My dearest family, friends and loved ones!!!
First I will address why you haven’t heard from me in FOREVER. Hopefully you saw my last blog that Emily posted and you know that I did not have internet last month. I was in Swaziland, my favorite country in the entire world, on a really big mountain, that is the prettiest place i have ever been, with my favorite child in the entire world, Benjamin. We did not have internet and I was unable to blog. The major problem here is that I want to tell you about Swaziland but I am already here in the Philippines and LOVING it and God is doing amazing things so I am going to post blogs with the country in the title so you can keep track 🙂
After 36 hours of travel from South Africa to Manila Philippines I finally found my home for the month with KIM ministries in Manila Philippines. I have to admit that I was’t super excited to come to Asia… I was tired, 3 month in Africa is physically and emotionally draining… I was missing home, holidays and lack of communication etc had taken its toll… Most of you that know me well know that I am afterall and AFRICA person so it is safe to say that in my mind I had no idea what to expect so i didnt have much to look forward to. Although I am called to this race, before hand i never really had a heart for anything asia. God was working on me though and the night before our flight left South Africa god began to speak to my heart.
I began to just weep while in prayer and worship… my heart was breaking for the things that were ahead of me. My heart was breaking for the woman and children who are so oppressed by circumstance that it is hard to have hope, my heart was breaking for the orphans, for the widows, for the mothers who can’t feed their children. My heart was breaking for the teenage girls who are being sucked into the injustice and harsh realities of their world. WOW… not exactly what I expected.
Now, here I am. I am staying in what they call Cuatro City in Manila, the capital. it is what most people would call a slum, although the reality is it is just the normal here. the community has 5000 people. There are approximately 750 homes in which only 150 are made with actually cement… the rest are made of cardboard, plastic, old pieces of wood and anything else that can found. We are living in a beautiful missions compound, this place is amazing… I keep telling myself that if I had every resource I could want to build a place to house missionaries it would be just like this. We are very well taken care of and I am going to be challenged with being a good steward of the blessings I am given every moment here.
There are SO many opportunities to serve the community. KIM ministries not only meets every need of the community in different ways (more on this later) but they do it well. We had a choice of about 12 ministries to choose from. I will briefly fill you in here so you can be praying for me but I promise that I will fill you in more as the blogs continue.
After praying I was feeling pulled into a few opportunities. I will be teaching Pre K – 1st graders art class through literacy in a local school. I will be discipling a group of approx 13-15 girls from the community ages 11-13 through bible study and just spending time with them… visiting their homes, getting to know thier families and taking them out for fun days. I will also be participating in a feeding program that is run out of this ministry. they feed about 10,000 people weekly. I am usually not into this sort of thing but it is not only a feeding program, but instead feeding a community where I will be able to get to know people, know their stories, love on children and share the gospel daily. The poverty here is so great …
“If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food and one of you says to them, Go in peace, be warmed and filled, and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?” – James 2:15-16
Lastly, with my spare time I will get to work in the amazing amazing amazing chidlrens library and read to school classrooms and tutor children in reading (BIG SMILE).
Thank you for your patience. I hope to get emails from Swaziland up soon and will definitley keep you posted on what is happening here. God is moving me into a season of being refreshed and living as a redeemed woman of God, believing and acting on God’s prromises. Its going to be amazing.
Sorry this blog is so dry but I love you for reading it!!!
Rachel
