Our first week was spent in the slums of Metro Manila, where we lived with Filipino Christians and just joined in what a “typical” week for them looks like…here’s a few photos. We worked with an organization called MMP, which has some Brilliant ideas to help people on the community get on their feet and find self-sustaining incomes. They help communities by bringing the gospel of Christ both in word and in deed!!Examples of ministries they have are: goat farm (lend out 2 goats to families for about 6 mos so that they can have baby goats and start their own farm, then the goats are passed on to another family), hydroponics farming (very poor soil here, so they recycle plastics, wood or whatever else they can find to make boxes for growing vegetables and use a mixture including crushed volcanic rock as soil), pharmacies, recycling (there is trash all over, and it can be washed and compressed to sell in China), and more. They are open to any ideas of how to provide incomes for families and pastors.
MMP gave us these statistics: 60-70% of Filipinos are poor, with 30% of those being in metro Manila, totaling about 400 slum communities here in the city. Jesus did say that there would always be the poor among us, but I don’t think that was to give us an excuse to ignore the problem.
This is how we roll- Crammed in a Jeepney (left over +/or remodeled from WW2 jeeps) or in a motorbike + sidecart! How many can fit in one? – “There’s always room for one more!”- we’ve found this to be true with public transportation all over the world…no such thing as personal space
| Food Distribution for the kids in the Montalban slums |
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| Teaching the kids Bible songs and stories before the food distribution- this precious girl had her Bible in her hands! | ||||||||
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