On Sunday the 19 September my team and 3 other teams travelled from Manila, Philippines to Malaybalay, Philippines where we are still partnered with the same organization, K.I.M.(kids international ministries), that we served at for the week we were in Manila.
It is an absolutly stunning location tucked in the mountains about 1.5hrs from the coast and about 20′ cooler then Manila, which is a blessing in itself. There is a childrens home here with about 24 children in where we will get to serve at on a daily basis as well as numerous work projects around the facility which we will help get done over the course of our month here. Including laying sod on a full sized soccer field, and building 2 sets of stairs. Our contacts here are wonderful people as are the staff and I am so excited to serve them and bless them in anyway we can.
The first day we arrived we were given the option of going to the jail where a former world racer was doing a program with the jeuvinille boys and 2 other gentelman associated with K.I.M. were doing some teaching to the other inmates. I jumped at this opportunirty with no real expectations just excitment. Initially there was only myself and 3 other racers that went.
I was rocked! The jail is only made for about 170 inmates and there are approx. 280, and pretty much the first thing that happened was the one cell full of men wanted to sing us a song, so we stood back and listened as one man played the guitar and some 15 odd grown men, convicted of numerous different crimes, sang worships songs in clear english with so, so much passion that you couldn’t help but lift your hands in complete adoration of how great our God is.The worship didn’t end here cell after cell the men wanted to sing us songs of worship to our God until we had heard 7 worship songs. I never thought I would go to a prison and be so utterly blessed! Then we got the opportunity to go and hang out with the jeuvinilles out in the court yard. Most of them 16 and 17yrs old. The 2 guys on my squad that came got to play basketball with them while myself and our other racer visited with them. I sat in that court yard for close to 3hrs talking with these boys and although the language barrier should have been an issue – it wasn’t we just talked around it, sure it involved alot of laughing and “umm’s…” but I learned some of their story and they learned some of mine. For some of them it is their second time in jail, some have no idea when they are getting out, some had other family members in that same jail. Most seemed to believe in Jesus and most seemed to want better for themselves when they did eventually get out, one young man even said he wanted to go to seminary – praise God. They had all been getting lessons from Jodi, the fomer world racer, who fell in love with this place on her world race and has spent the last month here going to see these boys everyday and just pouring into them. She has gone back to America now to raise support to come back and continue building this ministry – praise God for giving her the heart for wanting to share the gospel and give these boys a chance to become something better . Please pray for her.
