from the Philippines...

We are currently on a service trip in a city on the outskirts of Manila.  I was planning on waiting until we get back to China next week to post a summary of our trip.  But tonight, my heart is overflowing with joy, overwhelmed with compassion, and consumed with an urgency, a hurt for these people, and just a whole mix of emotions.  I eventually plan to sit down and sum up our days, but tonight I just feel compelled to share what's on my heart.

If you would have asked me to describe this place in 2 words on our first day, I would have said humid and impoverished.  If you asked me today (5 days later), I would say impoverished and joyous.  The poverty is so apparent, that it's impossible to ignore.  What gets me though is the huge, happy, joyous smiles on such a suffering community.  The smiles have drowned out the humidity, and I completely forget how sticky and stinky and nasty I feel until I look at my hair in the mirror.

What I love most about being here is how accepting the culture is.  They all smile, say hello, and want to be our friends.  And they speak English!  Very fluently.  The majority of them are very open to hearing about Jesus, and it's so great to be able to talk so freely about our hearts without worrying who's going to hear us and what code word we are supposed to use.  I feel like the kids at the children's home, and the street kids I see on the way to the school, and girls we go swimming with,....I feel like they are family.  Like I've known them my entire life.  I am so enamored by their acceptance and their joy.

When I look back at how we got here... to the Philippines... it's such a blur.  It all is really.  5 months ago, I hopped on a plane to China and now I'm here.  Wow.  Incredible, challenging, amazing, yet so incredibly blurry.  I heard about the Philippines trip fairly soon after we arrived in China and it instantly sounded like an opportunity that I shouldn't pass up.  It was nothing like China, though.  I didn't have this burning desire to go...  just this lingering "think about it".  As I began thinking about it, I began questioning my motives.  Why was I going?  I wasn't really sure.  I knew we would be working with orphans, which definitely drew me in.  But there was also the fact that it was the Philippines.  I mean, who wouldn't want to go to the Philippines?  And then there was the weather....  hmm...  below freezing temps or hot sunny days?  As I confessed that I wasn't sure my motives were right, the Lord instantly paved the way.  Other than humbling myself before Him, nothing on my part was done.  Amidst the blurriness, and the questioning, and the uncertainty, He brought us here, and I'm so glad He did.  I've learned so much already, and I have so much to share.  Yet my words can't do it or this or Him justice.  But I will share the highlights of what I've learned in such a short time. 

THE HUNGRY
The day after we arrived, we went on a feeding to a refugee camp to feed numerous people who had lost their homes in a storm (2 years ago, I think).  Most of these people don't have jobs because they live too far away from the city and don't have any means of transportation.  They were malnourished, dirty, yet smiling and thrilled to see us.  We were there only a short time.  But that short time, maybe an hour, changed my life forever.  The people you see on TV, who don't have food and drinking water, I met them that day.  The kids your mom told you about...  when you wouldn't eat all your dinner...  you know... "there are kids starving on the other side of the world and you are wasting your food".... I met them that day.  They are hungry and thirsty...  and they are real.  The pictures on TV give you a glimpse, but fade away shortly after.  The words from your mom... gone after dessert.  But that short hour...  though it was just a glimpse into their lives... the images, the reality of it...  will remain real. 

THE ORPHAN
The orphan children...  man, they have my heart.  Have me wrapped around their little fingers.  I knew they would.  They are fun and loving and full of life.  They go to school and play and eat and sing.  They laugh and run and jump.  And these children...  are actually very well taken care of.  They get to see a glimpse of Jesus everyday.  People care about them.  There are teams like ours here all the time.  But beneath those laughs, smiles, and bright eyes, is pain.  They are hurting children.  They pray often.  People pray with them often.  They ask me to pray that they will get a family soon.  They ask me to pray for a sponsor.  They are so young, but they are not clueless.  They know their lives are different.  They know they have a hope for something greater.  The faces you see on TV, the ones that need sponsors for just $40 a month... I saw them today.  They are real.

HOSANNA (The God Who Saves)

In the song "Hosanna" are these lyrics, lyrics I have sang repeatedly over the past several years.  I pray these lyrics, I sing these lyrics and I mean these lyrics.  But it isn't until now, as I sit here, and take it all in, and be still, and reflect on this life in the Philippines...  that I experience these lyrics:

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

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."  Matthew 25:40

One of my favorite pics so far

To be continued...