My time in Manila, Philippines was filled by getting involved in a lot of different ministries as we partnered with Kids International Ministries (KIM). In a typical day, the morning hours were spent either helping care for a group of orphaned children at a children’s home or else I would go along with a group that would bring food out to different squatter communities as part of a daily feeding program.
Our afternoon hours were spent in different places as well depending the day of the week. Some days we would walk down to a nearby squatter community and talk to the people and hang out with the kids there. Most of the time we ended up playing basketball, which is the most popular sport in the Philippines. Other days I would spend time at a children’s home getting to know the kids there.
My evening hours were usually pretty quiet except for Thursday nights when we would go out to the streets and work with kids who live on the streets. In Manila there are thousands of kids who are literally living on the streets with the no job. Most of their day is spent begging for money on the streets or stealing. It was an amazing experience to be out on the streets with these kids each week, sharing a meal with them and trying to share the love of Jesus with them.
I was also able to get involved with a couple of other ministries in Manila. One was an organization called Wipe Every Tear. This organization reaches out to women caught in the sex trafficking industry and offers them a free place to live, free food, and a free college education because of people who sponsor them. We spent 2 days living in a house with 4 girls who had been working as prostitutes and were now living in this house and going to college. We were also able to go out at night in the red light district and talk to women who were selling their bodies for money. In my short time there I found out that most of these women only prostitute themselves because it's the only way they can make money for their families. Without a college degree in the Philippines it is very difficult to find work. That’s what makes the work of Wipe Every Tear so important.
I also was able to spend two days doing some baseball ministry after I met a couple professional players who had traveled to the Philippines to preach the gospel and teach baseball to kids. They invited me to come along when they heard that I had played some baseball so I gladly joined them for two days leading baseball camps for a kid’s baseball and softball team.
Overall it was an amazing month filled with all kinds of different ministry. A month I will not quickly forget.
