennis Drake, Brian and Rhonda Hillabush came in from the Philippines for the event and showed a video presentation of the on going work in the islands. It also showed how IDEA was affected by the 7.2 magnitude earthquake that hit Bohol and the category 5 typhoon that hit Leyte just three weeks later. The most moving message of the video was when it showed how the Deaf of Bohol have become the heroes in the story. Many of the families that had once isolated and abused their deaf children now have a new home because of that child. Our deaf construction crews are still on the forefront of rebuilding Bohol and changing the perception about what the deaf are capable of.
Thank you to everyone who attended and made such a successful event. A huge thank you to the IDEA Board of Directors from Billings who put so much effort into putting the dinner together. What an amazing and encouraging outcome. It is our pleasure to share the video presentation with you here.