After 5 airports, 16 hours of layovers, 22 hours in airports, and 5 days of travel, I arrived in the Philippines. Add several more van rides and a boat ride to the mix, and I arrived at my ministry in Puerto Gallero on the island of Mindoro!
We will be devoting this month of the Race to serving with Threads of Hope. Threads of Hope was founded when Alex, a traveling American, realized that some of the girls he had met before in the Philippines were forced to turn to prostitution in order to survive when the bracelets they made didn’t sell. From his heartbreaking realization a beautiful ministry was born, created to help feed the people of Mindoro both spiritually and physically.
Our weeks here are full of a huge variety of tasks, but I find our weekends to be most interesting.
American weekends are devoted to sleeping in, resting, and recovering from the week, but here in the Philippines our weekends run a bit differently.
Saturdays
7:00 am – 9:00 am
Saturdays are traditional considered the ultimate American day of rest, but here they start at 7:00 am with a devotional lead by either a team member or our ministry host. After that we have a quick breakfast, clean up, and prepare for the real fun- Threads of Hope buying day!
9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Starting at 9:00 am over a hundred women, assorted family members, and small children descend upon Threads of Hope bearing the work of the hundreds of women who make items for Threads of Hope.
They came with bundles of bracelets, bookmarks, lanyards, etc. to sell to Threads of Hope.
As each item was bought, I helped sort, catalogue, count, bundle, and package the items to be shipped to the US for distribution. I counted several thousand bracelets Saturday alone!
I also had the amazing opportunity to talk with these women as they finished getting their products ready to turn in and waited to get paid. I learned about their lives, their children, and their craft. I found out that while some learned how to make these items from their parents, many learned from their friends and neighbors specifically to try and make a living creating bracelets. It’s amazing to see how grateful they are for the opportunity to made a decent wage selling to Threads of Hope.
5:00 pm – 9:00 pm
After a crazy day of work we have some individual time, a big group dinner, and clean up afterwards. Then we have team time where we discuss our day, give feedback to each other, then fall into an exhausted sleep!
Sundays
4:30 am – 5:30 am
Our alarms go off very very early on Sundays… too early. I wake up between 5:00 am and 5:30 am to grab a few minutes of quiet time before showering and dressing for Church.
5:30 am – 8:00 am
Sunday service preparation starts at 5:30 am! Hundreds of chairs magically seem to appear in towering stacks, ready to be unstacked and distributed across the large open bottom floor of the Church. After arranging the 900+ chairs and having a quick breakfast, the fun begins.
8:00 am – 12:00 pm
By 8:00 am, over 1,000 people gather in the Church for the four hours of service. There is a worship service for around an hour then the kids (~500) split out for children’s Bible study. Each Sunday a different person from our team leads the 12-18 year old group, while the other members help in all of the children’s classrooms. After about an hour, the children rejoin the adults and we have another service in Tagalong. It’s interesting to sit in a room with 1,000 people and not understand a word they are saying! The only part I could understand was our introduction, and the song we performed for the group. Each week we sing 2-3 worship songs for the congregation, a stretching for me since I’ve never even sung in front of an audience before!
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
After the service, we helped stack all of the chairs back up again and sweep up all the dirt, trash, and leaves that scatter the floor.
1:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Once all of the attendees leave, we eat lunch, clean up the dishes, and plan/set up for afternoon youth group.
3:00 pm – 6:00 pm
There are around fifty teenagers in the church, and each Sunday afternoon they gather for youth group. We lead them in games and then joined them for a Bible study in Tagalong. After the service we played with all of the children and enjoyed spending time with them before they had to go home.
6:00 pm – 8:30 pm
After a LONG day of ministry, we enjoy a group dinner and clean up afterward. Then as with every other day, we sync up as a team, get a chance to hang out and catch up, then get ready for bed!
This is a weekend in my life in the Philippines. It’s absolutely crazy. There is so little time for things like showering and chores; there is no rest for the entire day. There is no time to watch a movie or even write a blog. But we spend almost every minute of the weekend in ministry. We serve by unstacking chairs, sweeping, mopping, sorting, and generally serving. But through all this I wonder, what better way to spend a Sunday? What better way to spend a weekend?
Just something to think about next time you have a few spare hours on a lazy Saturday afternoon…
xoxox, Kristin
