While the ash of Mount Pinatubo covered massive areas of the Philippines, a blanket of service spread throughout the Philippines to Guam, a neighboring island in the Pacific.

Members in the Philippines are beginning to repair and rebuild their homes after being forced to flee the area when the volcano erupted June 9. And members in Guam gave a hand by helping military personnel and their families - forced to evacuate Clark Air Base and Subic Naval Base - return to the United States."We've taken care of the crisis of the situation and now we're in the second phase," said Elder L. Lionel Kendrick, president of the Philippines/Micronesia Area. About 5,000 Filipino members were affected by the series of eruptions, which went from June 9-15.

At Anderson Air Force Base, members of the Guam District and missionaries of the Micronesia Guam Mission helped process more than 18,000 evacuees who were fleeing the volcanic destruction of Mount Pinatubo. (Numerous evacuees were flown to Hawaii and the continental United States, where they received additional relief help from Church members. See Church News July 6.)

Of the continuing relief efforts in the Philippines, Elder Kendrick said, "We are systematically trying to repair and rebuild homes for people to move back into."

About 80 percent of the homes of members in the Olongapo Philippines Stake, southwest of the volcano, were damaged or destroyed, and about 40 percent of member homes in the Angeles Philippines Stake on the east side of the volcano were damaged or destroyed.

"All of the members who were evacuated are still not back into their homes," Elder Kendrick added. "There is a small number of families living at meetinghouse sites or in other areas they were evacuated to."

Electricity and water have been restored in most places, however, and no members are in any mudslide danger areas, he said.

"There have been some mudslides, but they have been closer to the base of the mountain," Elder Kendrick remarked. "Most of the damage has been about 20 kilometers from the base of the volcano."

The volcano still has minor eruptions and tremors occasionally, but the fallout is not going far from the base of the volcano.

Missionaries have not returned to most of the affected areas but are being moved into towns on the perimeter that were not hit as hard, Elder Kendrick added.

Construction officials from the Church Presiding Bishopric's Office have been making an assessment of damage and working closely with stake and branch presidents to repair damaged meetinghouses and homes. The Church is giving members some assistance on building materials.

The Olongapo stake center and the San Marcelina Ward meetinghouse received the greatest damage from the volcano when the weight of wet ash caused the roofs to cave in.

"The Church is providing assistance, but there is a lot of initiative on the part of the saints themselves to be self-sufficient," Elder Kendrick noted.

Members in the San Felipe Branch in the Iba District have taken advantage of the large amounts of ash by making cinder blocks out of the powdery substance to use in rebuilding their homes.

Guam, a U.S. territory, became the focal point of the transition for military personnel and their families as they began to evacuate military bases near the volcano.

And Church members in Guam, like members in Hawaii and in Washington state, joined military and civilian volunteers to assist in the processing of the evacuees.

Food, clothing, and other essentials were gathered by the military and local communities because most of the evacuees came with nothing but what they were wearing.

Three airport hangars at Anderson Air Force Base were utilized to process and house the evacuees as they caught their flights out.

Elder Chester Sessions and his wife, Sister Naomi Sessions, of the Micronesia Guam Mission, volunteered in the hangar where a nursery was set up to take care of children while their parents completed paperwork.

"There could be hundreds of children at a time, but everything went smoothly," Elder Sessions said.

Dolores Alexander, Guam District Relief Society president, added: "Those Primary leadership skills we learned at Church came in handy when it came to organizing activities for the children."

Members were also included among the evacuees, she said.

"Most of these families hardly had any sleep on their way to Guam from the Philippines so we felt good assisting anyway we could," Sister Alexander said. "Elder Sessions was even asked to give a blessing."

Members also volunteered by translating for non-English speaking evacuees, picking up trash, carrying luggage, doing medical screening, housing some evacuees in their homes and providing transportation.

Much public praise has been given to the military units and volunteers who organized and administered such a smooth operation.

"To be able to help these individuals after all the hardship they have been through and to receive their grateful smiles was worth it," said Elder Ryan McCune of the Micronesia Guam Mission. "The Savior would have done the same."