I remember the first month of The World Race I was freezing my butt off in the mountains of Honduras. Fast forward to month FIVE and it’s currently a sweltering 90-some degrees with tons of humidity outside. Yep, I guess this is what Southeast Asia is all about!
So last time I wrote on here, I had mentioned that the Lord was teaching me a few things. He never stops teaching, but this month it was on a specific topic. I’ll get into that a little later, but I want to give you a quick wrap-up on the rest of the month in the Philippines looked like….
Baseball Clinic:
So we all know the World Race opens up opportunities to serve the Lord in many different ways. The Race opens up opportunities that we could only do while wandering out in the world. In the Philippines, the Lord led me to help out with a youth baseball camp! Oh, by the way, I should mention that this camp was conducted by two former MLB players! Russ Ortiz (Recently retired from MLB) and Brian H
ommel. The camp was conducted from January 17th-21st. What we did was we traveled to different schools and visited baseball teams around Manila. Russ and Brian taught basic and advanced techniques to help kids better themselves at the game. After drills and games were done, Brian and Russ got in front of the kids and shared the Gospel. Russ and Brian also shared their testimonies and they both had GREAT stories. What was neat was that when Russ/Brian shared the Gospel, the kids actually LISTENED. Normally when youth sit down they get distracted by all that is around but these kids listened to everything the guys had to say. Was it because the two guys were professional baseball players? Nah, I think it was a total God thing!
Women’s Prison Ministry:
I wasn’t even planning on doing this. It was a total God thing that He led me there. On Tuesdays, Angie, Addie, and Alana go with Rollie (our driver) to visit the local women’s prison to do a worship session. I needed to do an errand at a place nearby the prison, so the plan was to have Rollie drop me off at the shop and I would take a short Jeepney back. No big deal, right? Well we got to the place I needed to be and it was CLOSED. Junk. Now what do I do? Go to the women’s prison with the girls? Yeah right, like they’d even let me in since I’m a male. It was too far to walk home and I could’ve just jumped in a Jeepney back home, but some reason I felt to Lord telling me I should just continue with the girls and head to the prison. We got out of the car at the prison and Rollie approached me saying that they may or may not let me into the prison. Ah well, if not I’ll just find a Jeepney back home. But as we walked through the prison doors they LET ME IN. I felt a little uneasy as I sat down and during opening prayer I asked the Lord to remove that uncomfortable feeling. I asked Him to just please let me do what He called me to do to here in this prison. Whether it just be me sitting there worshiping with them or saying a few encouraging 
words to them, please just allow me to be bold and remove the uneasiness. I know the Lord had that shop be closed for a reason and He allowed the prison guards to let me in, so please Lord just do what you want with me! There were probably about 30-40 women there from all ages. All in prison for a variety of things-prostitution, drugs, ect. It didn’t matter though, they were all daughters of God. They worshipped Him with a passion and they were HUNGRY for more. Alana did worship, Addie preached a message, and Angie told her testimony. The leader of the women’s ministry pulled me aside and said that it would really mean a lot to the women if I got up and said a few words. Wait? What? I had nothing prepared….I didn’t know what to say! Oh Lord please come down on me and give me words to say! I obviously couldn’t say no, so I got up and just opened my mouth and let God take over. In generally, I just spoke about how even though they don’t have much freedom inside the prison, they have freedom because they walk with CHRIST. I also said that I didn’t know what their history was with males in their past. I’m not sure if they’ve been beaten, abused, cheated on….whatever, but there is HOPE for good men of God out there that WILL treat them with respect. I used myself as an example by saying that I’m not the most perfect guy in the world, but I do respect women and cherish them because they are a creation of God! It was very well accepted and I was realized why the Lord called me to the prison. After I spoke we broke into small groups and I shared my testimony with my small group. My heart broke for these women and I really wanted to cry right then and there. These women are so sweet and so caring. They LOVE the Lord with all of their heart and at one point one of the ladies started preaching to ME and her words were beautiful. I didn’t want to leave them, but eventually the time came when we had to go. I told them I would be praying for them and I would never forget them. Ahhh divine appointments. THE LORD IS GOOD! J
So that’s about how I wrapped up my month in the Philippines. I had a great time getting to know everyone at the ministry. Since the ministry was so large, it was able to house lots of teams. While I was there, KIM hosted two teams from Australia, our two World Race teams, 30 some middle school kids from South Korea and a group of 35 Taylor University students. It got pretty hectic at times but it was really cool to have all the liveliness of 75 plus people in one location. I really really enjoyed my time with our contacts….The Long family. They did a really good job of keeping things under control while making sure we were comfortable at all times. I built a great friendship with their daughter Josie and I even officially become one of “Josie’s Angels” (Josie leads a group of young girls from the community and holds Bible studies for them 3 days a week and they are called Josie’s Angels).
It was a GREAT month over all. I ate super good food. Did some really great ministries. Built strong relationships. Lost a few years off my life due to all the smog in Manila. Had a dance party in the back of a Jeepney.
