Imagine if a typhoon came and flooded your whole community. Imagine that the government removed all the people and you had to stay in school auditoriums until the flooding went down. Imagine the landlord of that community putting up a fence around that area after the flooding went down because you were all squatters and he wanted his land back. Imagine the government, not knowing what to do with all of these people, decided to ship you all off to the outskirts of the city. Imagine being loaded and squished with other people onto the back of a dump truck and dumped off in a giant empty field with nothing around. Imagine The Red Cross coming and putting up tents for each family and eventually building these small square homes for you all and then also building different wells so that you could have access to water. Imagine them leaving and that is all that they have provided. Now imagine that you have no food, no clothes, no work, nothing. You are too far away from any type of work and to get there you need money, that you don’t have, to get a ride. Can you imagine all of this?
The families that live in “Tent City” do not have to imagine any of it. This is their reality.
My team is in the Philippines right now. The organization that we are working with has many different ministries that we can get involved in. One of the ministries that I participated in was the “feedings”. Everyday and twice a day (except the weekends) , the volunteers go out to extremely poor areas and feed the children and families. The day I went, we drove 45 minutes until we got to “Tent City”. They visit “Tent City” every Monday and Thursday morning.. These families are really living in the middle of no where. Hundreds upon hundreds of families dumped here. Rows upon rows of small cement huts.
When we entered into “tent city”, the driver shouted out his window several times, “feeding, feeding”. I turned around to look behind the van and saw small children holding cups and bowls running and following us. The driver (also the head of this ministry) continued shouting “feedings” until we stopped. We all got out and the leader explained to us how to go about the feedings. He took out 2 large containers full of this extremely hot soup. The children made two lines and us volunteers took turns scooping out soup and serving the children.
When both containers of soup were done we had to turn children away. It was difficult turning children away and seeing them walk away without eating. Our driver told us, you might think that what we’ve done didn’t even make a dent, but you have to think about the children and families that we did get to serve.
After the feedings, we were allowed to walk around and interact with the people. I met one man who told me that before the flood, he used to be the drummer of a band. He invited me into his home (one of my male teammates was with me) and showed me his pictures of him and his band. He showed me his drum-sticks and let me make a few beats with them. I asked him if he still plays and he said that he plays sometimes in church. I enjoyed talking with him.
We walked down further and saw a mother with her 8 year old son. Her son had a very large head. His mother told us that he had water in his brain. She explained to us that the surgery to drain it would cost about 200,000 Piso, which is about $5,000 USD. We asked if we could pray for him. She allowed us to. After my teammate and I prayed for him and for the mother and her family, I felt to give her a little money. So I hand her son 1,000 Piso (about $25 USD). He grabbed it right out of my hand and then gave me a kiss. We all laughed and then the mother began to cry. I gave her a hug and told her that God has not forgotten about them and that He would take care of them. We said our goodbyes, and walked away trying to hold back our own tears. God did not heal him right then and there, but I am trusting God and believing that He knows what He’s doing.
As little as these people had, they all seemed to be happy and full of life. How is it possible that we, who have everything we need and want, can complain about anything? God has blessed me out of my socks. I should never complain about anything ever again. And days when I do, I pray that I remember this day and thank God for what I have and for what He has done.
