Well folks I’m glad that you asked..
This last month was a whirlwind of activity.
For the first week that we were in the Philippines my squad and I were together for debrief in San Felipe and from there my team along with team Ratsah headed off to Tacloban to help out with disaster relief. (check out the blog here)
After that week we were taken to our ministry sites that we would be staying at for the remainder of the month. My team was placed with a ministry called StreetLight where we would be working with street kids in Cagayan de Oro.
The ministry had been started in September by Natalie, Brindy, Meghan and Leah and they had 16 wonderful kids who were apart of their daily lives.Just seeing their heart behind the ministry, and the way that they poured life into the children was amazing!
The kids would all arrive at the center around 1 o’clock to shower, eat and just hangout until school started around two. After school was finished the kids would go back to the center of town where they all hung out until we would go out and bring them dinner.
The square would be packed with people going to dinner or just hanging out with their friends. We would get some pretty strange looks as we rolled in carrying plates and rice with kids all around us. the street kids here are looked upon as worthless and dangerous, but here we were 6 white americans helping to feed them, and letting them use us as a human jungle gym/trampoline (i don’t know how that worked). We would run around the square with kids on our backs, or we would dance in the middle with them and just love on them. It didn’t matter the looks that we were getting, or the comments that people were saying, it just mattered that we were there for them and that we cared for them.
I learned so much from our contacts and those children about the love of Christ. Those girls loved those kids with an unconditional love, it didn’t matter how many times that they messed!
That is how we are called to love at all times… we are called to love those even when we think they dont deserve it. We don’t deserve the Fathers love but He pours it out on us daily no matter how many times that we mess up.
I am so thankful for the people that I met this month and the love that they showed me and how I learned how to love more like Christ through them!
How beautiful is the love of Christ!
Happy New Year,
Hanna
