Imagine working for 8 hours in a day… and coming home with three dollars to show for your labor. Would you be able to buy anything other than food? Could you pay your electric bill on top of that? What if you had to pay most your salary for water that 
wasn’t already sewage so that you could drink and bathe? Could you ever get out of a place where you are barely able to survive let alone make ends meet? Would you go to work everyday?It’s depressing. A wage like that start to make sense of why so many men in the Philippines seem to be doing absolutely nothing all day. It begins to make a little more sense why daughters choose to go into a life of prostitution to support their family. It begins to make sense why in every open space in Manila there seems to be thousands of illegal squatter homes made of what I would toss away as trash. It begins to makes sense why there is so much crime here, so much pollution here, so much disease, and so much corruption.
wasn’t already sewage so that you could drink and bathe? Could you ever get out of a place where you are barely able to survive let alone make ends meet? Would you go to work everyday?It’s depressing. A wage like that start to make sense of why so many men in the Philippines seem to be doing absolutely nothing all day. It begins to make a little more sense why daughters choose to go into a life of prostitution to support their family. It begins to make sense why in every open space in Manila there seems to be thousands of illegal squatter homes made of what I would toss away as trash. It begins to makes sense why there is so much crime here, so much pollution here, so much disease, and so much corruption. Though I am not saying that better wages is the cure to all these problem, I can’t imagine how anyone could say it is not a major contributor. I have come from a totally different place in life and I can honestly say I have no idea what it is like to not know if I am going to be able to make it to the next week. My wage has never been a matter of life or death and I will bet that almost all the people I am closest to are in the same situation. God knows what I would do if I didn’t have enough to provide for a family. If I didn’t have anyone I could go to. If I couldn’t find anyone that cared. I know I would like to think that I would rise above and come out a better man on the other side… but can you imagine? Can you imagine how you would feel if everyday was simply a struggle and the only job you could get by the grace of God paid you three dollars a day?
I have been able to spend some time with some of the squatters in their houses and get a glimpse, and it really is only a glimpse, into their world. Between taking them bowling, being invited into their houses, and doing Bible studies with some of them I have had these questions constantly running through my mind. There are some things that I will never be able to understand that are simply everyday life for 40% of the people here who live below the poverty line. I have had different responses at different stages of life to the overwhelming injustices of this world. At times I simply didn’t care to know and never bothered to find out. This is what you would expect from someone who grew up in the states where my home… was the states. 
99.9% of anything that happened was of little concern for me. Occasionally catastrophic events such as Columbine or 9/11 would come to my attention, but that was the extent of it. Then, I went to college, traveled around a bit, experienced and saw more. My position moved from unintentionally not caring due to unawareness, to one of intentionally not caring due to denial. This stage could largely be described as one of helplessness. I became more aware, but to help seemed overwhelming… and not my problem. It is easy to detach from something when it doesn’t involve you. For the most part I am still in this stage. There is something different however. Especially after the last two years of seeing more, experiencing more, and being closer to more injustice and oppression… I realize that I really do care in some instances, and that I want to care about more. I am at a point in my life where I actually want to spend the rest of my life caring.
99.9% of anything that happened was of little concern for me. Occasionally catastrophic events such as Columbine or 9/11 would come to my attention, but that was the extent of it. Then, I went to college, traveled around a bit, experienced and saw more. My position moved from unintentionally not caring due to unawareness, to one of intentionally not caring due to denial. This stage could largely be described as one of helplessness. I became more aware, but to help seemed overwhelming… and not my problem. It is easy to detach from something when it doesn’t involve you. For the most part I am still in this stage. There is something different however. Especially after the last two years of seeing more, experiencing more, and being closer to more injustice and oppression… I realize that I really do care in some instances, and that I want to care about more. I am at a point in my life where I actually want to spend the rest of my life caring.
As Colleen and I spend our honeymoon together here I can’t help but realize how much I look up to the people that surround us. They are people that really care and are doing things to alleviate the heart aches of poverty here. They don’t look at the task and say it is too big and they can’t change the world… they just change the world for one person, one person at a time. Here are some examples of what I am talking about.
The Jeepney Magazine has one main goal: to provide jobs to the homeless. The concept is that homeless vendors can sell the magazine and keep half of the profits for everyone they sell. Most of the vendors earn two to three times the minimum wage in manila which is roughly $7 per day. The content of the magazine is geared towards giving the homeless a respectable wage as opposed to a handout, but it is also giving the homeless around the city a voice by telling their stories. So, not only does the purchase of a magazine give the homeless a respectable job, the stories raise awareness of the trials and tribulations of the poor. Though the magazine is still in its formulative stages the concept has unlimited potential in helping alleviate poverty for some individuals.
In many cases, somewhere between 30% of a squatters’ income goes to buying drinkable water. By simply putting in several wells in surrounding squatter communities, fresh drinking water is given freely and that 30% percent can go to buying enough food for a family or towards giving a child and education. Something so simple has tremendous impact in a community and little by little, a community transforms. Kids International Ministries exists for this purpose among many. Jobs are also provided to men and women in the community through building the wells, repaving the streets, building more housing… each and every project gives a few dozen squatters a consistent job with a good wage.
There is so much going on here that simply seeks to help. Jobs are given, Jesus is shared and seen in His believers. Children are schooled, Jesus is shared to a generation that actually is given opportunity to rise out of the slums. Orphans and widows are taken care of by being fed, housed, employed, and cared for, the life of Jesus is evident in the actual actions of his believers. What is happening here seems is so unusual, yet it is the very things that should characterize the Christian life. Coming here challenges me. It makes me want to help, to contribute in intentional ways that have the ability to transform. It causes my wife and I to rethink what is valuable to us, and what our priorities are. It makes us define what we want in our daily lives. It makes us want to actually do something, rather than stopping at realizing there is a need. It only takes something better than a $3 wage a day to make a families life significantly better… and if you ask me, three dollars a day is practically nothing.
