Learning to Share...All Over Again

Hi family and friends!

It's been a wild couple of weeks!! My beloved childhood buddy Mike Goerz came to visit me for 10 days after doing a mission stint in Rwanda (...and it sounds like International Teams is doing great work there!). I was able to show him our ministries here in Metro Manila, and he's been a great help to us - especially with regards to bringing the children from our daycare/school on the "ultimate field trip". I can only call it "ultimate" (and/or epic) because we went to three big venues in one day. The first was Museo Pambata - a children's musem in Manila which we took the kids from Sucat to back in March. Aside from the following pictures, I'd love for you to also enjoy a video that might give you an idea of how fun this trip was for the kids...

This is what happens when you take our kids to a museum.


Teacher Toph and the kids explore the passageways
of the human body...just like in The Magic School Bus!


Ally takes Teacher Tin Tin, Jet Jet, and Bernadette for a ride!

The second location we brought our students to is called Manila Ocean Park. If you ever get the chance to come to Manila, I strongly recommend checking it out! The whole of the Philippines is encompassed by something called the "Coral Triangle" - an area identified as the most diverse marine ecosystem on our planet. I experienced as much awe and wonder as the kids did as we admired all kinds of marine life from above, alongside, and even underneath aquariums as we walked through a glass-enclosed underwater tunnel.

Sharks are SO cool, and it's also cool to imitate them.

And finally, we took the students to enjoy a hearty meal at Jollibee's (a popular restaurant-chain in the Philippines). After they ate as much as they could - and then a little more - we dropped each child off in the squatter communities where they live. We had fun counting down the number of children still awake as they each fell asleep, one at a time, on the ride back home in a rented jeepney.

Gab Gab has his game-face on - it's spaghetti-devouring time!

Lawrence conks out, and Nicole is soon to follow.

Mike was also able to help out with our feeding program in the Sucat community. Already, the children are asking "Where's Kuya Mike?" (or in English, "Where's big brother Mike?"), and "When will he come back?." There was a moment that I had an epiphany when Mike and I were hanging out with the Sucat kids, and I had been talking with them in straight-Tagalog for about 10 minutes (mostly answering questions about the new guy). I realized that I'm really feeling more and more like a part of the community there. The children and I miss each other when we're gone, we share a lot of our lives with each other (including meals, prayers, fun and games), and we can easily converse with each other now in the same language. I also feel the same way about the kids in our daycare/school and in our Saturday morning street children's program.

The Sucat kids love Kuya Mike.

Fearless street kids enjoy Jared's super-human strength.

Learning, teaching, and especially sharing what I can with the Filipino street children is one of the greatest blessings and challenges I've ever experienced! We were all once children ourselves (if you can look back to that time - even though it's a little further back for some, ;) sorry). We were also once taught for the first time to share with others. Sharing is such an important concept for children to grasp, and how amazing it must be when a parent witnesses their child genuinely and selflessly sharing even a snack or a toy for the first time. I wonder if somewhere along the way, between childhood and adulthood, that ingrained concept of sharing gets a little fuzzy. Maybe we don't lose it, but if we look at ourselves on the level of a global-community, we seem to have a hard time noticing some of those children in the corner of the room that never did have a snack or a toy. Laying blame or guilt on anyone surely can't be the best way to solve the problem, but maybe moving someone's heart to recognize the mutual joy and gains achieved through compassion and grace is a better solution, as it always was. From a Christian perspective, the example is Christ (through whom God himself humbly came to the world to free people from themselves and to move their hearts and exemplify what it means to love selflessly). From almost any perspective, I like to believe that these ideas of selflessness and sharing are so highly regarded! For myself, I know that I have a LOT more to share with the children here. Maybe I have only scratched the surface. Please pray with me that I will be able to share more and more as I grow personally and in my relationships here in the Philippines.

Thanks so much for reading! Take care!

They put their pain, their heart, their faith in this...

Hi there family and friends!

Sorry it's been a little while since I've had the chance to write! I just returned from a four-day mission to a place in the Philippines called Tiaong, Quezon Province. However, before I share about that, I want to share something else first that's really been weighing on my mind lately. Sometimes I'm overwhelmed with how I blessed I am that I have the opportunity to serve the poor in another country. I wonder if it would even be possible without all the support that I get both financially and prayerfully. I can't thank you enough for your support. Really, with all my heart, thank you!

What I want to share though is a much more powerful testimony than my own - and that is the testimony of the Filipinos I'm working alongside with. They are the ones who have literally given up everything to serve full-time. They serve without any financial support. They are the ones whose faith and resilience humble me each day. You've seen some them in my photos...Tin Tin, Toph, Cecile (in Sucat), etc, etc. Some of them are single mothers, some of them don't have a home of their own, and some of them go for days without eating, even as they feed the street children daily. Often humility and embarrassment keeps them from telling me about these realities about their lives, and they are too afraid to ask for help. But the truth is that they need financial help and support more than I do. Although they will have a great reward and a future in God, that doesn't mean they need to suffer now. So I'm asking if anyone of you has any spare income to share with these so deserving, please email me at johndlcoffey@gmail.com and I can give you more info and answer any questions about how you can help. Fifty dollars a month or less would make a great impact for these missionaries so they can take care of themselves and in turn take care of their ministries. They also have facebook and email so they would personally keep you informed and updated on their ministries. Also, as their stories from their point-of-view often go untold, I've helped one of them start her own blog that you can also check out here - tintinramos.blogspot.com

...back to what I've been up to...On the short-term trip to Tiaong that I just returned from, we brought a team of Filipino youth from four different churches in Manila to experience serving the poor in a different community. Most of these youth come from strained financial situations themselves, but they took initiative even in raising their own funds to support their transportation and food on the mission. I was also amazed how quickly everyone grew very close, and the unity that resulted allowed us to accomplish so much in just four days.

One of our tasks was a "beautification project". We divided our youth into four groups (one led by myself, another led by Jared), and we spent two days cleaning up the community from dawn until dusk. The attitude of humility and joyful willingness that I witnessed was a powerful testimony of what happens when people choose to give of themselves as servants. I was reminded of the story of Jesus washing the very feet of his closest followers as I witnessed pastors and leaders painting for hours under the hot sun, scrubbing toilets, and even trudging through mud to collect garbage.


One of the centers of this community is a small church led by a Filipino pastor and his wife from Manila. They are actually working part-time, and thus through the church they are able to aid the community through feedings for children, college scholarship programs for youth, and of course weekly services and activities. I know there are many people around the globe who are skeptical about the motives of the church, including it's effectiveness in helping the community, and I only pray that they could see the example of a church like this. Though this church is almost 10 years old, it still needed a lot of work. We helped out by painting it and providing some finishing touches on the construction.

Finally, on our last day we ran a program for the children in the community. Although most children there work in the rice fields all day on Saturday (because they don't have school that day), almost 100 kids came out. We taught several songs, played some games and activities, and provided a healthy meal. I was moved when one of the young girls gave me her craft to keep and told me that I could have it to remember her by.


Thanks again for reading! I'll just leave you with some pictures of the incredible scenery in Tiaong, Quezon Province...