After three days of non-stop traveling and bringing in the
New Year airport style, my team along with four other teams arrived in Malaybalay,
Philippines at Kid’s International Ministries. We were told this is a
favorite stop for world racers, so we were really excited. After sleeping off
my jet lag for an entire day, I was ready to go. On site is a children’s home,
which houses approximately twenty-three children ranging from eight months to
thirteen years old. Most of these
children are not orphans, but come from families who cannot provide for their
basic needs. There is an application process in order to be accepted, because
the ideal life for children is to be cared for by their families.
(Photo courtesy of Christina Palmer)
Amongst the five teams here are thirty-three people. Since
we have so many hands on deck, we decided to take shifts in the children’s home
around the clock. I have three shifts with the infants (two being over night),
and one early morning shift getting the older girls ready for school. These
sleepless nights are so worth it, because these children are such beautiful
gifts from God. The first time I walked in the children’s home, I was
immediately filled with an indescribable love and joy. K.I.M. does a wonderful
job of caring for these children and speaking truth into their lives on a daily
basis. It is an honor to spend this month with them, loving on them, and
praying blessings over their lives. Unfortunately, I cannot post close-up pictures of
the children for safety reasons.
(Photo courtesy of Christina Palmer)
This month, we also have the opportunity to do service work,
which is a nice change being it is the first time for my team since beginning
the race. We are working on planting an international size soccer field on the
property so they can hold soccer camps. This consists of pulling weeds, digging
holes, fertilizing the holes by sprinkling chicken poop, placing sod in the
holes, covering them up, and repeating approximately 14,000 times. As expected,
retrieving sod is quite the experience in a third world country, consisting of
shoveling grass from an unknown person’s land and then cutting it into smaller
individual pieces. Needless to say, this will be an ongoing job throughout the
month.
(Photo courtesy of Christina Palmer)
We are also contributing to the construction of a bamboo church on the property, which will also serve as the home of the pastor and his
family. We have again pulled weeds, shoveled up literal carpets of roots, and
made cement in order to piece together cinder block walls. Learning how to make
cement in a more resourceful way is definitely something I have taken from this
experience. Shoveling gravel, sifting sand by hand, and mixing it with water
might be more tiring and time consuming, but is definitely more pocket
friendly.
It has been awesome to work alongside my squad mates and to
see progress in these projects, but it is draining. Satan is using this to
attack us both physically and mentally, which makes it hard to give our all.
Most everyone here has been sick one or more times with some sort of overnight
flu-like sickness, with even some visits to the hospital. Obviously, this makes
it impossible to put forth the effort we would like to in all aspects of
ministry this month. I ask that you would pray against the attacks of the Devil so we can fulfill our purpose in being here. Pray for
complete health in all thirty-three of us, as well as the children in the home.
I cannot wait to share stories with you about what God is
doing through us and in us this month. I am sure I will also have good stories
about the kids here!
