I just finished nearly 22 hours of transit from Manila, Philippines to Orange County, California. Luckily, I was able to get some sleep on the plane, but it definitely wasn’t the ideal conditions. On my first flight from Manila to Seoul, it looked like I was the only white person around, which is what I’m pretty much used to. However, when I got on the plane, I saw that I wasn’t the only non-Asian, because in the seat next to me was a white lady. I don’t know if they just plan to seat the westerners next to each other, but it never fails that I’m always seated next to the only other one on the flight. Funny how that works.
All I really wanted to do on the flight was sleep, and even though we had this unique connection, I could tell that’s all my seat mate wanted as well. It wasn’t until we were standing up to leave the plane that the conversation finally started. She actually started the conversation by asking me what I was up to in Manila. I told her a little about the children’s home and how I’ve been working down in Mindinao and even a little about the businesses and job creating ideas we’ve recently had. She immediately perked up and we started a conversation that led us all the way to our connecting gates that happened to be beside each other.
Joanne has been working in the Philippines for the last three years and is one of the first white people I’ve seen speak perfect Tagalog (the national Filipino language), so that was fun for me. She told me a little about her ministries and how she even has a daughter that will be coming with her next to hopefully set up a restaurant to create a few more jobs for the locals. We bonded over our hearts for the Filipino people and finding a legitimate way to help them and not just enable the bulk of the population that has resigned themselves to begging. However, the true connection came when we started talking about the Kingdom of God and how we get to be a part of this incredible movement.
The one regret Joanne had that she kind of envied me on was that she hadn’t started 20 years earlier. Now, the fun part for her is being able to do this with some of her kids that are at the age of starting careers, but she couldn’t help but think about what it would’ve been like to just start right into this kind of lifestyle. I was able to shed a little light into that since that’s exactly what I’ve done, but I can’t even imagine looking back on this decision 20 years from now and seeing what it’s like. While I may never have a normal American life or a “steady job”, I don’t think this is ever a decision that I could regret.
Joanne was able to tell me a little bit about her ministry opportunities and share the good news with me that they had just bought land. Securing land out there can definitely be a hardship, especially for foreigners that don’t have any “well-off” Filipino friends. Her ideas have been through a long process and she’s spent days on flights back and forth, but the doors are opening for her dream to be realized out there. As her land is secured, jobs can start being provided and Filipinos can get the chance to support themselves. Part of that whole “teach a man to fish” mentality.
As we parted ways, I was thankful for my brief time with Joanne because it was nice to hear another American that wasn’t just showing up and trying to fix everything. It’s was cool to even think about the body of Christ just within the Philippines and to able to encourage another worker that it’s worth it. There’s a lot going on out there in the Philippines and there’s even more going on throughout the world. There is so much to be a part of and I love knowing I’m not alone. The longer I’m away, the more I realize how big this world really is. It can be so small relationally as I travel and get to know people, but there is still so much to do and this world is more than big enough to give us all plenty to do.
