Hey Family,
It has been a little while since we have updated you and we want to share all the great things that The Philippines had for us. SO, we are going to try to sum it up well while not missing the amazing details that God did while we were there (currently we are on a 3 day travel journey to our next country, Argentina, hence the “were there”). We are going to do a multiple part series and this first one is a picture into the ministry and what we actually did this month. The ones to follow will be to share more in-depth Kingdom stories.
We worked with a large, well-known organization called “Kids International Ministry” just outside of Metro-Manila. It is nearly impossible to tell you the full scope of things they do in the community and region, but that is what blogs are for right, telling the impossible. So here we go!
Every day KIM (Kids International Ministries) did multiple “feedings.” A feeding is a time where the full time cooks prepare a large container(s) full of oatmeal protein mix and send teams all over the community to feed the kids and share the love of God with them through singing, dancing, storytelling, adult bible studies ,sports, throwing the kids in the air for an hour, or really anything to connect and give them what they need physically but also to encourage them spiritually. A feeding could be anywhere from a 10 minute walk away to a 3 hour drive into a remote village school and getting to do both of those was amazing.
Another daily staple of Kids International Ministries is the Children’s Home. This is place less than 100ft from the compound where the KIM base (where we lived) is located. This is a home for kids who are from broken homes and living off the street. Some have parents who gave them up while some may have never met their parents. There is a wing for babies and toddlers as well as for the more grown kids. The Children’s Home was open for visitors in the morning and evening and we got so many opportunities to just go and be with them. To play games and basketball with them when they come from school was so fun for both of us. The kids there LOVE Jesus and are loved so well by Gods people around them 🙂
Right next door to the base is a pretty large Christian High School. Christian education is so hard to get in the Philippines due to the price tag associated and the poverty that Manila especially faces. The over 150 kids that attend there pay nothing. Many of them are kids from the Children’s Home. We also had so many opportunities to partner with the principal and help him while also getting to teach and interact with these great young men and women. I (Matt) got the chance to teach a devotion on giving to all 150 kids spread over 5 classes one day and the questions that followed and their desire to learn was unbelievable!
A little further down the road is an elementary school adopted by KIM. We got to go and tutor the students individually with their multiplication tables daily. To help them grow all the way from 1-10 in their times tables was so exciting and present them with their prize for passing was so much fun!
We would be fools not to mention that right next to the Children’s Home is a birthing clinic. Kalyn got to work so often with the mom’s and future mom’s and show them love in a place where pregnant women are severely lacking in what is needed to healthily birth a child. People even got be part of helping birth the baby! This was such a great place for female discipleship and the love of Christ to shine.
Daily there was need for help in the kitchen. Kalyn got to spend so much time loving and singing with the beautiful ladies of the kitchen staff. They sang songs to the top of their lungs as they made us some of the most amazing meals!
Construction opportunities were in high demand as well because KIM is in the first stages of demo’ing an area in preparation for the college they are building in the community. Painting is always and option and something easy to pick up and do when there was a little free time!
Don’t get me (Matt) started on the amount of basketball I got to play this month and how many great conversations that lead to!! God also laid on my heart to do “Young Men’s Night” weekly. So many of the young women are able to be invested in but often the young men (age 12-25) get less intentionality given towards them. AND THEY ARE MY PASSION. Each week we got together and had lots of food, games, prizes, and great times of taking about real things like the truth and lies in pornography and being a young man in today’s culture. The fruit was great from steps into freedom and even steps into salvation!!
Even writing this it is hard for us to catch our breath and realize all that took place this last month. It was full of so many wonderful opportunities, people, and experiences. This is our plug for anyone feeling called to missions. Please consider KIM! You won’t regret it!
Finally, one of the coolest things of being at KIM is that, at the high point, there was 80 people from all over the world staying at the base. Mission teams from Australia, Hong Kong, America, etc. and individual missionaries from Mozambique, London, and more were all at KIM at the same time. We got to serve and live life with the international body of Christ while serving the international body of believers in the Philippines. It was incredible to see the passion of Jesus in people from all over the world. We even adopted an Australian girl named Marilyn and a girl from Texas named Amber into our team this month and had so much fun doing life with them!
BUT, not everyone who lived there was a missionary or even a follower of Christ. Some people are just looking for a way to do something good for the world and find KIM. We experienced this first hand! In order to hear an AMAZING story regarding a young man who was not following Christ when we arrived, READ THE NEXT BLOG!!!!
See you over on the next post… 🙂
P.S. Because of the lack of sufficient internet, this blog will be posted without pictures and then you will receive an update when/if we have enough speed to upload them!
