Threads of Hope

 

 

Ministry in the Philippines felt like a dream.

 

In more ways than one.

 

The Flood sisters gained four more girls from the squad (the other half of their team were all guys and they were with all the other guys on the squad for “manistry” month) this past month for our ministry with Threads of Hope in the Philippines. We changed our team name to “The Lumie Sisters” – a collaboration of both our previous team names (their’s was team “Bioluminescence”).

 

Threads of Hope is an amazing ministry run by incredible people. Pastor Al, his wife Marina (affectionately called “Papa” and “Mama” by all of us) and their daughter Jojo enthusiastically welcomed us all into their family and home with open arms. Jim and Julie Marsh, another vital part of the Threads of Hope team, are a missionary couple from the states and were also very warm and welcoming.

 

Threads of Hope exists to help keep families out of the sex industry by providing other avenues of income. Right now, that is primarily by providing thread for the local people to make bracelets and other trinkets and then buying, distributing and selling the finished products. They are also in the process of opening up a birthing center on site, which will provide medical care and jobs for the local people.

 

The ministry is run by a local church, which is where my team and I stayed. After receiving a vision for the ministry, a missionary from the US started Threads of Hope along with the pastor, Kooya Al (“kooya” means “brother” in Tagolog, the local language), and his wife, Atay Marina (“atay” is Tagolog for “sister”). Their daughter, Jojo, runs children’s ministry at the church and is also very involved with Threads of Hope. 

 

Most of our ministry involved sorting and counting the thousands of bracelets made each week. We also were involved with both church services each week, and responsible for a lot of the cleaning and setup/teardown involved with that.

 

 

 

We spent a lot of our free time at the beach, which was a 15 minute walk away.

 

 

We also had a pet monkey named Musaki.

 

 

The area was breathtakingly beautiful.

 

 

Team Flood Sisters, holding our signs with words describing who we were before Christ and after. We used this in a special number we did at church.

 

  

 

There were plenty of exciting places to explore. This was the foundation of a house on the mountainside. 

 

 

Team Lumie Sisters.

 

The Lumie Sisters with Jojo.

 

The view of the main building, from the roof of the library (currently under construction but the perfect spot to watch sunsets).

 

 

One day, we visited a Mangyan village. 

 

 

Musaki also loved to groom us whenever we had a spare moment.

 

 

It was so much fun to see all the beautiful colors and designs of the bracelets we sorted throughout the month.

 

 

My Christmas trees this year were palm trees.

 

 

But I wasn’t complaining about the view.

 

 

 

We were all so blessed to spend Christmas with our Filipino family.

 

 

And sunsets from the library roof were on point.

 

 

I already miss my Filipino family, and I’ll forever be incredibly thankful for my experience in the Philippines. 

 

 

 

 

 

In other news…

 

X-squad has spent the last few days debriefing in Manila. Tomorrow we are leaving for Vietnam, which is is a closed country. In order to protect my host and squad, I will need to be careful about any correspondence, including what I share on social media, in emails and on my blog.

This means that for at least the next month, my blog will be password protected. In order to see any posts, you will now need to enter: emilylovestigers