My arms are sore. Its a good sore
though, a very satisfyingly sore knowing that what made them sore is
Kingdom work. Today we spent much of our time unloading and loading
cargo ship containers of food to be shipped to various ministry
sights around the deferent 
islands here in the Philippines. Hundreds
of mouths will be fed by those boxes of food that one person gave the
money for, another person packed, and that I helped unpack and
repack, to go to another person who will cook, and yet another that
will distribute to hungry lives here in the beautiful tropical
Pacific. God’s kingdom works and yep, I’m in love with the
Philippines. I mean you know I’m gonna like a place when there is a baby salt water crocodile living in a tank on our balcony.
After 45hrs of travel and 10,700 miles
we made it safely here from Costa Rica. Being one of my favorite
regions in the whole world, I have really been excited about getting
back over here to SE Asia and especially for the Philippines because
of all of the amazing things I have heard about them from the people
who have been here. The first week here I have been with a couple of
our teams in the capital city of Manila working with an amazing
ministry run by Mr. Jeff Long and his family that is covering the
whole gambit when it comes to ministry needs in the city. Feedings,
orphans, schooling, outreach to prostitutes, even basketball games..
Jeff is a master delegater (thats a word right?) and it is
unbelievable how many people are working in their callings in so many
different areas through his ministry here.
The Filipinos have a huge love for
basketball which has been awesome because it is right up my ally.
Playing pick up just about everyday has been such a blessing to get
to do as we build relationships with the young people at the ministry
house here.
Another ministry that I have gotten to
experience here first hand is the feedings that the ministry does
every other day out at the refugee camps. When the last big typhoon
rolled through here and destroyed a huge area of the lower income
part of the city, the government shipped all the displaced people
about an hour out of town into a camp for them. The government is
doing what it can by putting up a couple hundred one bedroom
structures to house them all, but they are left out there with out
any means to earn a living now that their normal trade and places of
employment don’t exist. It has become a slum of sorts where the
people feel somewhat abandoned by the world.
However the kids just light up when you
get there and the people are for the most part very friendly and
happy to talk with you. The meals that we have been taking out there
are the only real meals that many of them get. I know we see it on TV
sometimes but it really tugs at your heart to see in person so many
real living breathing individual people eagerly lined up just to get
some food. It kinda helps you understand how Jesus must have felt
when He looked out at the multitudes and asked His disciples to give
them something to eat. It really rocks your world to witness such a
thing and I am very glad I have had the opportunity to come be the
hands and feet of the Lord to these people even if it seems so
insignificantly brief an encounter. I know that the one meal I give
them will only last a little while and that they will be hungry again
after I have left. With such a short opportunity to be here and help
this situation and faced with more mouths to feed than I ever could
myself, I find that all I can do is be obedient and go while I can
and pray that the Lord will use our presence there to do His work in
those lives in the ways that we are not capable of ourselves.
While we were there I was blessed to
watch a little boy play and laugh just as much as any child I have
seen anywhere else in the world, good conditions or bad. He giggled
his little heart out as he would jump off the back of the truck into
Scotty’s (one of my fellow squad leaders) arms. The true, undefiled
joy of this child is present even here where he probably goes hungry
more days than not. I was reminded that it is not wealth, prosperity,
or any other thing that we experience on this earth that generates
real joy in our hearts. It’s like Paul said:
“I have discovered the secret to
having plenty and being hungry, having abundance and being in need”
Phil 4:12.
You see I might think that I only need
help being happy when I have nothing and am in pain and need. My
experience in life has taught me that Paul is right, it takes the
same joy and fulfillment that only the Lord can give us for us to
truly be happy even when we have everything we could want. It is
experiencing the Lord’s heart for His children, even when it hurts
and make our heart sore. But its the good Kind of sore.
