There are so many precious kids here. Each one has his own tragic story–most of them involving parental abuse or abandonment. The kids essentially roam the streets and generally sleep with 8-9 people in little one room boxes at night. The orphanage, my primary ministry, has taken in about 35 of the hardest cases. I could write an entire blog on any one of the kids here. There are way too many stories of sexual abuse, and other hardships that no person should ever have to experience, let alone these little children. My primary ministry is to get to know the 7 oldest boys at the orphanage and basically be a father figure. I will devote my next blog exclusively to them and their stories. I also am helping out with various tasks on different days of the week: prison ministry, spending time with the street gang youth, taking food to some families that live under a bridge, preparing a huge 3 day sports camp, and a special ministry I have been invited to help in a pastor’s private ministry that will take place in the Philipine countryside for a week at the end of the month.
Here is a picture someone took of me playing with Sandalo, a poor child from the community who has one of the cutest smiles you will ever see. In the left picture, he just made a basketball shot in the hoop above our head.
I promise to post more later. I will make a point to take some pictures of my own now that I am getting a feel for our ministries.
Just to leave you with something upbeat, here is my own teammate’s version of her favorite moments in Australia (There is a little overlap with the other Australia video)
