Stepping off of that plane that evening was a huge relief taken off of my shoulders. The first step to a new place, a new ministry, a new life for three months. The humidity was stand-able, and actually reminded me of home a lot. Walking through the airport, my service turned on and I was able to start messaging my family and talking to them. As we’re waiting for our bus to turn up, I rest my eyes in between waiting for message responses and soon our bus turns up. It takes us and 4 other teams to a place called Kids International Ministries for two rest days before we split from the large group and go to our own ministry. We spend the two days playing in the pool, sliding down the water slide, jumping from a 3 story ledge into the pool, and going to the mall to find the small comforts of Krispy Kreme and Starbucks.
Our time to leave comes, and we realize that we won’t see anybody from the large group for 6 weeks, as they are a 28-hour bus ride away, and we hug each other and give each other wishes and prayers of safe travel. Our small team of 7, and our squad leader, Hilary, hops into the back of a van and rides towards our next ministry. We don’t know what to expect when we arrive, except that there’s gonna be street boys who live there and that we’re gonna have a decent place to sleep. When we get to Children’s Garden, there’s several boys waiting outside for us to help with our bags. They take all of us girl’s bags to our new room, which has 5 beds, each with their own colorful sheets on them with pillowcases to match. Above one of the beds on a wall is a sign that says “Welcome to CG World Racers”
After we put our packs down and each of us claim a bed, Ate (at-eh) Sharon asks us to come downstairs and meet all the boys. Little did we know that they had games and food prepared for us, and that we were going to try some.. interesting foods.
We get down there and start talking to the boys and girls who live at Children’s Garden. We eat and when we finish, it’s time to introduce ourselves. We go down the line and when we finish, it’s time to play a game. When Jen and Abi’s team wins, we move on to learn a traditional Filipino dance, which was fun. Lastly, we are to try Balut. Which, for those of you who don’t know, is a partially fertilized duck egg, which is then boiled and eaten. So basically, you’re eating a baby duck that was never hatched. Literally. You eat the beak, feathers, and feet, the whole shabang. I didn’t eat it. Soon it was time to go to bed, so we headed upstairs and took in our new home. We unpacked a few things, clothes, mostly, and prepared for the next day, as we were expected to start ministry. We all praised God because He answered so many of our seemingly meaningless prayers. For example: I prayed for an electric kettle, an iron, and a toaster oven. Our home has all of those things. We also prayed to be out of seclusion, and we got that. We now live surrounded by people and only 10 minutes out of town. Many of our prayers were answered, and we are so blessed to have been given this ministry.
Thank you all who were praying for us, it means the world to me. Please continue to pray for me and my team as we get closer to debrief and team changes. Thanks!
