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Our third full day in the Philippines brought a range of emotions as we moved from spending time in Manila to another island, Cebu. We flew early in the morning into Cebu City, which is the second largest city in the Philippines (800K people) and located on the eastern shore of Cebu Island. Lots of old history in this town as it was the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines during their almost 300 years of occupying the islands (you can still feel the impact here in the language and people.)
Moments from our day:
- Had a lunch with some LDPs that are finishing up their studies at the university here in Cebu…in a very established mall that would be a nice place at any location in the states. Some of the guys even grabbed a Starbucks after lunch. You see a lot of the western influence in many of the popular chains that we would have in the states (McDonalds, Seattle’s Best, Wendy’s, KFC, Papa Johns, Johnny Rockets, etc.)
- We then traveled to the Loving My Neighbor Student Center that is at the Cebu City Alliance Church. Upon arrival the kids greeted us and they placed seashell leis that they had made on each one of us and gave us a welcome and a smile. We then were able to go into the church building (one that has grown significantly the last 10 years do to the presence of Compassion and the project growing to 600 children.)
- Jeff and Jourdan Johnson lead us in worship. Introduced Jeff and told them he had been an American Idol contestant (pastor told me that a bunch of the boys were goggling him later to try to find him.) They did a great job of leading and the older teenagers jumped in on Blessed Be Your Name. Jourdan also lead us in Hosanna in what I think was a powerful moment for her. These words were rich for us in this little church that shares a wall with a brothel, “Heal my heart and make it clean, Open up my eyes to the things unseen, Show me how to love like You have loved me, Break my heart for what breaks Yours, Everything I am for Your Kingdom’s cause, As I walk from earth into eternity”
- During the program the kids lead us in worship and shared testimonies and one 9-year old cutie shared Psalm 139 from memory (that she began memorizing a week ago.) It was a powerful moment and we were all so proud of her and I think a little convicted for ourselves and our children (both personally and in the church in the states.) Don’t miss the power of Psalm 139 from this girl that we would later realize she was living in a cemetery. You have searched me, LORD, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, LORD, know it completely. You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. or you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand—when I awake, I am still with you. If only you, God, would slay the wicked! Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty! They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. Do I not hate those who hate you, LORD, and abhor those who are in rebellion against you? I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies. Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
- After our program we spent some time connecting with the kids and serving ice cream (Ed Newton got after it.)
- Then it was time for our home visits and we split into five groups and headed to a cementary where over 300 of the 600 kids live. I have experienced the Tomb Dwellers before in a different area of the Philippines, but it is not something that you can every fully comprehend as it is beyond bad. You simply slip through a small opening off a highly crowded street and walk into an entire subculture that has 500 families living in what are numbered at 329 structures of a 9000 square meter area. People are doing what every they can for homes making tombs into beds, tables, walls for their houses, entertainment areas that included men playing pool, basketball, cards and various other games. Noises, smells and sewage everywhere and kids with barely any clothes on living in the same area as their chickens, pigs or goats. A lot of the team began asking questions and wondering how this could be. I guess the truth is when you have nowhere else to go you go where no one goes. It was and is bad. Becca and I along with Kristian and Kerri Stanfill visited a small home of Kenith Lamdag that has been in the Compassion program for 6 years and has sponsors that he knew by name from Australia. He lived in this little dirty, leaky area with his father who has no work and two siblings. His mom was a way doing some work in another country and left us with some questions about what has really happened to her.
- We spent some time walking through the area and having kids ask us to bless them (a traditional touching of the forehead) and simply wanting to laugh and say hello and a few giving us the middle finger as they play and don’t really know what they are doing. As we were leaving Kristian and I walked by a lady’s little house as she danced around the kitchen listening to a Chris Tomlin song. Was a nice light-hearted moment. Then each of our smaller groups slid back out of the walls, through the streets and to the bus to process with a full and heavy heart.
I am continually so thankful for how Compassion is equipping the local church to make major impact in the community and equipping them to be advance the Kingdom one child and one family at a time.
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