God has been giving the word ‘Beautiful’ to me on this Race. I will write more about all of this later. Right now, I will talk about the Philippines.
We arrived, in our third month, in the most beautiful place I have ever been. We are in the mountains in the Philippines. From a distance it looks like the Shire, but up close it is a jungle of bamboo, flowers, and fruit trees, as well as giant ants. I can see the hills stretch out in one direction from the church we live in. If I walk up the hill I can see the mountains continue in the other direction until they hit the misty city rising in the distance.
I will put up my Philippine pictures as soon as I can, but the internet situation will not allow me to this month. This is one of those months where we are far away from any internet, so I also apologize if you haven’t heard from me for a while.
But the beauty doesn’t stop at the mountains. The people here and the work that God is doing is even more beautiful.
We are living in a church, along with a wonderful family who work here and serve as hosts for the boys’ camp and mission teams who come here. We are primarily building relationships with the community and working on fixing and maintaining the church, but we were fortunate enough to experience the boy’s camp. This camp is a new ministry that reaches out to boys who live in the streets of the city. Some of these boys left homes where they were hardly noticed to choose rather life on the streets which seemed like a better alternative. Some of the boys are orphans with nowhere to go. Some of the boys have been kicked out onto the streets. Now they are young, often criminals, often addicted to solvent that distracts them from their hunger. On the streets they must act the part, not that of a child but that of a gang member.
Ryan, the man who works here at the church with us, goes to the city to pick up the boys and bring them out into the country to this church. Here their whole manor changes as they are allowed to be kids and spend a few days receiving unconditional love. We play games with them and get to know them, and Ryan as well as some of the other guys here lead them in sessions and devotions.
A problem we have heard about and perceived is that, while the message of God brings tears to their eyes, as soon as they are on the streets they automatically switch into that person that they have become to survive. This ministry continues to work consistently with these same boys, investing in them and plans to teach them skills that they can use to rise above this situation. This is something that we, as short term missionaries, will never witness. But I am so glad that we were here to witness the camp and to meet these boys and see how they were nothing but children who needed to be loved.
We hope for the chance to join them on the streets for a night and have a deeper look into their daily life.
Mostly I have been reflecting on love.
I just wrote about feeling fortunate about being raised in the U.S., but I also feel SO fortunate to have been raised with the amount of love that I had. How crazy is it?!?! I can’t imagine what it would be like to not receive love from your parents, and what that would mean towards your idea of God. That is a wound that needs to be healed. But my entire life has been blessed with richness and beauty. I don’t deserve that, but God gave it to me. Just like he led me to this place here where the hills look like a storybook.
One final thought. I just had one of my team members interview me for the documentary, and the subject came up of how different the beauty of this place looks from far away verses up close. As I said, from the distance it looks like the Shire, but up close it is an unexpected, dazzling, and foreign jungle. Isn’t this like getting to know anybody, and especially God, better and better? The beauty that they hold to you keeps changing and becoming more minute and special the deeper and deeper you go. Because God is all beautiful.
