Enjoy a little piece of my heart for the Philippines…
We just finished our first week of ministry in the Philippines. I have found my HEART for the children of this area. It is a poor poor community with alcohol and drug addiction problems. There is SO much to do and so little time. Their homes are made of scraps of sheet wood, old signs, whatever they can get their hands on. They are lucky if they have electricity even for a light in their homes.
Houses stacked one after the other, often on top of each other. My team (KARIS) chose to make a sidewalk for the community. The area is called the “shortcut”. When we came across it all we saw was a muddy garbage dump with people walking from one side to the other to get where they were going. Kids walking to school daily through this 50-100 meter mess. We took it upon ourselves to clean it up for the people, to do something positive in such a dark area. We started with a burning of the garbage that engulfed this area. So with gloves and shovels we made a huge pile to be lit up. Then flattened out the area, which made it very muddy. It rains daily here around the same time 4pm. The following day we put down a layer of rocks for the cement to be sturdy…with help from the locals and many volunteers on others teams. As we started everyone kind of found where they were needed. As the cement was poured it was hand carried in buckets to its destination.
Tangi & I took over the role of watching the kids to keep them out of the workers way. We fell in LOVE. They were so much fun, so LOVING. We even taught them the Hokie Pokie, which they are now obsessed with and we do every day…regularly. They also taught us a few of their games, I even learned a song! Roughly 20 kids at a time, but through the experience my heart broke for them. They want love, they need love. They don’t get it from home. I have more than enough for all of them through the Lord who loves all of his children. I hope that through our interactions they see Jesus in me. I hope they find LOVE and HAPPINESS through us. See something different in our kindness. Through the 4 days it took us to clear the area and finish the sidewalk I learned a lot about my team as well. The The boys, Cindy & Lindsay are VERY hard workers, they stop at nothing to finish what they started. Bucket after bucket they pressed through day after day knowing that it was for the good of the community. That every time someone now walks on this sidewalk they will be filled with the Love and Joy of the Lord. Every time their shoes stay clean, or they don’t slip and fall into the muddy trash heap on their way to the store. We needed Gods Grace and provision which FAR outweighed our dreams of getting this project finished. We’ll sing the songs of heaven…and journey on…
Pictures of finished project soon to come!!!
