Jocelyn was prepared for Typhoon Haiyan; she stocked her home with food and helped her husband fortify their house. When the storm came, she was in her living room, praying with her family.

What Jocelyn wasn’t prepared for was the terrifying storm surge that pounded the house, collapsing it in minutes. Water swept away her husband and five children, all of whom tried to hold onto each other.

In a sea of debris, Jocelyn floated by an electric post and clung to it, but was forced to let go as the water weakened her grip. Adrift again, she passed a coconut tree, grabbed the top of it and held on. She had no idea where her family was; she simply clung to the top of a tree and prayed for their safety.

***

As Typhoon Haiyan howled across Tacloban, Jane, a religious education teacher, was praying with the nuns in a chapel at Holy Infant College. The storm incessantly battered the building, then a wall of water slammed the chapel. At once, the sea roiled in, pushing Jane and the sisters higher and higher to the ceiling. One of the nuns found the vent hatch, and everyone huddled in it, hoping the roof wouldn’t collapse.

***

Although these stories are terrifying, they have a good outcome. Jocelyn found all of her family members, and Jane and the sisters at Holy Infant College were safe. But more than 6,000 other people weren’t so lucky. They lost their lives in the storm that ripped through the Philippines in early November.

Along with more than 6,000 people dead, Typhoon Haiyan left another 630,000 people homeless. Roughly 10 million people did not have food, shelter and clean drinking water for days after the storm. Relief efforts are ongoing, and people are slowly getting the physical support they need.

“The initial panic has subsided,” notes Nora Lucero, general secretary of the Philippine Bible Society, in a recent report from the United Bible Societies. “But the hard work of rehabilitation, of healing people’s minds and hearts is just beginning.”

That’s where God’s Word comes in.

To meet the enormous demand, PBS has enlisted financial support from the Bible Society fellowship—including American Bible Society—to replace lost and damaged Bibles for up to 20,000 people. PBS also wants to provide 250,000 Scripture Portions of God is Our Shelter and Our Strength to help survivors cope with the trauma, grief and loss in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan.

“Here in the Philippines, we really are depending on God,” says Lucero. “We believe the Bible has a vital role to play in this, and we are working with churches and other organizations to get Scriptures to people who need them.”