Hi there!

November is coming to an end, and everyone here is buzzing with excitement for Christmas. In fact, Christmas music was playing in the malls when I first arrived at the beginning of November. My team (the YM or "Youth Mobilization" Team) is also very excited for the many Christmas parties we will run starting this week. We will be hosting these parties for the children in particularly impoverished communities, including communities that have been affected by the recent typhoon. On Monday, our team will go on a 3-day trip to some rural communities in Botolan and Kanawan...there we will have a medical mission and a few Christmas parties.

Here's an update on what I've been up to for the last week though. Each day, I commuted by bus to Alabang (which is a one-hour ride from my place in Makati...both places are part of Metro Manila). In Alabang, one of our sister teams under International Teams runs a ministry called IT Tender (led by Pastor John - who is the best friend of the leader of my team, Pastor Joshua). I was able to help out with their weekly routine.

Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoon we provided a healthy meal to the street children in the community. IT Tender also provides a program for them which typically includes songs, games, and bible lessons. Every Tuesday and Thursday night, a squatter community living underneath an overpass comes to the IT Tender Center. We enjoyed meals with them, along with songs and fellowship. They each also took turns having a bath in the washroom (their only opportunity for a proper bath). This week, IT Tender provided a three-day seminar for mothers in the community which taught cooking, hygiene tips, and family planning. A government worker from the nearby Health Center volunteered her time to come help teach the seminar. Every Thursday afternoon, the Tender team goes to a very poor squatter community and provides food and a program for the children. I had the opportunity to organize a game and lead a song in Tagalog with those children (...believe it or not, I memorized all the lyrics and guitar chords for my first Tagalog song! yes, I'm very proud of that). On Saturday we provided groceries for families affected by the typhoon. Although right after the typhoon, the government provided food for families that were displaced from their homes and who came to government-run shelters, but many families decided to stay in their flooded homes and weren't provided with any aid. Pastor John recognized this and decided to create this grocery plan for them (I was able to help him shop for the groceries and package them). FINALLY, on Sunday we took thirteen kids from Alabang to the Manila Zoo for the day, which was great fun not only for them, but for me too, :).

Here are some pics from those experiences for you to enjoy...

A father and daughter from the squatter community living under an overpass who came to enjoy a meal, a bath, and some fellowship.

The groceries we packed for victims of the typhoon.

Enjoying a boat ride at the Manila Zoo.

Magandang umaga! ("Good morning!" - in Tagalog)

I've just returned to my apartment after staying one week in the city of Caloocan. My Filipino friend Mackie lent me his camera, so you can see pictures of my ministries there! As you can see, Caloocan is another impoverished area brimming with tightly packed shanties...
For the week, I volunteered in a church called Light of Men. The pastor (Pastora Betty) is also a teacher, and the church provides free schooling for the children in the area. This is a huge deal, because most schools here require a tuition fee that poor families simply cannot afford. I was able to help out at the school each day. In the morning during school, we provided a meal for the school children. Each afternoon, we provided a meal for all the children in the area (over 70 children).



Here are some other tidbits on what I was up to in Caloocan... Upon request from the pastor, I led a prayer meeting every morning at 5:30 am (yes, 5:30 am!!). In the evenings, I enjoyed fellowship and worship with the youth. The church basketball team had a game one evening (basketball is the most popular sport here), and I was their "stand-in coach"...of course, we won. Also, my newfound friends took me on many tours of the area to meet with various families in their homes - I heard many inspiring and heartbreaking stories of poverty, corruption, and redemption on these trips.

Tonight I'm attending a free concert in Manila with some of the friends I met in Cavite. Then starting tomorrow, I will be going to Alabang city each day for one week. I will actually come back to my apartment each evening, as it's not too far of a commute. Hopefully that will give me the chance to communicate with some of you personally by email/skype/facebook this week!

Take care!

Cavite City

Hi friends & family!

I've spent the last week in Cavite City (a few hours drive from Manila) on the first stop of my "mission-work tour". There were two main goals to accomplish in Cavite: firstly to feed the street children and secondly to assist in a small, one-room school.

Thanks to the donations from my supporters, I was able to fund a feeding for street children everyday from Tuesday to Saturday. The kids arrived at the church at 4pm, and with the much-needed help of the church members, I led games, songs, stories, and of course, we provided a meal. On the first day, 40 hungry but energetic kids turned out. By the last day, 75 kids came and packed the church!! Every single child was fed, and I could see the joy they experienced from the games and songs. Each morning, I assisted the teacher in the preschool-gr.2 one-room school in the church. I taught phonics for their English and read a story everyday (which was translated into Tagalog by the teacher).

Unfortunately, I can't show pictures of these experiences, as my digital camera was stolen midway through the week. On the bright side, whoever took it surely needs it more than I do (they'll likely sell it). As sad as I was to lose it, I actually found I was more present with the children for the rest of the week - I wasn't distracted with taking the best picture, but I was fully engaged in the activities.

Let me rewind to the start of the week though...when I first arrived in Cavite, I was truly terrified. I was dropped off at a church in the slums, but my friends in Manila told me I'd be taken care of by the people there. My room was small and dank with bare concrete walls. My bed was a few wooden benches pushed together with a blanked laid on top. My roommates were ants, mosquitoes, and cockroaches. While the church had a toilet, there was no seat, no lever to flush it, and no toilet paper. And for bathing, they provided a bucket and a scooper to pour the water on myself. All of this sounds negative, but really, it was a blessing for this experience to breakdown my heavily ingrained wants for comfort and indulgences. The truth is that the Filipinos in this church took wonderful care of me during my stay. They provided a personal aide named Edmond - the 28-year old caretaker of the church and supply teacher in the one-room school. He always made sure I was content, safe, and well-fed. By their standards, they were truly pampering me. I'm very thankful for that.

While I don't have time here for many stories, let me just give some background on Edmond. He works full-time in the church for 150 pesos a week ($3.50 Cdn) - enough for him to eat three days a week (the other days he goes home to his parents' for meals). This is all the church can afford to pay him, but he's so happy to serve the community in this way. He was once a gang leader and still has permanent scars from those days. He explained how the slums in Cavite are entrenched not only in poverty, but in crime, gambling, addiction, rape, and prostition (eg. prostition is the "norm", not the exception, for girls as young as 15). These things and poverty are so interconnected, but I can't say poverty leads to crime. Surely it puts pressure on people to act out of desperation or depression though. Edmond is poor, but is so good and compassionate. I respect that him and the church here want to offer not only feedings and schooling, but of course they offer something spiritually. This gives the people who are feeling hopeless something encouraging and bigger to live for, and is often the reason why people like Edmond now give more than he would take back when he was a gang leader. I hope that those who don't agree with religion can still recognize how this can be a good thing. Personally, I'm trying to serve and feed the poor with no strings attached (with no religious pressures), but I do appreciate helping people in every facet of their live - physically and spiritually.

Anyways, thanks for reading this essay! All my posts won't be this long, but I decided to write so much because tomorrow I'm leaving again to another city (called Caloocan) for a week.

My Crazy November

Hi there! I'm finally here in Manila, Philippines, and it's so amazing to be welcomed with countless hugs from the friends I've made on my previous trips here. I already miss everyone back at home, but it's nice to have a second home here.

After a brief couple days to settle into my apartment, I'm actually leaving this Sunday and going on the road for the month of November! Each week, for the next 3 weeks, I'll be in a different city and I'll be living with a different host family while volunteering at a local preschool/day-care for children in poverty. I've been asked to teach one lesson or activity each day at the various preschools...and I have just tomorrow (Saturday) to prepare! Talk about being thrown into the mission field head-first!

Also, while I'll be dropped off in each city by friends, I will actually not be working with anyone from my regular team during these 3 weeks. I'm going solo on this adventure. This experience will thus not only be great for some exposure to a variety of educational environments in the Philippines, but I'll also be submerged in Filipino culture and encouraged to make new friends. I will definitely be stretched to new limits this month. But on November 28th I will return to my apartment, and things will settle down a little. Don't be nervous if you do not hear from me much in the next 3 weeks, I will be in good hands with my host families. I will surely have some great stories after this adventure!!

Take care, and pray that I will have the energy and strength to serve the children I'll be meeting and teaching this month!