It’s the night before we leave Manila and head into Tacloban and I have yet to really let anybody back home know what has been going on. I’ve really just been trying to invest myself into this situation.
The first day we arrived was at 3 in the morning at the airport. We waited there for at least an hour waiting for our contact to meet us. He finally arrived with a couple vans and a truck for all our gear. WE drove through the town in the wee hours of the morning yet everything was still busy. Lights and signs and cars came flashing by as i stuck my head out the window and soaked it all in. It felt like Atlanta, but just run down. You would drive past huge tall building and then the next few minutes would be little shacks and stores made of scrap metal. It was hard to really let myself understand where exactly i was. I kept telling myself I was in the Philippines, but it hadn’t really hit.
We finally arrived at our host home at like 5 or 6 in the morning. We pulled inside the gates at Kids International Ministries and saw the place where we thought we would be staying for only a couple of days but turned out to be like two and a half weeks. This place was actually really nice. Not really at all what I was expecting. I had my tent and sleeping bag mentality ready, yet we have beds and showers. The water inside the gates is clean, have working toilets, and to top it off we have a huge pool with a water slide. Not to mention we have our food cooked for us everyday. We get pampered so much and its great, but at the same times it s a very sobering feeling when you see what you have, then literally 50 feet outside the gates are shack houses. I definitely thank the Lord for His many blessings as we have stayed here.
Ministry here looked different each day because we had so many types of ministries we could do. Construction, children’s home, teaching/tutoring, nursery, pregnancy center, jaz home(abused girls), teaching kids to swim, for to door, and street ministries. We had so many opportunities to minister in ways that best fit us. I did construction, children’s home, teaching, pool, and street ministry. My favorite out of these was the street ministries. The kids covered in dirt, but with a huge smile on their faces when you went to play with them. They would always remember your name and call it out anytime they saw you, and they loved it so much when you remembered theirs. WE would play all kinds of games in the streets and the would teach me Tagalog words and we were able to create relationships. It’s great that I was able to do that, but at the same time I’m about to leave in 2 days to head to Tacloban for two months. I may not get to see them again. It’s hard moving on, but I know that I have planted the seed and am going on to another area to do the same.
While being here God has been busy at work in my life and He has been doing it so quickly. Things back home that would take weeks or maybe even months to work through, here its like I’ve got two days and God is like I have more for you. Its been super fast paced and I have had to dive in so much deeper than I ever have. And that has been His plan all along. It has been pretty brutal at times the places and things He has taken me through, and I have struggled to have seen the good. However I am confident I know that He is preparing me for things to come. For things more difficult and things that are going to wear so much harder on me. I thank Him for the rough times now for I know that I will be better equipped for the days to come.
On Wednesday we leave for Tacloban. I doubt we will have much if any at all internet connection so to all my family and friends, I love and miss you all and will try to keep you updated in what God is doing here in the Philippines.
Peace and Blessings
