Tonight was a night meant for celebration and freedom. One of our ministries here is working with street kids. Now, let me first explain something. These kids are not necessarily homeless nor “orphans”. Street kids are kids who live on the street. Generally with their families. There could be 10 of them living in the space of a very small standard size bathroom in America. Maybe even in a large cardboard box. Their parents may work. Some even as jeepney drivers (these are big vehicles that operate as taxis). Some of the teenagers even work as prostitutes to make money; girls as young as 15 or possibly younger. It’s by no means a glamorous life. It’s a vicious cycle of cat and mouse. Most of their parents were street kids and more than likely unless given a chance by a stranger, their children will be street kids.
However, one of our squad mates, Melissa Diehl, felt God called her to do something for these kids and their families. She went out a week ago to visit the street kids in “the alley” (a place where they generally hang out). She came back completely wrecked by God! She felt God calling her to put on a “thanksgiving” dinner for these kids considering the American celebrated holiday was only a week away. So she came home, posted a note of facebook to try to raise about $100 to provide for food for over 100 people. God had a different idea and provided about $450! From there came the idea to put on a carnival for these children. For one night they could be just kids.
Not only did God provide more than the funds Melissa was requesting, he provided a Filipino man who stepped in to help us find a building to put on the carnival and helped arrange transportation so all Racers could come to the event.
We set up games like “pin the tail on the donkey”, “can toss”, “toilet paper toss”, a station just for coloring, a station for balloon animals, a station for girls to become a princess and boys a prince for the night. We also set up a station for the children to be washed and have the teeth brushed and even a medical place to receive band-aids and clean out infections. Spaghetti and chicken was cooked for their dinner and a magician was brought in as well as a projector to end the night with a good ole kid’s movie.
Everything was set up to go well and smoothly and just have a night of freedom and fun. … Then Satan tried to rain on God’s parade. One of the things about living in the Philippines is that there are no traffic lines and if there are, people don’t pay attention to them. Basically, you just drive and what you think should be a 4 lane highway quickly becomes a 6 to 8 lane highway and a sea of crazy swerving cars. Our driver for the night was a local missionary who has been here for 6 months. We were following the lead vehicle when all of a sudden a man tried to cut her off. She couldn’t let him or she would lose the vehicle and the way to get to the carnival. And so, she inched forward and this other car inched forward and the next thing you hear is “crunch” as the other vehicle is running into the side of our car. Just to let you know, another thing about the Philippines is that if you are white and someone hits you or the police try to stop you for whatever reason, and sometimes it is just the fact that you are white, they think that you have money. So, even if it isn’t your fault, they will make it your fault so you have to pay them. If you give them your license when they ask for it, they will take it until you pay. So, unfortunately, we are a car full of white Americans who have now been hit by another car on an extremely busy highway and if we stop we will 1) lose our route to the carnival and 2) more than likely have to pay because we are white Americans. So, our driver decides to keep driving; really the only option she has left. Unfortunately, the car follows us, honking at us, trying to cut us off so we have to stop. At one point the vehicle gets up beside our driver as she proceeds to tell them she has to follow the vehicle in front of her and can’t stop.
Once we reach our destination the man approaches asking for her license which she refuses to give (which is actually a whole nother story). She calls over her Filipino friends hoping to settle the situation explaining that the man hit us and it wasn’t our fault. Instead the man is not satisfied and says that we tried to run and so he calls the cops. In the end, our driver, a missionary, is forced to pay 5000 pesos which equates to $125 or have her vehicle towed all because the man who hit us was a government official who just wanted some money.
So now, fluster by the event of it all, we have to continue our celebration, something that should be happy but Satan tried to put some gloom on it. Unfortunately for him, walking into a room full of smiling young children with their families celebrating and having fun being kids, takes away any frustration that Satan tried to cause.
I don’t understand the corruption of this world or why people thinks its okay to extort others for their own gain. But what I do know is that God gets the glory. He had a plan tonight, to open my eyes to something I never knew existed. To show me that in the midst of what I think is a horrible mess that there is joy. That it is a choice to be frustrated or express happiness, joy.
We are called by God to bear fruit of the Spirit and of that fruit is “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self control” and tonight I watched all of that come to fruition in midst of a frustrating situation as our driver kept her cool and in the midst of a celebration as the kids were just kids tonight.
God is bigger and stronger and better and Satan can’t rain of this parade!
