el need o – ministry / picts

 

 

 

I am sure that a lot of you are wondering just what we are doing here in paradise, so let me fill you in on all that has been going on.  

 

 

 

 

Our main ministry is building duplex style homes.  The homes will house families that need to be moved out of the slums or away from a dangerous living area.  The families are able to move into the homes for free – the only catch is that they have to help build their home.  I love working on the building site.  We are able to build relationships with the other workers, the families, and the children.   I also love being able to  tangibly and physically see the fruits of our labor.  So often we do not and will not see how God really uses us – but in this instance we can see the walls getting higher and the work progressing.  It is awesome!

 

 

I would have to say that, so far, our secondary ministry has felt like pioneering.  Our team is the first world race team to travel to El Nido and work with the International Care Ministries branch here.  We have been working under Pastor John and Pastor Norman.  They have been amazing at organizing and planning for us to be introduced to all the ways we could get plugged in and all the areas that El Nido needs help.  

We have seen about 4 pre-schools.  Children here have the opportunity to attend good public schools, but there is a problem with how a child can get enrolled.  In order for a child to get admitted into school they first must be able to read and write.  Most of that learning is learned at home or in private pre-schools.  Children living in the poverty stricken areas do not have the resources available to them to learn what is needed to go to school.  One student we met has a 4 hour walk to this school each day and a 4 hour walk home.  We also were able to visit a high school and all the students gathered and we were able to pray over the entire student body.  It was so encouraging!

 

 

 

We visited a town an hour or so away (by motor tricycle) from El Nido.  This community was home to many of the SMC patients (special medical case patients).  There is a nurse, Annabelle, 23 years old, and she is over the SMC.  She has a light of Christ I am still praying to one day have!  We visited some of her patients: a manlnurished child that was 1 1/2 years old but was the size, weight, and mental capacity of a 6 month old, we prayed over a woman with breast cancer and she had some bad infections, we visited a man with a year old knee surgery that still can not move his knee, and a women with two goiters that are taking over her neck.  We were able to see all the work the SMC ministry needs and all the awesome ways they are sharing God’s love.

 

 

 

We have met a lot of the local pastors and have been to their homes and churches.  We met one pastor who has the land and the vision to build a church outside the “city” of El Nido.  He said that because it is so far for all the residents to walk into town that they have small bible studies and only make the trip in once a month to go to church.  We saw the land and prayed over it and blessed it and next week we may have the opportunity to help him clear out the land (with machetes!!).  He said that getting labor and materials together is hard and that progress on the project may be slow.  But he was so passionate and excited about what God is building in his community.