Remember when October 2008 World Racer Marisa (Banas) Rodriguez first met Michael Angelo in the Philippines? The story continues:
Two years ago he was sold as a sex slave for the same price of a meal out for two. His family was promised that he would be sent to Japan to become a king, but what they didn’t know is that the day they handed him over to the seemingly harmless woman, they were actually handing their son over to a pimp to be the sex toy for a perverted man in Asia who already had several other children that he used in this way.It is easy to turn your head and flip the downer of a news channel over to some eye-candy reality show that involves nothing important whatsoever. I do that often, mostly for sanity. But today, in this moment, I am going to ask you to not turn away. I want you to look at this next picture and what I have seen with my own eyes. Then I want you to consider becoming a Sarah Hastings.
A month later, Marisa’s squad leader tells her that Sarah Hastings (squad leader’s friend), and her family were moved to act on his behalf after reading his story. Instead of exchanging gifts for Christmas, Sarah and her family sponsored Michael Angelo’s family; through the Philippine Christian Foundation, the family was given food, clean water, clothing, tuition money and taxi-like vehicle.
One of the September 2010 squads sent out two teams to find Michael Angelo’s family and see how they’re doing. Tiffany Berkowitz, one of the squad leaders, reports:
Michael is healthy. The father is working construction and renting his vehicle to someone else so they are making even more money. Most of the kids are in school, and Michael Angelo will be enrolled in the next school session. This time when they went there, the children had clothes. And although they still don’t have much and are still dirt poor, their lives have been touched.
Philippians 1:6 says that God who begins a good work in us will be faithful to complete it; He joins the different members of His body to do so. We need more people like Marisa and Tiffany and future Racers to tell the stories. We need more people like Sarah and her family who not only listen but respond to the stories.
