Month 2 in the Philippines, the squad was all together for the month, working at Kid’s International Ministries outside of Manila. We had our hands in a lot of different things: feeding programs for kids, working at a pregnancy clinic, working at a children’s home, doing construction, doing sports ministry. It was a full month.
KIM’s main purpose for us, though, was to expand their feeding programs by finding partners in new communities. This required us doing some “ATL”. Anyone familiar with Adventures in Missions or the Race knows that this is not just an abbreviation for Atlanta; it stands for “Ask the Lord.” In order to accomplish this vision for the feeding program, one Saturday morning the whole squad broke up into teams, took on a neighborhood with a translator and a map, and went out to find churches or community members who might be interested in being a partner in the feeding programs.
We really didn’t know what we were doing.
So we asked the Lord to lead us.
My team went to an area called Taytay (“tie-tie”). We had marked on our map some possible churches to check with, so we just started walking to find them. It’s Southeast Asia, so the sun was blazing over us. We walked along busy streets, trying to navigate the area. We found a place beside a parking lot to step out of the crowd and take a moment to pray. We asked the Lord. After a few minutes, none of us had a vision or a word to go on, so we just kept walking. But every time we came to an intersection or a turn, someone had a feeling about which way to go. Eventually, we found ourselves in a community of need, so we asked around for a church. A woman we found standing in her backyard (which was really just a patch of dirt behind her house) led us down the road to a surprisingly clean, well-built building. Written at the top in large black letters read “Jesus Shines Brightly Church.” There is very little nuance with church names in the Philippines.
Inside, we found Pastor Ronald and his wife Connie, who spoke really good English. They were incredibly kind, and turned out to be very willing to be a part of a feeding program. They explained how in the past, they had ministries come to do feedings, but it was only a one-time thing. Pastor Ronald and Connie said they would love for it to be a regular program. Which is exactly what we were offering! They also said that a feeding program would be a great way to minister to a group of Muslims that lived in the community, right down the street from the church…in this tiny community in a predominantly Catholic country! And we didn’t even know this church was here! It was so perfect.
Two weeks later, I went back with another team to participate in KIM’s first feeding at Jesus Shines Brightly Church. Many children and parents from the community came to sing songs and hear a story from the Bible before we passed out food. Even a Christian biker gang came to say they would help with the program. It was so incredible to see what God did. We asked Him to come lead us and Jesus shone so brightly we couldn’t miss it.
