I hopped off the bus from the airport and was immediately greeted by a small girl running and jumping into my arms. How can you not love the Philippines?! This month our squad has been blessed with being able to spend the entire month doing ministry in the same location. We are staying at Kid’s International Ministry right outside of Manila. Jeff Long runs KIM and is involved with several ministries all over the area. Across the street is an orphanage that KIM runs and next door is a school. In the Philippines there really is no middle class. There are rich and then there are poor and the poor are very poor. Jeff has an incredible heart for the Filipino people and we have the chance to infiltrate this place through all different kinds of ministry that Jeff has some sort of hand in. As a team we were assigned a ministry with another team on our squad. We are working with a ministry called “Children’s Garden of the Philippines”. Children’s Garden brings in boys ages 15-18 from the street who are orphaned or have run away from home because of abuse, etc. The boys have lived on the streets from a few months to a few years and were involved in drugs, stealing, etc. Children’s Garden brings the boys in and provides them with shelter, food, clothing, discipleship through Bible Studies, tutoring, life skills such as welding, and even karate! The love that the staff has for these boys is powerful. I will absolutely be sharing story after story from this place. After just a few days I have already fallen in love with the boys, the ministry, and the staff and I am SO stoked to share what the Lord does here! Get excited!! J
P.S. Let me just tell you how much I love the Philippines. Not only are the people so friendly, the transportation is a blast. In order to go somewhere you typically have to hop on a trike which is a motorcycle with a pod attached to it that you can ride in.. or on if you are up to it. The Glenn kids were raised riding on the back of our suburban down country roads so it feels like home J. After those little guys you step onto a Jeepney. Man, are those a treat. Jeepneys are like long jeep-bus vehicles with two long benches down the insides where you cram as many people as possible and a live rooster if you are lucky. Not to worry, there is music, however, I must warn you that if you are opposed to having your insides rocked out by base a Jeepney is not for you. A very humorous part of a Jeepney are the paintings on the side. On one Jeepney you could see a painting of Jesus, the Disney princesses, a famous athlete, and the name Jessica. True story. Yay Philippines!
