Coaching at RashidatO.com | Social Activism at Whereveryougolove.com
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During our time in the Philippines, my team lived out in one of the poorest parts of Bacolod City. We lived in a squatting village called Balabag. A squatting village… that means that most of the people in that area did not own the land they were living on. They simply built themselves something reminiscent of a house or shelter and began living, and for some working, there.
When we arrived in Balabag one of our first contacts was a wonderful little boy named Anthony. He had so much energy, was extremely friendly, spoke English, and helped us bridge the gap to the community. Our Man of Peace, Anthony, was only 9 years old. Without him, I don’t believe we would have connected to the community so quickly. On our first day out on the basketball and volleyball courts, we had about 80 people from the community either interacting with us or watching us interact with the rest of the locals. It was amazing!!! We were the first Americans to ever come live and spend time in this community, but our ministry and connection with them skyrocketed because of the openness of this one little boy.
One day as I was sitting and talking to him at the basketball court when one of the women from the community comes to me. She puts a large smile on her face, looks at Anthony, and says “Gay”. I was a little taken aback, but I continued to smile because I did not know how else to respond. She makes a face with her lips that points to Anthony and repeats “Gay”. Now the confused look is visible on my face and I start to babble about how great of a young boy that Anthony is and how we are happy that he is our friend. The woman does not know how to respond, especially through her limited English, and therefore walks away. Later that night I shared with my team that it hurt my heart that the community had labeled this boy gay. I asked our housing host why people labeled him gay. She said it was because he “acted” gay. I asked what meant, but I noticed the conversation made her uncomfortable so I stopped pursuing the conversation. I asked one of the friends I made in the community why people labeled him gay. She said it was because he didn’t have a father.
We did an event at one of the universities in the city of Bacolod. During this event we did worship and we had 4 areas where we taught the students about different realms of Christianity. One area simply had games. It helped to balance some of the heavier topics we had in the other booths. In the next area, a team taught about creative worship and the ways that we can worship God in addition to singing. In another area, we split the groups based on gender to breach topics that each faced every day. We encouraged them to be heard by us and to know that they are also heard by God. In the last area testimonies were shared in hopes that students would know that they are not the only person who may have messed up by walking in a particular sin; to advise others how to avoid walking into that sin; and for all to know that when we sin, God will love, forgive, and redeem our iniquities when we give our sins to Him.
I and one of my teammates worked in the testimony room. We both talked about sexual immorality in our testimony. I stood with one of my teammates as he shared, really for the first time with a crowd, that he struggled with homosexuality and his journey to align with the teachings of the Bible. He talked about how a girl, when he was in elementary school, spoke the identity of being gay over him and that it held him captive. He spoke that he struggled so much because he came from a devout Christian family and went to church learning that to be gay was not of God. He admitted that he tried a homosexual lifestyle. As I listened to my teammate’s testimony I thought about Anthony. Is Anthony on a similar road?
My teammate shared that there were not many people in the church that he could honestly talk to about his feelings. He didn’t have someone who could relate and help him separate the truth from the lies until he went on a mission trip one summer. His trip leader was a man who had walked the same journey and helped him to learn the truth of his identity in Christ. But again I thought about Anthony… Would he go that long into a life that at 22 ish years old he would finally learn the identity that God created in him? Would he try to turn to the church and be shunned because there was no one who could or would relate to him? Would he be scared by the body of Christ because of their human iniquities and shamed causing him to run from the One Person who could actually save him?
I met a really awesome young man in the Philippines who was a Christian and he shared that when he was a new Christian he had a friend who was gay. He admitted that he was no help to the young man, but by the grace of God, the young man found a church that helped him. The young man made it point to not let that happen again. He made it a point to figure out how to share that God loves gays too even though that is not the plan or identity that God has for their lives. It breaks my heart that we are losing people to Devil because our iniquities and inability to relate to all sins and LOVINGLY guide all people back to Christ. What is our first step to getting there?
#WhatBreaksMyHeartInThePhilippines #Philippines
