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Philippines Trip 2007
The CA Team helped with the distribution of groceries, feeding children, medical and dental activities plus home visits to share and confirm the love of Christ at four different feeding centers of MLBC which serve about 1,200 poor and needy families.
My heart was stirred to be part of a mission trip to Philippines a while back when Dale Walker showed a video at CA. I watched as a boy in the video picked up a piece of chicken from the trash and began eating it. I wept all thru the rest of the video.
Going back to the Philippines as part of missionary team seemed unreal to me. I had mixed feelings about things. I didn't know how I would react while I was there. As a person born in The Philippines, I had a pretty good idea why some of my countrymen were in such a state of poverty. I saw it in my own family. They claimed poverty yet they all own cell phones.
I don't want to be judgmental because this was not the reason I was going there in the first place. I had been on other outreaches such as Mexico and Skid Row, but going to my own country was personal.
At first I felt weird inside, but that changed after we made a home visit. I had a chance to sit and listen to each family's situation; meet the members of the family, see their living quarters, and learn about their deep faith in GOD. I was able to share my own personal story so that it might give them hope in knowing that their situation was only temporary and I was a prime example of it. God took care of me; brought me out homelessness, joblessness and abuse at a time when I didn't even know GOD.
I was also able to meet some of the kids that CA and Tommy Walker were supporting through the Breakthrough Scholarship Program. I thank CA for the continued support of their PI ministry.
I met a lady name Nicole, who has 5 children and a husband that is an alcoholic, he doesn't work. She makes her living by washing clothes for people in the better neighborhoods. She makes $2.00 dollars a day, which doesn't leave very much money left for her to pay for the bus fare for her kids to attend school. It costs $1.00 dollar a day for them to go to school and back for 3 of the eldest ones. So she had to make a hard choice, to feed them or to educate them. Guess which choice she made, to feed them which of course is the right thing to do.
After listening to her story I invited her to come to the service at Pastor Carlos' church, I said that she needed something that was much bigger then her situation and that something was Jesus. That afternoon I was surprised to see her standing by the entrance waiting for me to arrive, she asked to sit with me because she had never attended this church before, so I asked another person on the team who spoke Tagalog to sit with me so she can interpret for me. After listing to the message given by the pastor, he gave an invitation. The lady turned around and said she was ready to give her life to the Lord. My team mate and I had the pleasure of praying the sinner's prayer with Nicole and leading her to Jesus. Praise God, he did it all. The lady just wanted someone to listen to her and to have compassion for what she was going through.
Because of your prayers and support, God did many amazing things on the recent Philippine outreach. I thank you very much for your prayers, generosity, and support. Please pray that, together, God will continue to use us mightily to give hope and a future to thousands of our kababayans (fellow Filipinos), who are without Christ---lost...hurting...broken. The aim of the CA Philippines Team is to see God do amazing turnarounds and life-changing breakthroughs in these lives. "We want to give God's very best to those who have the very least." Again, Maraming Salamat Po! (Thank you very much).
Sitio Veterans, Payatas is the main children's feeding center, with 800 children registered under MLBC feeding program for severely malnourished children. The Ministries of the Living Body of Christ Church, lead by Steve Mirpuri, is sponsored by our church, Christian Assembly, under the supervision of Far East Broadcasting Company (FEBC).
Many of these children are now out of danger from severe malnourishment. They had primary complex, scabs, anemia, and retarded growth due to their condition. Pastor Steve found them in the streets, slum areas, and dumpsites and nurtured them together with their parents in his churches in the communities of Sitio Veterans, Payatas, Commonwealth and Imelda.
They live in desperate poverty, suffering from poor health and often victims of drug abuse and abusive parents. The church and foundation (MLBC/FEBC) that Christian Assembly supports is considered a gold mine for these kids-- they've found love, a source of food and shelter, and most of all, they have found Christ. At present, our Breakthrough Scholarship supports the education of about 48 children from elementary school to college.
One 16-year old former drug addict told me that God loves people like them. He said," God chooses the best people not only to help us have food and nourishment for our bodies but find food for our spirits as well. I feel God's love everyday and that is enough-God's love!" Analyzing his answer, he meant to say--- "there is prosperity in the midst of poverty. That this is much more than poverty in the midst of prosperity that many of the rich kids his age suffer. Glory to God!
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