I was walking down the road with cars, motos, and people hurrying by me. Even though it was still mid morning, the hot Philippine sun beat down on me with full force. Sweat already started trickling down my back. I felt excited, but also a little unsure about the mission that we (five of us Americans and our Filipino translator) were about to embark on.
Kids International Ministry (KIM) is heavily involved in feeding programs for the poor children living in little squatter communities around Manila. Our mission for the day was to go to a new area and find churches that would be willing to partner with KIM. By the church hosting regular feedings they will be able to develop deeper relationships with the kids in their area, share the gospel, and provide better follow up than KIM can by itself.
After a little while of walking, we got to a safe place and everyone started asking God which way we should go to find a church or place to do a feeding. I focused as hard as I could while still keeping an eye on everything that was happening around us. A few other people felt like they got a direction from God on what way we should go so they lead the way. We walked through a busy market area and then after asking some people along the way, we came to a little squatter community.
Our translator, Nicole, asked some of the ladies we saw if there was a church nearby, and they kindly led us to it. There was garbage on the ground surrounding the dirt path we were walking on which eventually went over a makeshift bridge over a sewage trench. Eventually we ended up at a little church that was so small it wasn’t even on Google maps.
After a little while of waiting, the pastor and his wife heard about the group of Americans that were standing outside the church and came over to investigate. They asked us questions about where we came from and what we believe. Once they realized that we weren’t part of the militia coming to steal their children (which apparently happened to one of the church members) they were super excited. They already have a kids program started, but needed food to go with it. So us coming when we did was a huge answer to their prayers! They were super sweet and talked with us for a while, got us drinks, and showed us the little library they have for the kids. We prayed for them and they prayed for us and then we hit the road again.
We prayed for direction again and I heard that we should go back the way we came. We started walking and God used each person on the team to give us directions as we came to different intersections, and eventually we found another church. We talked to the pastor for a bit and he thought they might be interested in starting a feeding program as well. While we were there an American missionary came out of the church. He has been working with a remote tribe here in the Philippines that has it’s own unique language doing feeding programs and other things. It was a really cool God thing that we met him because he is only in this area for a few days.
It was awesome how God orchestrated all of those different people and scenarios together and used each one of us to accomplish what He wanted us to do. And none of it would have happened if we hadn’t been willing to pray, step out in faith, and trust that God had something great in store… something that might not even be on the map.
In Him,
Heidi
