Because of Jesus

Wow! What a week! We are filled with joy and thanksgiving at what God has done through four Christmas parties this past week. First, we want to thank everyone for all their prayers and support for these events. Our first party was held in Smokey Mountain, which is an old dump site in Manila. It was a very chaotic party in the rain but the message of Jesus Christ was told clearly through a puppet show in Tagalog to 600 children and their parents. God's blessings of gift bags and groceries were received with great joy.

Saturday morning at 2am we packed a truck with gifts and games and headed to Olongapo, a city outside of Manila. In Olongapo we partnered with ten of the local churches to hold another party for 600 children and their parents. These churches are located in the poorer areas of the city. Each child again received a gift bag and each family a grocery bag. We wish you could have seen the huge smiles as the kids pulled items out of their bags one by one and showed it off to the person beside them. Kids were playing with their toys around the entire arena and my personal favourite was the 20 + boys in the middle of the arena pushing, zooming and of course crashing their Hotwheels. It was priceless.

Our favourite party was held in a tribe in Kanawan. You might remember this place as we had wrote several months ago about a dvbs we held there. Anyways, the same day as the party in Olangapo we went to Kanawan. When we arrived, there were at least 30+ men from the tribe and dozens of beautiful children that met us at the road and carried all of our 200 bags of toys & food up the mountain on a fairly steep, circuitous trail to the village. We would have never been able to get everything up there without them. Even the kids were eager to help carry our packs. We were exhausted once up there from our early morning and full day but the kids were so excited to see us. We played and talked with them for hours. That night we had a great sleep in our tent and woke up to the kids peeking in our window. The women cooked all the meals for our team in kettles over open fires. The food there always tastes so good! Sunday morning we attended the village's outgrown church. It was such a blessing. The joy of the Lord was very evident! That night we had a bonfire with the people of the village. We played games and did dance presentations (yes, even we danced....it was a team thing). Some of the kids and women from the tribe danced their traditional tribal dance. The next day (Monday) we had a party for the 200 kids (from the tribe and from the school). We again had games for the kids and presented the gospel message through a puppet show. The kids loved their gift bags, especially the sunglasses, beanie babies and Hotwheel cars! The boys were racing the cars down an incline, boys & girls were wearing their new sunglasses and placing them on the front of their heads when not in use. Aside from toys they also received flip flops and an umbrella. Of course they loved everything that was given to them. When it was time to leave, the children plus many adults helped carry all our luggage etc. back down the mountain to the road where the vehicles were waiting.
**The little girl (Esmeralda) sitting alone in the picture by the wall had just won a prize in a game. While all the other kids were still playing games she sat all alone to play with her new toy.



























Once we got home we crashed from all the traveling. Then the next day we had a fellowship with all of the partner churches of Youth Mobilization. It was a fun event and a way to just thank the churches for their support over the past year.

The next day we had the Mercy Ministry party. This year we held it at Jollibee which is a popular fast food restaurant here. This was a smaller party compared to the rest with 139 people. We played games, had a few presentations by the youth and some parents and our team leader Joshua gave a gospel presentation. After he spoke 19 people went to the front as a sign that they wanted to make Jesus Lord of their lives. A grocery bag was given to each family, a gift bag to each child and a pair of shorts and a t-shirt to each youth.










Sorry this has gotten so long. We hope you were able to get through it all. It is incredibly hard to put into words everything that God is doing here. Please pray for the people we have been able to minister to at these parties. Pray that the seeds that have been planted will be able to grow and produce good fruit.

A Box of Crayons

It was just a box of crayons. A few weeks ago, C, a girl just a couple years younger than me told me how H, her four year old daughter loves to colour. She loves to colour so much that she has warn her crayons out. All she had left was a few stubs. I knew that they didn't have the money to buy new crayons because she recently told me they have been skipping meals because they don't have enough money. The next week when I saw C, I said to her "remeber how you told me last week how H loves to colour?" She said, "ya, and H she told me again this week that she really wants to colour but she doesn't have any crayons left." I told her I have a surprise for her and I pulled out of my bag a box of 24 Crayola crayons. She was speechless. Tears trickled down her cheeks. "Really? Thank you so much!" That was all she could say. To me, it was just a box of crayons. To her and her daughter is was more than that. It was something that made their whole life colourful.
All gifts come from our loving Heavenly Father. Thank you Lord for this box of crayons!!

Article

IT Canada wrote two articles about our ministry here in their monthly Momentum newsletter. Please check them out at these links;

http://www.iteams.ca/momentum/05-momentum1.php

http://www.iteams.ca/momentum/04-momentum2.php

Revenge & Forgivness

Yesterday began as a normal ministry day at the mercy ministry drop in centre. We have 2 short termer individuals from Canada serving with our team so yesterday we took them to a squatter community to visit three of the families that attend the ministry. One of these homes was that of Bibe (Christopher). Bibe is the youth who is featured in the IT Canada Momentum article. The link for that article is above. When we visited his home yesterday we had a good time talking with him and prayed for him and his family. We had lunch at another home with a few of the women how volunteer at the centre. We then returned to the drop in centre where the youth were eating their lunch. Greg and I went up stairs with Gila (the minsitry leaders wife) and all of a sudden we heard a bunch of commotion downstairs. We ran down stairs and saw blood gushing from Eric's (one of the youth) face and John (the ministry leader) had Bibe pinned in the corner. Out of anger Bibe took a rock and hit Eric in the face right beside his eye three times. I took Eric upstairs and cleaned up his eye and Greg helped keep everything under control. We later took Eric to the hospital to get four stitches. When the youth arrived earlier that day John sensed and suspected that a fight might break out (Bibe, the leader, was with us at the time of the talk). He had a big talk with the youth and they decided they wouldn't fight. There are two different "gangs" that are from two different areas that we minister to and nothing like this has ever happened before. Fortunately when Bibe lashed out his gang members didn't fight with him but actually tried to hold him back. It was upsetting at first that this happened at the centre because it is suppose to be a place of safety for everyone but it really is a blessing that it happened here. If this would have happened on the street there may have been no one to stop them from fighting. Bibe actually had a knife with him but he didn't use it. The reason Bibe did this was because two Sunday's ago Eric was with someone named Dennis at John's church. This Dennis guy stole Bibe and Melissa's wedding rings from their daughter (she was wearing them on a necklace). This is what revoked the anger in Bibe and this was the only way that he saw possible to repay what was done to him and his family. Bibe was improving so much and the Mercy Ministry has been mentoring him and is sending him to school for a Cellphone Repair Technician course. Controlling his anger is one thing that Bibe has been praying for. The scars of life go so deep in these guys and it is going to take a lot of discipling and a lot of teaching them what it means to be Christlike to change them. After a long day, prayer, and reconciliation, Bibe apologized to Eric and Eric's mom. Our prayer is that this will not cause any hostility between these two groups.

Please keep praying for life change in these guys. Many have come a long way but there is still a long way to go and Satan is always there ready to attack and bring them down. Yesterday was another day that confirmed to us the huge need there is for a rehabilitation camp for these youth. Pray also for the workers who are involved in this ministry especially John and Gila. Pray that God will give them continual wisdom, understanding and protection.

That was the shortened version of what happened. There are so many other details, thoughts and feelings that we would really love to share with you all but it is so incredibly hard to write.

Banaue

One way Youth Mobilization mobilizes youth is by taking Filipino youth on a short term exposure trip to another location in the Philippines and have them serve. So two weeks ago our team led a group of 10 Filipino youth on a 5-day mission trip to an orphanage in Banaue, Philippines. Banaue is famous for its beautiful 2,000 year-old rice terraces. Banaue is located in the mountains of Northern Philippines, about a 10 hour drive North of Manila. We held a vacation bible school (VBS) program and a daily feeding for the children of the surrounding area, totaling 75 children in all. We held the VBS at one of the local churches of Banaue, which is located on top of a small rice terrace in the town, overlooking the beautiful valley of rice terraces. None of the youth had ever served on any sort of mission trip before and some of them have not even had a chance to serve in their church at all.

Going here gave the youth a cross culture experience without even leaving the Philippines. The children spoke a different dialect than the youth so the common language was usually English. It was awesome to see them take charge of the daily lessons and activities and pour their love on the kids. We really believe that as these youth took a step of faith and stepped out of their comfort zone, their relationship with the Lord was challenged, stretched and strengthened. Our goal going into the trip was that the lives of both the children and the youth would be changed as a result of the work done. One of the nights we were showed a movie about the life of Jesus at the orphanage and invited everyone from the community. Many people came and at the end Greg closed the night by asking if anyone wanted to give their life to Jesus and many children and adults responded. We praise God for using us and our team to minister in Banaue. YM is looking forward to further opportunities to serve with the orphanage and the church. After the VBS was completed we had a recreational day where we took a jeepney ride to Batad, the next town over, and hiked the rice terraces in that area.

Kids Stuff !!

It’s been a busy month since our last newsletter at the end of March. As we mentioned back then, YM (Youth Mobilization) was hosting a team from Emmanuel Bible College (EBC). We were very involved with this team by taking them to different ministries and showing them around. We assisted EBC with a DVBS (Daily Vacation Bible School) located in Tondo, which is an urban poor area of Manila. This area is known for being very dangerous because of the gang activity. Because of this the church members were our shadows everywhere we went. We slept at the church which is right in the community for one night. The pastor told Greg that nobody attacked us because they knew that we were Christians. Praise God for His protection! The DVBS was held in two different churches simultaneously with over 200 children total. EBC lead the DVBS again with the same theme as what was done in the tribe at the end of March. This was “The Quest for the Kingdom.” A week after the DVBS, YM assisted the churches in this same community with their first ever evangelistic concert. Through songs, presentations, and an evangelistic message many people surrendered their life to Christ. Please continue to pray for breakthrough in this community.

Some of the kids

Crafts

Greg with some of the youth from the church

Us, some of the Volunteers and EBC at graduation

Also while EBC was here we held another hygiene clinic with a new partner church located in yet another very poor area of Manila. At the clinic 100 more children received haircuts, nail cuts, showers, a healthy snack, and a hygiene kit with contents of a toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, and soap. We also had a paediatrician teach the parents on proper hygiene and nutrition.

Greg on ear cleaning duty. The dirt and smells that come out of their ears is unbelievable.

The area the hygiene clinic was held. So many of the rivers here look like this.

Another Climb - Mt. Daguldol

Here are some pictures of another mountain climb we did. This time we camped over night on the summit. The mountain is a couple hours south of manila right by the ocean. It was beautiful!!

The Summit

The Summit and our small tent that we can barely stretch out in....but hey, it's light!

Greg and Andy cooking beans for supper.....Yummy!!!

The Ocean next to the mountain

Refreshing 'Halo Halo' after our climb down

The Kids In The Mountains

Here are some pictures of the dvbs we held for a village in the mountains. We wrote about it in our newsletter but we have so many awesome pictures that we want to share.