Working in Us

Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. (Hebrews 13:20-21, ESV)

One of the children at the dumpsite feeding program

Mishelle hard at work at the Nutritional Day Care

We have come to the end of our second and final week serving within the Smokey Mountain community. Our week started out slowly with cleaning on the ship for Monday morning to get it ready for a function the next day. In the afternoon we headed to a nearby mall, caught up on shopping and ended the day watching Iron Man 3 at the movies. On Tuesday we returned to Smokey Mountain and continued with the various ministries that YWAM is part of. We split into groups again with one group heading to the Malnutrition Day Care to help feed and play with the delightful babies. Each of the justice group have found their favorite little person and the time we spend with at the Day Care is a definite highlight of the day. A number of bible studies also took place with Jules, Amber and Christie teaching to various groups related to the YWAM Balut school sponsorship program and Tuberculosis Ministry. These bible studies were often spur of the moment and required us to rely on God to give us the right words and insight into what we were to teach. Through these bible studies we were able to share our testimonies and the hope we have in Christ; we were also able to listen to the stories of how God has provided for Christians living in Smokey Mountain over the years. One lady who has worked with YWAM Balut for twenty years shared how after nine years of marriage her husband died and she was widowed with four young children. She told how she prayed to God that He would help her and provide a way of getting all her children a high school education. God has answered her prayers as all her children have gained a high school qualification and now have steady jobs. This is an amazing outcome as it is not common in the Smokey Mountain community for all the children in a family to have received high school educations and be employed in regular work. This is definite evidence of God's faithfulness and providence in this family.

Singing and dancing with the kids at the feeding program

Amber and Lindsay at the feeding program

This week has been a time where we have seen God working in everyday situations and the lives of ordinary people. Amber, Dan, Joshua and Mishelle had the opportunity to visit a wonderful Christian lady named Noemi last week who was in need of reading glasses in order to read her Bible. The group of four returned to her and her husband on Tuesday to tell her that they would help her buy some glasses. Through donations by the justice team and crew of the Pacific Hope we were able to raise about 2000 pesos over a week! Part of these donations was used to buy ten Tagalog Bibles while the remainder was to be used to buy glasses for the Noemi. However, when they shared this with her, she told them that her husband had found a job the previous day and they would now be able to afford to purchase the glasses on their own. This was phenomenal news as the previous visit our YWAM group had prayed for employment for her husband, this prayer was answered within a week. Noemi encouraged the group to use the money to bless someone else who needed it so they prayed about who they should give the money to. Amber, Dan, Mishelle and Joshua continued with their visitations, expecting God to provide an opportunity to bless someone financially. This came during their final visitation when meeting with a blind lady who could not afford to pay for electricity and did not have any chairs for her visitors to sit on. Her next door neighbor, Lola (grandmother) Melly lent her some chairs and was sharing her electricity so that the blind woman’s room could be better lit. Lola Melly lives with her husband who suffers from arthritis and is being treated for TB, her 20 year old daughter and granddaughters in a nearby permanent housing unit. Lola Melly was eager to learn more about God and really wanted to start attending a church. The group of four shared the gospel with her, prayed for her and through conversation found out that she had a Bible but is also unable to read it due to poor eye sight and lack of glasses. This was really the same situation that sister Noemi was in, so we felt that God had answered our prayers and showed us who and what to use the money for. On Friday, Mishelle, Dan and their translator Kuya Lito went with Lola Melly to the optometrist to get her eye sight assessed and new glasses fitted. This trip was a success and Lola Melly planned to return to the optometrists on the next day to collect her new glasses. On the train ride back to Smokey Mountain Lola Melly shared with Mishelle and Dan that she had enjoyed spending time with them and felt hugely blessed by God. She explained how she knew that God was using our Justice team to help her and her family. We are so thankful to know that we can be used by God to help people through the little things that will make a significant impact on their daily lives even after we leave. God prepared the way for us to be in a position to bless others practically and demonstrate His love and care for them.

Lola Melly trying on new glasses

Melly wearing her new frames!

Another way we have seen God continue to work and answer prayer has been when we returned to an area of Karaoke bars where we first met a group of young women who were working in one establishment during our first day in Manila (refer to our first blog post for details on our first meeting with them). We really wanted to see them again and continue our conversations with them. The justice team has been praying for the group of five women during debrief time each night since we met them. We arrived at the Karaoke Bar mid afternoon on Wednesday and began praying for an opportunity to speak with the girls. After a few minutes of arriving Lindsay noticed a young woman walking near the bar entrance so she started a conversation with her to find out if she knew of the girls we had spoken with previously. She did and said that they would be arriving at the bar for work at 5:00pm; that meant a wait of an hour and a half for us. Lindsay got her phone number and we began to wait and pray along the street. Lindsay suggested that we buy the girls some cold drinks to share between them as a practical way to bless them and to show that we had actually stopped by to visit them. A handful of us went to buy drinks and the others continued to pray for opportunities to meet the girls again and for God to provide a way of delivering the drinks to them. We also wrote a quick message to them with the justice group's phone number on it in the event that they would like to contact us, we told them we had been praying and thinking of them and that we would love to meet up again. After the group returned with drinks and we had waited about an hour, Danny knocked on the bar's side door with the hope that someone would answer. It was opened by a man who knew of the girls and said he would pass the drinks and note on to the girls. We said good bye and prayed that he would actually deliver the message. During our ride back to the ship in the jeepney we received a text from one of the girls thanking us for the drinks and note. She and Amber have been texting each other, we are hoping this will lead to us arranging a time in the coming weeks to catch up with all the girls for coffee. We will trust that God will provide the opportunity for this to happen and put us in the right place at the right time.

Nicole and Edgar also had an interesting afternoon on Wednesday with the family they have been getting to know visiting the Pacific Hope. Nicole and Edgar presented them with one of the Tagalog Bibles that the Justice Donations Container had helped raise money for. As they were leaving the family was able to sort through the ship’s recycling rubbish and select the plastic and aluminum cans that they can sell for much needed money. It was interesting to observe that our rubbish and easily discarded waste was a central way this homeless family earned money to survive day to day.  

Edgar and Nicole with Alona's family and friends

This week came to a close with an evening of games on the ship with the YWAM Balut staff, this led to Kyle and Paul trying a special delicacy of the Philippines: balut. While it is also the name of the community where the YWAM base is located, balut more commonly refers a fertilized chicken egg that is boiled and eaten after 16 days of development (so that the embryo is already partially developed). There are many street stalls in Manila selling balut, they definitely offer a challenge for any eager person wanting to try something different.

On Saturday we left the Pacific Hope and Manila to begin the journey to the YWAM base in Olongapo to begin ministry with former prostitutes, their families, and local bar girls. We are excited about what this coming week will entail; we know God will definitely be at work in us and through us to plant seeds of hope, truth, and healing in others’ lives as well as our own.

Blessings,

Justice Team

P.S. Here are some more photos of the Smokey Mountain area, taken by the talented Danny Aviles.