| | Thursday, July 20Helo again! Over half of my time in Manila has gone by, and I
wanted to let you know some of what I've seen here.
It's been an enormous blessing, and I pray that I can
get as much out of the last part of our trip as I got
out of the first. First of all, I wanted to share more about Balik-Balik
Community Church (BBCC), the church that we've been
attending and working with here. The church was
planted about 15 years ago by a missionary
organization. It's alongside the tracks, side-by-side
with the homes of its congregation. The noise is
deafening when a train goes by. The church is small -
there are only 30 or so people in the Sunday morning
service, although there's also a children's service
and a youth service. Despite the small congregation,
there are real success stories. Ema, one of the
Servant Partners staff leading us, became a Christian
through BBCC. Ema's mother now ministers in another
poor community, trying to build a similar hope in the
people there. And we can see differences in those
community members who have committed their lives to
God. Massive temptations weigh this neighborhood
down. Housing is unstable, work is hard to get and
pays little, and it's hard for most residents to
imagine any improvement. At all hours I see people
drinking on the tracks. Every day people sniff glue.
Gambling, especially on bingo, is a constant - the
hope of even a tiny financial gain is enough to lead
many to lose the money they do have, day after day.
It's hard to imagine that kids growing up here have a
chance to navigate around everything and scratch out a
hopeful life. But many of the youth I see at BBCC do
have hope, and I’ve lost track of all the individual
transformations each one has made. BBCC
has made a real difference in their lives. To make this chance real, BBCC runs programs aimed at
the youth and families. Three preschool classes are run
through the church to prepare kids for 1st grade.
Some children are supported through school with
scholarships. Other programs (like preschool teaching
assistantships and a soap-making job) help college
students pay their tuition. Families are helped out as
well, with a dish soap business and rice-buying
collective making money for several families and
saving money for many others. But the biggest
influence I've seen is spiritual. That lesson has hit
home as I've gotten to know the people here. It's not
all about money - someone who comes upon extra money,
but lacks hope for the future, will just waste the
windfall and wake up the next day as poor as before.
The term "one-day millionaire" is a common one here.
But for those people who understand Christ's message
and have committed themselves to Him, there's a
different goal, a real hope. Yes, they still want to
live in a safer and more stable home, to be able to
provide their families with a healthier lifestyle, to
give their kids a real education. And more money
would help all of this. But more money in and of
itself is not the goal - it is relationship with
Christ, the eternal life that comes from Him. When
this higher joy is sought after, the temporary
pleasures that ensnare others lose much of their
power. Avoiding those traps makes a better material
life more likely - but it's not the better material
life that makes these people seem so much happier.
It's having a real connection to God, a trustworthy
hope that doesn't disappoint like all the addictions
that befall others. I've been able to see the reality
of that here to an enormous degree, and it's struck me
more than any other lesson on this trip. We've been able to visit or take part in many
ministries outside of Balik-Balik. I wanted to give a
quick run-down of the ministries we've worked with so
far: Pandacan is a few miles down the railroad tracks.
Several lay members of BBCC are leading Bible studies
there, and a child school sponsorship program has been
started. The hope is that a house church will start
soon. Welfareville (yes, that's its real and legal name) is
a huge squatter community of 20,000 families that
doesn't lie on the riles. There we met a pastor who
is trying to start a house church on every block of
Welfareville (six of the 41 blocks are covered so far)
by raising up local Christians and developing them
into leaders. His church has also started a
mini-pharmacy, trained two members in medicine, runs a
scholar program for children, and has several small
businesses to fund scholarships and families. Liloc is a leadership training school in Manila. It
is designed to train pastors and lay Christians from
urban poor communities. They have a unique program
that educates people with little or no educational
background, and much of the learning is experiential
to strengthen the students' ability to use their
knowledge when they go back to their churches. A big
focus at Liloc is on empowering people to realize that
they can be effective leaders in their communities -
poor communities almost always lack leadership, and
the cultural feeling in churches that only pastors can
lead hinders progress. Liloc also is starting a
follow-up program that helps students implement the
things they've learned after they graduate from the
school. Cogeo is a community on the outskirts of Manila.
There we saw how those on the outer parts of the city
have an even more difficult time - less
infrastructure, fewer services, and fewer jobs. We
visited a ministry there that runs a small church and
a preschool program, along with a number of small
businesses. We also saw how a really cool relational
ministry there has captured some people’s hearts and
brought them into a relationship with God and a much
better outlook on life. The pastor at BBCC has a weekly prison ministry that
I've been able to take part in. It's basically a
church service for the prisoners, with worship,
prayer, and an adapted sermon. It was crazy to see
how warmly I was welcomed by over a hundred prisoners,
how polite they were and how kindly they thanked us
after we finished each time. The prison system in
Manila is a poor one, and rehabilitation doesn't seem
to be a thought. Pray that they can find true meaning
in their lives and exit the jail on a different path. On top of our time in the community, all the learning
that we've been doing, and the different ministries
we've visited, the main thing on my mind is the
demolition. I think most of you saw my thoughts on it
when I viewed the demolition progress last week, so
you know how emotional it's been for me. I surveyed
the damage again this week to make a photographic
record for the Servant Partners team, and saw some of
the actual demolition in progress. It's hard to
understand right now what good is going to happen. To
explain the situation briefly: About 70,000 people live along the railroad tracks
throughout Manila. They live there because they can't
afford homes on legal land, and the space on the sides
of the tracks is one of the few open spots for
squatters to live. All the homes are tiny, and some
are as small as two feet across. Life is dangerous -
there're no legal services, no plumbing, and the
trains are a constant risk. Just tonight a train car
derailed in Balic-Balic, and it was a miracle that no
one was killed and only one home destroyed. The
government wants to get rid of the squatter
communities on the tracks to make way for a new
light-rail system that will replace the ancient trains
that are currently running. They have set a timeline
for all riles communities to be demolished by October
2007. What are the options here? It makes sense that the
city needs to update its transportation, and it can't
do that if homes are inches from the current tracks.
It's not a desirable situation for the residents
anyway, with the great danger that living on the riles
entails. You hope that the people can be given land
rights, but where can they receive such rights and
still be close enough to their jobs to continue
working? The government is trying to run a relocation
program to an area south of Manila. But it is
empty land, without the jobs of the city, and the
10,000 peso (less than $200) startup grant that they
are offering as an alternative would not meet their needs.
We pray for a humane relocation. A more significant
start-up grant and an effort to provide good services and
effective infrastructure in the relocation site would
be a start. But it is still hard to see a solution
that will meet all their needs. Please pray that God,
who knows so much more than we do, can see this
through to a solution that we have not yet imagined. I want to tell you so much more about what I have
learned so far. There're some funny stories that I
want to share sometime as well. But this letter is
probably long enough for now. Write back to us if you
have any questions, or if you just want to show
support and let us know you're praying. It means a
lot. In His love,
Jon |
