Capital Life in the Philippines

Never Under Estimate The Power….

People often ask Tim and me (Marilyn) how well the kids travel.  Taking four children age eight and under halfway around the world must seem daunting to some, however we have a secret weapon–the lollipop.  When they start to whine we pull out the lollis, and pop them in their mouths giving just enough distraction and sugar to make it through the next leg of the journey.

Unexpectedly, I’ve found myself playing nurse to the multiple scrapes and bruises the campers inevitably get along the way.  After doctoring the wound, I give them a hug and a lollipop which calms the tears.  Never underestimate the power of a lollipop.

Last Friday,  I shared a message on John 11 with a moms’ (and a few dads) Bible study group at the Sonshine Center.  The story of Lazarus wouldn’t have been my first choice, but that’s the text they asked me to use.  A dozen people received the Lord.  Over half a dozen came forward to be set free.  Never underestimate the power of the Word.

Sunday afternoon,  Tim noticed a woman with a crick in her neck.  Analina had fallen off a water buffalo as a child, and lived with misalignment and pain for years.  We layed hands on her neck, prayed, and physically felt her body realign.  Never underestimate the power of prayer.

Never underestimate the Power.

Check out our Twitter stream

We just added a link to our we twitter page. Check out the left side of the page under links.  Even if you’re not a twitter follower you can check out the page and see snippets of what we’ve been up to. We’re better at updating in 140 characters or less!

Also on Twitter

Great post by Erin!  This trip has been different than our 2009 trip but clearly God’s hand has been in it and we’ve seen so many children being reached.

Just wanted to mention that we’re also on Twitter and have been posting pretty regularly using the twitter mobile app so you can catch up with what we’ve been up to.  You don’t need a twitter account to read it.  The link is on the left side of this page conveniently under the “Links” section.

Enjoy and thanks for staying tuned.  We appreciate your prayers and support.

What is it to serve?

What is it to serve? I (Erin) have been thinking a lot about this question in the last few days. I’ve been temporarily sidelined with a reoccurance of some blistering on my feet that happened during our 2009 trip.  (Don’t worry Mom I’m taking care of them).  Anyway, I’m heeding Jude’s (she’s a nurse) advice and taking time during the day to elevate my foot and stay off it so it can heal.  What this means however is a lot of time I wanted to be doing something and I can’t.   So I’ve been thinking of all the things we’ve been doing. We’ve helped lead assembly. Led game show and performed a skit on hygiene.  We’ve helped with crafts and memory verse. We’ve thrown balls and played tag.  We’ve helped counselors with “crowd control”.  We’ve washed hands and feet. We’ve shared messages from the Word. We’ve laid hands and prayed.
And God is showing me that if we are submitted to Him, it’s all serving Him. And now that I’m restricted in my doing, it leaves me with a lot of time to pray.  But I’m restless. Why would God bring me to the other side of the world to just sit? Why can’t I just do? A little voice in my head says, couldn’t you have just prayed from home? It’s then I realized, sure I could pray at home but I wouldn’t.  Not like I can here, at home I have a 1000 things to do. Here I can look into the faces of these precious children and pray.  Pray that they would know their heavenly Father who loves them so much. Pray that they recognize that they are unique creations, individually and specifically created for a plan and a purpose. Pray that their hearts and minds might be freed from past hurts and that they would embrace the never ending supply of love from their heavenly Father.
So join us as we serve the children here in the Philippines, because no matter what side of the world your on. We can all pray.

Potential

As our plane arrived late Easter Saturday in Manila and we headed to our hotel (by then being early Easter morning), our van came to a stoplight where I was struck by potential–potential peering in our van windows in the eyes of a young boy not too much older than Samuel. Filipino children often times are involved in child labor, and this boy had tried to wash our window hoping to gain some Filipino pesos (42.7 per US dollar) to keep him going another day. Whenever these children get waived off as our driver did, they will often just move to the window and stare inside at the passengers with the saddest look they can muster hoping for a handout of any sort. It is difficult because Manila lights are about as long as some of the ones in DC, so the gazes are protracted and penetrating. Of course, we’re told to save our pesos and instead direct them to ministries that help kids like him–which is probably wise but does nothing to quench the desire to help every window washing child staring at you.
I kept thinking of what this boy could become and all the potential he has. I mean at a minimum he has some motivation, initiative and perseverance (and hunger) that drives him to try again no matter how many stoplights change without him getting one peso.
Why can’t he be one of the kids at the camps we will minister at? I know our team can’t touch every hurting and impoverished Filipino child. Frankly, it’s physically impossible. All we can hope to do is to give our best to those children at the camps He will put in our path over the next 11 days……..and pray those whose path it is to minister to this window washer do their best too.

Who has He put on your path to reach?

Here we go again!

It’s been about a year and a half since we got home from our first trip to Iloilo.  Today a few of us from the first team are headed back to the other side of the world.  Believe it or not this trip the team consists of the T-bono family and me, Erin.  The family with four kids and me on my only 2nd trip out of the country.   We’re going to give this blog thing a shot without our professional blogger Anna.  So for now they are calling our plane here at JFK and we’re on our way!

And now, this

When I was in high-school or college, I read a book or article called something like “And now, this.” (you can tell I have an excellent memory) It was about how television journalism uses that phrase to quickly move us from one story to the next. We go instantly from a story on crime or corruption to the weather or sports, like the information we receive is nothing we really need to do anything about. Just tell us what’s next and we can remain feeling good about being informed, with no real connection to the possible serious implications the previous story could mean for us. {I can’t find the book or article despite a lengthy google search, so you’re just going to have to take my word for it.}

Anyway, that phrase has been rattling around in my head since we left the Philippines. It just so happens that there’s a Winston Churchill quote that also uses the phrase and helps me express what I want to in this blog.

He said, “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

For our team, the trip to the Philippines was just the beginning, and though we are home, getting back to our lives, the work is just starting.

Yes, we had an amazing time, we were part of a great team and even accomplished some tasks that will have eternal impact. But if we leave it at that, we have only done part of what we’re called to and do a disservice to those we served with.

I asked Nate Shuck, one of the American staffers at the Sonshine Center who has been there for 7 years, what we could do as a team to give the SC team the biggest bang for their buck. What would be the best way to leave things after our two weeks there? What would be the biggest payout on the investment of their time and energy into us?

His answer was — the maintaining of relationships. Yes, we were going to go home and get back to the lives we lead here. Yes, we’ll post our pictures and tell our stories and soon be thinking about the holidays and our plans for 2010. But the challenge to us, one we have accepted, was to not let the relationships we formed get swept into the memory folder.

The internet, especially Facebook, helps immensely with this, making it easy to stay in touch. But we must also purpose to continue praying, giving and going. Maybe we’ll never go back to the Philippines, though most of us want to, but maybe we’ll influence others to go or give or pray and then we become what the military calls “force multipliers.”

So what will become of this blog? Well, I plan to keep linked into what the Sonshine Center is doing and provide the readers here with updates on projects such as the feeding project at the dump, and other community development projects the Center  is working on. One of the staffers, Rodney, is starting a Bible school at the Center next year, so I expect to be able to let you know about that and how to be involved.

The posts won’t be as frequent as they were during our trip, but will you accept part of our challenge and stay tuned in? Consider enlarging your investment of reading the blog and praying for us to connecting with the staff at the Sonshine Center and praying for and supporting them.

Let’s not move on so quickly to the traffic or entertainment news this time. Let’s expand what 13 people did and saw in two weeks to a lifetime of relationship and community that doesn’t stop here.

Are you in?

Sarah’s New Bracelet

Do we have a story for you!

Today before checking out of the hotel in Roxas, one of our team members decided she wanted a little more time in the pool. Little did she know she’d get to take a piece of it home with her.

Our dear Sarah found an interesting hole and found that her hand fit right into it. Unfortunately, it did not fit right out of it. The suction had pulled her hand just past a smaller ring and she couldn’t get it back out.

It took several people manually bailing water out of the pool to get the water level down past the hole (about a foot) so they could get Vaseline in around her wrist so she could turn it and they could break the pipe ring from the side of the pool. Fortunately it was only on the second step down where the water was shallow and Sarah could sit while they worked to free her arm.

She was stuck for about an hour and I must say she was extraordinary throughout it. I mean, she had some fits, but mostly because she was upset she couldn’t play the game she had been playing before she got stuck. Tim and Marilyn were also so calm, keeping her warm and distracted from the severity of the situation.

When she was free, her hand was swollen and bruised, but she had feeling and movement and a big smile!

Once we got back to Iloilo, they took her to a doctor who said it looked good, but may take up to a week for the swelling to go down. Meanwhile, Sarah is excited to decorate her new bracelet with blue shells.

Here are some pics of our little hero and near the center pool shot, you can see the white plug where the hole used to be.

For Boys and Girls

Here are the headlines – For the Boys (and “D”s)

- Monday and Tuesday we helped the always amazing Sonshine Center crew do another Camp Sonshine in Roxas City

- At least 10 churches partnered with us here and around 160-170 children attended

- This camp was more challenging for most of the CLC team than the first one (for the reason why see the girl version below), but it had an excellent ending

- This is the seafood capital of the Philippines and we have eaten alot of seafood. I take my team’s word for it that the shrimp, scallops, oysters, squid, and catfish were delicious and I can attest that the blue marlin and chicken were tasty

- Today (Wednesday) was an “off” day and we toured the biggest bell in the Asia and a butterfly farm and went shell shopping

- At dinner we thanked and prayed over the team we’ve been working with here, since it will be the last time we’re all together

- A good time was had by all

Here are the juicy details -For the Girls (and “i”s)

Since there is a booming seafood industry here, the affluence is reflected in the children who attended the camp this week. And by children, I mean families. Because these kids brought their nannies (ya-yas) and sometimes both parents with them, and some stayed (mostly in the background) all day. This made for a very interesting dynamic for the counselors and staff. And when I say interesting, I mean frustrating. It seemed the kids were always running to their ya-yas for drinks, snacks or just cause they didn’t want to do what we were asking them to do.

It was a common, though not unanimous, feeling among our team that it was harder to connect with or feel compassion for the kids here because they were dressed better, were clean and were better educated than the kids from our first camp. So after the first day we were exhausted in a non-fulfilling kind of way, fighting critical and comparative thoughts.

But God.

In His great mercy and loving-kindness He showed us His love for all His children. Even the spoiled and rich ones. And by spoiled and rich ones, I mean me. Who am I to determine through these human lenses which kids deserve more of my time and attention? Who am I to decide it’s worth it to bear the heat and bugs for poor kids, but not to tolerate the chaos and energy of kids whose parents work hard to provide for them? Who am I to decide that the mommies and ya-yas should stay out of the way and let us do our job of ministering to their kids?

In the end, we learned that if we are motivated or led to action by anything BUT God, it will fade or fail. If we view our work or purpose through any other point-of-view than the eternal one, we’ll be misguided and quickly lost.

At the end of both camps, we had the opportunity to pray over the kids. The pastor didn’t give an altar call, per se, but he asked the kids to raise their hands if they wanted to live for Jesus and worship God with all their parts (the theme of the camp, in case you missed that blog). Then about 30 of us counselors go at it and speak life and blessing over the kids, which both times has been moving and powerful. The kids probably don’t understand what we Americans are praying over them, but that doesn’t lessen the impact. We know we are touching eternity in our prayers. And if that’s what we came all the way to the Philippines to do, to just say a prayer over this or that child at the end of a camp, then that is enough.

We obviously came to do alot more than that, like going to see the largest bell in Asia and a butterfly farm.

Yeah, so getting ready for today and all our days until we go home was a shift in purpose. We don’t have scheduled ministry. Just being together, shopping and eating and looking at butterflies. I know what you’re thinking, “But, Anna, just being with you IS ministry!” And to that I say, “Awww, thanks, you’re so sweet and also right.”

But seriously. What if that was the way we all (you included) got up and ready for the day? What if I viewed my crowded ride in the jeepney, a long walk in the rain down the beach or my third rice meal of the day with as much eager anticipation as showing children the love of Jesus? What if I got that excited about showing my teammates (or co-workers or husband…) the love of Jesus?

One of the memory verses we taught the kids as part of worshiping God with their hands is Ecclesiastes 9:10a “Whatever your hands find to do, do it with all your might.” So today we learned that when our hands found fellowship and rest, and even tourist-ing, we could do that with all our might.

Well, boys and girls, thanks as always for reading, praying and joining us on our journey. I hope you feel God is using you here as much as you feel He is using us. We are One family, working together in the Harvest.

PS- The D and i are references to the DiSC personality assessment. Brenda B will get it.
(I guess I will also add that “S”es will probably read both versions of the story and like them equally, while “C”s read both and found ways to say it better.)

Short and sweet

Tonight my special guests are Parish, Joe and Mark. Here are their thoughts on our Roxas camp.

Parish: We finished our last day of camp today and went to eat at a fresh seafood restaurant on the beach.

Joe: I had a kid named Christian hanging on me for both days, he kept asking me when we were going swimming.

Mark: I enjoyed listening to the kids as they had fun watching the video. (For both camps, Mark has made the kids a video of their experience and we’ve shown it to them right before they go home.)

And just so you readers know, our team LOVES it when you comment. Every time anyone sees me with my iPhone (which I blog from), they ask if there are any new comments, and then we pass the phone around to read them all.

Here’s a closing shot of our camp this week. (Thanks to Benjy)