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On
Friday night we got a good 4 hours of sleep before waking up at 2AM to be on
our way to the island of Mindandao in the southern part of the Philippines. We
got on a 4:30AM flight (barely!) and were in Cagayan de Oro in Mindando by
about 6. We were greeted by the staff of KIM (Kids International Ministries)
and then had a 2 1/2 hour ride through the mountains to the city of Malaybalay
where we will spend the next 3 weeks along with the Transformers. The ride here
was absolutely gorgeous! The vegetation and landscape in the Philippines is
breathtaking! As soon as we arrived at our base in Malaybalay we got to work
pouring concrete for the new Children’s Home they are building. Their current
facility has only about 9 children, after many have recently been placed with
extended family but they hope to house up to 100 children in their new building
and they are also building a camp complete with soccer fields and everything.
Our contacts here (Ate Grace and her husband Glen) and other people involved
have poured their lives into this ministry and we cannot wait to be a part of
it.
On
Sunday we went to Bethel Baptist Church where many of the staff and children of
the children’s home attend and then we went out to lunch with our contacts and
tour guides who later showed us around Malaybalay. We got to visit a monastery
further up in the mountains and then visited a spring resort where we could go
swimming. For dinner we went to a little BBQ restaurant where everything is
grilled and eaten on sticks and everything else is eaten with the hands. It was
really neat to see the town and experience part of their culture before diving
into full-time ministry.
This
morning we awoke to more construction and after lunch we had ministry
orientation and then finally got to go meet all of the children at the Children’s
Home. I cannot wait to see what God has in store for our teams here in Mindanao and I will hopefully be able to update more frequently from here on out (along with some photos).
