{"id":209014,"date":"2015-08-25T06:00:24","date_gmt":"2015-08-24T20:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=209014"},"modified":"2015-08-25T06:00:24","modified_gmt":"2015-08-24T20:00:24","slug":"saving-saipan-joylynn-jones-and-church-360-take-action-to-do-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/saving-saipan-joylynn-jones-and-church-360-take-action-to-do-right\/","title":{"rendered":"Saving Saipan: Joylynn Jones and Church 360 \u2018take action to do right\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s note: Saipan Tribune\u2019s latest series will feature everyday heroes who are taking part in recovery efforts and assisting those in need after Typhoon Soudelor devastated Saipan.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI have never seen such destruction,\u201d Joylynn E. Jones said. \u201c I never thought the damage would be as intense as it was.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Joylynn<\/a>
Joylynn Jones, fourth from left, poses with volunteer family members and friends during the soup kitchen\u203as serving hours last week.\u00a0 (Contributed Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jones, 39, is referring to Typhoon Soudelor\u2019s wrath, which battered Saipan nearly three weeks ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of my neighbors left their house right before it literally blew apart,\u201dshe added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Before sunlight made the devastation visible, Jones and her family were able to pick up debris around their Kagman home in the eye of the storm. When daylight broke, they immediately realized that the island would need\u00a0immediate\u00a0assistance to recuperate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started calling folks in the States right then to ask for help,\u201d Jones said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jones and her family, in collaboration with their church and other organizations, opened a feeding center on Aug. 15 at the Kagman Community Church, serving food to those in need. So far, the soup kitchen has provided meals to hundreds of residents and expects to serve 1,000 meals daily.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Jones family and other individuals from Church 360 and the Kagman Community Church also visited three shelters in the village to meet victims\u2019 physical needs and provide recreation for Saipan\u2019s youth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The efforts, she said, will hopefully provide some comfort to hundreds of residents over the next few weeks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A Southern Baptist Disaster Relief Team from the mainland and Guam will arrive soon to assist Jones at the feeding center.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only way Saipan will recover is by neighbors helping neighbors. We need to be kind to each other as well as patient as we are all in this together,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The reality of the typhoon\u2019s aftermath was evident when Jones heard her\u00a0neighbor\u2019s\u00a0story of being in their house with children, as the wind ripped the roof away.<\/p>\n

\u201cFinding out that no one died in the storm was incredible. We truly experienced a miracle,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI got involved because it was the right thing to do, and I love helping people. I also wanted to share God\u2019s love in a very tangible way,\u201d she added. \u201cI am so thankful for people willing to take action to do right, when it seemed that no other aid was coming!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s note: Saipan Tribune\u2019s latest series will feature everyday heroes who are taking part in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":209022,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[5289,4702,67,6333],"class_list":["post-209014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-joylynn-jones","tag-kagman-community-church","tag-people","tag-typhoon-soudelor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}