Our time spent in the Philippines is almost over and it has been nothing less than amazing – as usual! We (team Asian Zing) arrived here on April 6th and we were staying up in a place called Pintong Bukawe in San Mateo, Rizal area of the Philippines. Our ministry hosts, Mike and Natalie Bucher, housed us at a church they found a few years ago – abandoned – and had cleaned up and redone. Basically, one of the most gorgeous locations I’ve seen on the race thus far.

Our group was larger this month – we had two teams in one location so we were a group of 12 girls and one squad leader (for a few weeks). Our ministry consisted of a few different things: maintaining the church property — helping with the farm, property management (cleaning chores mostly), cooking for everyone on site, painting and getting the grocery store and barber shop ready to open (new ministries Mike and Natalie are getting started for the area), loving on some sick puppies, and helping during the day camps that were held for the street kids (homeless kids) three days each of two of the weeks.

The day camps and the people we were blessed to be able to meet this month were the most impactful on my life.

The kids had so much fun and the laughs and giggles that came out of them made me forget for a minute the reality and harshness of their real lives on the streets.

They grow up sleeping anywhere they can find a place to lay down for the night, begging for money, sniffing glue to reduce their hunger and so much more. The things these boys and girls have been through by this point in their short 13-17 years is incredible and heartbreaking! I met them at the church – the three day camp that our ministry-hosts provide for kids like these each month. They came in filthy, high, and pretty rough. The next three days, I saw laughter, a softness in their eyes that hadn’t been there to begin with, tears during testimonies from the leaders and others at the camp, and beautiful smiles!

It was great to be able to see them come in so filthy and leave covered, not in filth, but in love!

A week later, we surprised the boys by going down to their part of town to capture a little of their real life – all but one of the boys was high again, tying to escape their hunger and reality of life.

They were dirty.

They were back in it.

When they saw us, they were surprised and Rodel (the young boy in a purple outfit in the pictures), kept his head down and just kept apologizing for us seeing him like that.

As heartbreaking as it was to see them back on the streets, high again and doing the same thing they were doing before camp, the realization hit that, that’s how we are in our faith sometimes.

No, we may not go out and get addicted to drugs, per say, but we do ask God for forgiveness, get on our Jesus Highs for a little while, and then go back to living our normal lives without even thinking about it. We know life could be different – could be better! But we feel comfortable in our old ways, and that’s easier.

One of my favorite quotes from Francis Chan is, “Something is wrong when our lives make sense to unbelievers.”

These kids may not have much of a choice about their living situations, about the way they curve their appetites, and today I saw how they desperately want the other life, the cleaner life… But we as Christians DO have control over the way we live our lives.

Are we going to keep doing things that make us shy away from God, saying, “I’m so sorry”, when we randomly and unexpectedly get caught, or are we going to start living in such a way that we don’t have to apologize any longer?

The internet here in the Philippines is non-existent where we are living, up in the mountains, and we have to travel into town – roughly 1.5 hours if traffic is clear – to connect and update our families and friends back home about what’s going on. The lack of internet has been a blessing though, because it’s really forced me to have more personal time with those around me, with Jesus, and with myself without any distractions.

Below are some of the pictures I’ve taken this month. Hopefully it’ll give you a good view of what’s been happening in my silence on here.

Our location and our life:

San Mateo, Philippines — Pintong Bukawe