Unsung Hero- Someone who is doing work for the Kingdom of God and will likely never get any global recognition. They are devoting their lives to loving the least of these and bringing Jesus to them where they are. They are the kind of people that make short term missions possible. Without these unsung heroes who are diligently working for the Kingdom there would be no one for short term missionaries like myself to partner with.
This month my teams ministry has not been to work with kids like most of our squad mates. Our ministry has been to follow the Lord’s leading to find people like I described above. To find people and ministries that are making a difference in the kingdom and possibly making a connection between them and Adventures in Missions. It has been crazy how God has led us to find people who are doing awesome work here in Quezon City.
The first Sunday that we were in the Philippines we decided that we were going to go to church, so like typical Americans we Googled where we should go. It brought up several different options, and we chose to check out a church called Faith Baptist Church. They were such a welcoming community of believers. The sermon was spot on of what I needed to hear, and the people were so great. We ended up eating lunch there and doing some ministry in the afternoon with them. While we were at lunch we were connected with several ministries. One that we were trying to get a hold of already, and one that we had never heard of. The one that we hadn’t heard of my teammates Dani and Meagan went to check out the following Tuesday.
Walking into Gentle Hands Inc. we were greeted with laughter, kids screaming, caregivers corralling, and smiles all around. It wasn’t one of those sad orphanages, where the kids seem so downtrodden, these children were so full of life and love. We sat down with one of the workers, who hails from America, and told her a little about Adventures in Missions, about what our ministry for the month was, and how we were led to their ministry.
After we answered her questions about Adventures and the World Race, she started to share with us about their ministry. She shared with us about the kids that they care for, and how they are known for taking the children that no one else will take. They take in family groups of multiple kids, they take in kids who are sick, they take in the least of these in Manila. Currently they have about 95 kids in their care ranging in age from infant to 15 years old.
They gave us a tour of their facility, and it was incredible to see how well they are caring for the kids. They have different rooms set up by age and in each one it is designed for kids of that age. The older girls sleep in castle bunk beds, and the older boys have basketball goals in their rooms. While it was awesome to see all the smiles and hear the giggles of the children as they showed off for us, there were sad moments as well. We got to meet two babies who are really sick. One of them has heart problems, they told us that there were more kids upstairs that were in even more critical condition.
I’d like to ask you to please pray for the children and workers at Gentle Hands Inc. The specific prayer requests they mentioned to us were:
Continued healing and growth for the kids in their care.
That God would continue to meet the staffing needs.
That God would call families to adopt internationally (There is never a point where you can specifically say you want to adopt a certain child from a certain orphanage.)
For wisdom and direction for some of the most critical cases they have.
This ministry is so awesome, and is doing such good work for the kingdom! If you would like to find out more about them you can check their website out at, www.gentlehands.org
Love you all!
Audrey
