Brooke Fraiser from Hillsong wrote
a song a while back called “Albertine” about a boy she met when she took a
mission trip to Africa. I’ve been listening to this song
a lot lately as a friend of mine just gave me a mix CD with this song on it. The chorus is what sticks out most to
me. It goes like this.
“Now that I have seen I am responsible. Faith without deeds is dead. Now that I have held in my own arms, I cannot
let go ’til you are.”
And the bridge,
“I will tell the world. I will tell them where I’ve been. I will keep my word. I will tell them Albertine.”
While this song is about a boy in Africa, I feel the words speak so truly
of a boy we met here in The Philippines.
Meet Aldrin, the
Filipino Albertine.
I want to tell you Aldrin’s story.
We met him on a Monday while
working on painting the school. Actually
Katie and Charity met him first. As they
were upstairs painting a beautiful mural that Katie designed while the rest of
us were painting classrooms on the 2nd floor. While painting they noticed a boy peaking
around the corner on the far side of the basketball court and waved and smiled
at him. Later he came up the stairs and
was watching them paint through a mirror.
Eventually he came in and sat and watched them paint and later we all
met him.
The next day Aldrin showed up at
the school and hung out while we painted.
He also started to help us out, by cleaning brushes and such. Throughout the week we spent time with him
communicating as much as possible since he doesn’t speak much English and we
don’t speak much Tagalog. We learned
that he has a natural musical rhythm and loves to sing. One day we were painting and we were like
“Who is singing?” It was Aldrin singing
Justin Beiber. The boy may not know
English, but he sings a lot of English songs.
We fell in love with this boy after spending time with him. His smile, his laugh, his genuine, sweet
spirit were contagious and we loved him immediately.
On Friday we spent the whole day
painting and Kyle and I stayed over late to finish the trim in a couple of
rooms. This meant Aldrin hung out later
with us. While we were there a few staff
from the school came by to see the work we had been doing. One of them being the school social
worker. I walked out to the lobby to
wash out my brushes and the social worker asked me if I knew Aldrin’s
story. I told her our communication had
been limited with him because of the language barrier, but that we had really
loved spending time with him this week even though we knew little about
him. What she said next made my heart
sink. She told me he said that he had
no parents because he was from the province and his mother had brought him to Manila and left him. That was all she said and then they began to
speak a lot of Tagalog and then left to investigate his situation.
When we got back we talked to the
rest of the team about him. We were all
heartbroken. That night Katie and I
discussed what we could do to help him.
To get him a place to stay.
Whatever needed to happen.
The next day while we were
painting I decided to invite Aldrin to church with us the following day. Since there was a Tagalog service we were
going to stay for after the English service I knew that he could actually get
something from the message that was going to be given. I wrote down the church name and asked if he
knew where it was. He said no, so I told
him to follow me at lunch time and I would show him where to go.
At lunch we were walking down the
street and the school’s social worker came walking the opposite direction. She greeted me and I told her I was showing
Aldrin where church was and trying to invite him to attend with us, but I was
unsure how much he understood and asked her to convey that to him. She said he understood and he would be there
tomorrow. I then asked her about his
situation and what she had found out, because I had been dying to know. We
walked into the ministry center and sat down and I grabbed Katie, because I
knew she would want to hear this. We
were even more heartbroken to learn the details of his story.
Aldrin was from the Cebu province. His mother had come to Manila with him and for a
time they had stayed with what he referred to as her boss. At some point his mom needed to pay a debt to
the boss that she could not fully pay.
So, she left Aldrin as payment.
She trafficked her own son to pay her debt. He had spent the past year of his life
cleaning and working for this man.
Recently, his uncle (It is a
little unclear as to whether this is biologically his uncle he lives with or
just some connection to him that has taken him in and takes care of his needs.)
found out and came and rescued him from this situation. He now lives with his aunt and uncle, in the
Cuatro community near the school, but he desires to go back to the province
because he misses his siblings. He said
that he can live with his father, yet our fear is that in reality he’ll find
himself sold back into slavery and that perhaps this time nobody will come to
rescue him.
Katie and I told the social worker
that we wanted to do ANYTHING to help Aldrin’s situation. Whatever that might be. We were told that it would take time to
investigate and do the proper paperwork and such and that nothing would
probably happen before we left on Monday evening. In the meantime we would be able to hang out
and spend time with him and if anything came up that we could help with they
would let us know what could be done.
We spent a large portion of what
time we had left in Manila with Aldrin. We played games,
we went to church, we took him to the market, we laughed, yet we knew that it
was just a matter of time before we would have to leave.
Monday morning we hung out then
walked up to the school. Katie gave him
the Tagalog Bible she bought him with the note inside she had written him and I
gave him my note I had gotten translated for him into Tagalog so he could read
it. Then we walked downstairs and told
him we had to go. We gave him hugs and
said good bye. It was all I could do not
to let tears flow uncontrollably at that moment. (Though as I write this my vision is hazy
with tears.) Perhaps the Lord made me
strong for a reason at that moment. We
turned around and waved and our last vision of Aldrin was of him peaking around
the corner, just the way he had first been spotted.
Now, we are stateside. We cannot be there to love on him. We cannot encourage him in his walk with the
Lord. We cannot hug him, play games with
him, talk to him, or keep tabs on how he is doing. We have had to let him go and trust him in
the arms of the Lord. Possibly, one of
the hardest things I have ever had to do.
I love the kids at the Children’s Home, but I know that they are being
taken care of. I know they are hearing
the Word every day. I know that they are
being loved on by their house moms. I do
not have that same assurance with Aldrin.
I know that the Lord is good and faithful and he will work all things
for Aldrin’s good, but it is hard to let go.
Please join us in prayer for this
amazing 14 year old boy. Pray that the
Bible he has gets read and that the Lord uses it to change his life. Pray that he is safe and does not find
himself back in a trafficking situation.
And a bit of me selfishly asks you to pray that someday, somehow we can
meet him again.
*Credit for photos
to Katie Johnson*
