Tondo is a city in the Philippines. It was the most impoverished feeding area I have seen. HappyLand is the name given to this dump ground located inside of Tondo. In this slum the children were naked, dirty, wounded, hurting, and hungry. This was heart breaking to see. These children were not smiling they were just surviving. Every man for themselves, scavengers. Trash mounds lined the streets. The smell was so thick you could cut it with a knife. I felt like I could not breath. These kids were running through the streets living in a dump ground; breathing air so polluted it was making me cough. This is their reality, this is their childhood.
The streets were black from so much sewage, waste, and trash. Flies were everywhere. The stray animals were so abundant you could not even count. We fit 30 plus kids in a church the size of a 12×12 room. Most of the children were half clothed, wounded, and so dirty it looked like they had not bathed for days.
The parents are singing karaoke, drinking, and gambling. You could look into the eyes of these people and just see the hopelessness. They had accepted this living situation and had no intentions of looking for something different. I don’t know how to explain this area other than these people were just content with this lifestyle. It is hard for me to understand. There were generations of people just living this hopeless lifestyle with seemingly no more ambition left to improve their situation. This was so sad to see especially when you look into the sad eyes of these children.
I am ashamed to say this, but when we walked into HappyLand I wanted to keep my distance between these filthy children and myself. I did not want to touch them or hold them or even breath the air they were breathing because it was so dirty and disgusting. Before we had even left I kept thinking to myself how I could not wait to get back home to shower this day off. Then I thought of Christ and how God must look at humanity. We are filthy, dirty, broken people not even fit to step foot in God’s presence, but he reaches out to us and wraps his arms around us, he holds us when we are hurting, and picks us up when we fall down, he comforts us when we feel broken and he knows our every need. So, how can I deny this love God has freely given me and not freely love these innocent children. These children deserve the unconditional love God provides and I have the opportunity to have a part in that. That is when my heart broke.
These children have a hard life and God put me there to love them and bring a little joy to their day! That day in HappyLand we prayed with the children, sang songs, did a skit about Jesus’s love, and fed them. We also had a little medical kit to clean the children’s wounds. We took care of them in the ways we could.
The reality of the situation is that these kids live in a condemned area. These children are being raised in a trash dump that is not even fit to walk through. My soul just hurts… these children will never play on green grass in the backyard, they will never ride a bike down a a neighborhood street, and they will most likely always go to bed with an empty belly.
I am leaning on God for this one because there are so many variables that lead to this problem. We need God’s help and provision for this area. All I ask is that we pray for these people and these innocent children. Prayer is a mighty thing don’t underestimate it.
-V
Psalm 5:1-3
O Lord, hear me as I pray;
pay attention to my groaning.
Listen to my cry for help, my King and my God,
For I pray to no one but you.
Listen to my voice in the morning.
Lord each morning I bring my requests to you and wait expectantly.
