On January 6 our eccentric founder of Wipe Every Tear joined us in the Philippines with a team of young men and women with an amazing anointing. These young people came here knowing God’s power and abilities but never seeing it in this light; the light of night. A teammate and I joined Kenny, his team and some of our local friends and partners in a trip to Pampanga where there are 15,000 girls trapped and trafficked on a 1.5 mile stretch of road. We spent 2 nights and 3 days there reaching out to the girls in the bars, the girls on the streets and the urban poor near the church we have partnered with. We were so blessed to have 2 of the girls we met the first night join us in our food distribution to the urban poor the following day. After two very long, sleepless nights and days, we were able to accompany 8 young women back to Manila for a visit at the Hope House. That afternoon 2 girls committed themselves to the program Wipe Every Tear offers. Unknown to me, the girls are already living here. I found this out just now as they walked past me out the door. Who knew?! Anyways, after a brief meeting in Manila with our visitors and our lovely ladies already here at the Hope House, we sent them off to wherever they needed to be. All except for one girl went home that evening. A wonderful young lady, whom we met our first night in Pampanga and joined us in ministry to the poor, continued on with us. Once the rest were dropped off, we went to Navotas; an area which we would equate to a suburb of Manila, far south side. There we spent the rest of our afternoon reaching out to the locals through the national past time of basketball. After a short rest and a good meal, we went to the fish port where girls are forced to work the streets to pay off debts and/or feed their families. The following morning we once again did outreach to the urban poor through food distributions. Upon our return to the Hope House after lunch, we were again accompanied by 4 young women and an adorable 1 year old. This was such a wonderful experience for all 12 of these girls and something truly amazing to watch the LORD orchestrate. Currently there are 3 members of Kenny’s team whom have come to him with thoughts of extending their stay. This is something we are still in prayer about. Though we would love to have them stay we also want to walk in what the LORD is doing.
My garden is coming in well except for the carrots and eggplants. I don’t know why the carrots aren’t up yet and I have never grown eggplant before. Other than those, we have cantaloupe, watermelon, cucumber, snow peas, green beans, sweet corn, bell peppers, chili peppers and something growing wild which looks like sweet potato. We also have 2 mango trees, about 10 banana trees, a star apple tree, a baby lime tree (not keylime, but its name doesn’t translate well, calamansi), a chico tree, a coconut tree and a few dozen taro plants. I am also on my second round of chickens. The first batch had a little run in with some strong herbicide and a cat. This time around I have 7 chicks. We have already had a return of the cat and somehow he reached into the coop and got himself a leg. Good thing the chick is still young because it survived and is young enough to learn how to live with one leg.
The weekend of Jan 31- Feb 2, I am planning a men’s retreat with a group of guys from a short term trip our organization has in Manila. There are only 12 of them but there is the potential to have a few friends and possibly some guys from Kenny’s team joining us if they stay behind. February is likely to be a busy month with one of our teammates going home for a while. Later in the month it is my birthday. It is my birthday. It is my birthday. It is my birthday. J March will be our first time hosting a World Race team. We will be assisting Wipe Every Tear with facilitating a World Race squad and all of their ministries. I don’t really know what else I can fill you in on. I am always up for communication that goes 2 ways, but I had several request for a blog and life update. Theoretically there will still be a picture blog coming soon so you all can see what life is like here (it looks oddly like, well, life). That just takes a lot of picture taking and a lot of internet to upload, but it’s in progress.
As He leads me,
Jason
