Life is good in Malaybalay.
[panoramic view of a valley we drove over on the way from the airport to Malaybalay]
I don’t have any dramatic tales to recount of terrible conditions that we are bearing thus far, though I’m sure they are soon to come. Our first week was set aside for launch and was a great time of reunion, refocusing, and reigniting the fire that was sparked at training camp. Launch was spent with all of the Q (7 teams) and R (6 teams) squads at the Kids International Ministries (KIM) house in Manila. Check out their website for plenty of information about the diversity of their work.
<—-boarding the plan from Manila to Mindanao
On Sunday morning, 4 of our teams (Shabach, Segullah, United, and Agape Life Song) left the KIM house in Manila and flew out to the gorgeous island of Mindanao to the KIM house in Malaybalay. They treated us to a great lunch at a local spot and drove us over to the Malaybalay City Jail for a peak at the work being done there
by a former World Racer. It was an awesome glimpse at someone whose heart was sparked while on the Race as she witnessed a very specific need, and now has a direction upon her life to address that need. We are all incredibly excited for this month and the diversity of work that is available to us, the incredible contacts that we have established, and the plush (relatively, I guess) facilities.
We start our first official day of World Race work tomorrow morning, which is pretty exciting in and of itself. KIM has an orphanage here housing 24 kids, from babies to 13 year olds, so we will be cycling through there helping to take care of the kids and other miscelleanous tasks like preparing food or leading devotionals. Our other definitive task is to clean up the soccer field, which I’m really looking forward to, as weird as that may sound. On top of these two responsibilities and the prison ministry, our contacts here have done an incredible job at making available opportunities farther out into the community and with various other groups of people. Every Saturday a few hundred kids come out to the facility here for a day going through some sort of program called AWANA (Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed, see 2 Timothy 2:15), so we’ll be helping out with that most likely. We may also be partnering with the local university, and also running some sort of feeding ministry. Lastly, Sunday nights a couple teen groups meet in the city that we’ll also be helping out with, which I’m looking forward to getting involved in. Clearly, they’re making sure we’re seeing quite the range of opportunities, and I’m really excited to hit the ground running. Stay tuned!
Team Shabach on a bridge over a huge valley driving from the airport to Malaybalay
