Friday, August 4

Hindi ko mashadong marunong mag-Tagalog!  (the best
phrase I learned all summer)

I leave this half of the world behind in just a couple
days.  The rest of my team is leaving an hour from
now, so the goodbyes have been going on in the
community since Wednesday.  Some of it is wonderful -
I've received several beautiful cards and seen new
sides of some of the people that they hadn't shared
before.  Some of it has been quite sad - there were
kids skipping school to get one last chance to be with
us, and no small outpouring of tears among some of the
young ones today.

I haven't shared much about specific people in the
community before now.  It's been hard - how can I
describe a person in just a couple words when they've
become a new part of my life?  I don't want to treat
them like subjects of a study.  These are my friends,
and our relationships aren't substantially different
from most of the other relationships in my life. 
Lenging acts just like a cross between Sally Guirguis
and Sally Basil.  Ron-Ron can't be much different than
Andrew (Hyena) was as a teenager.   Reggie reminds me
of my cousin Josh.  Christian talks, acts, and plays
basketball like Gene.  Ati Cora is the Filippino
version of Aunt Laura.  If you put adorable little
Isung and Irene together, you'd have Lauren.  Lito is
like Mikey for this church, with a little Gaebler
thrown in.  And some people are just unique - like
Manning, the five-foot tall father of three who
serenades the riles with the Eagles and Clapton while
expertly strumming the guitar.  Some things among the
community tend to be harder, like the number of women
addicted to gambling and the number of men involved in
drug or alcohol use.  Other things are better, like
the amazing hospitality and the friendliness by people
of all ages.  Overall, it's just a community of people
who I feel as comfortable with as any community back
home.  Children, youth, fathers, mothers - I've felt
so accepted into it by everyone.  There are people
here who I certainly don't want to say goodbye to.

Now imagine how it feels to know that all of their
homes will be demolished within months.  And that most
of them will have no options left when that happens.

That is what occupies my thoughts the most now.  But I
do want to share a little about some of the new
ministries we've had the chance to spend time with
since my last letter. There are people all over the
Philippines doing a variety of amazing work.

Pastor Jun and his wife have been working in Tatalon
for 26 years, 23 of which they lived directly in the
community.  They first came to the community to
partner with Viv Grigg, whose experiences in Tatalon
led him to found Servants to Asia's Urban Poor and
write the book "Companion to the Poor".  The squatters
in Tatalon were eventually able to get land rights,
which led to a number of positive changes in the
community.  Pastor Jun and his wife have focused on
running a Christian preschool for the last twelve
years that is now 300-students strong, with over a
hundred of those students attending on scholarship. 
Their dream is to expand into a preschool, elementary,
and high school network across the Philippines.

While not technically an urban poor ministry, Mount
Hermon Prayer Center has acted as a retreat for urban
poor churches and those serving them (among many
others as well).  We were able to spend a weekend in
prayer, happy to be in a world of trees and quietness
for some much-needed personal time with God.

Servants to Asia's Urban Poor still has a number of
workers in metro Manila.  One of those is Rachel, who
lives in the Project 8 section of Quezon City. 
Servants works with other groups and community members
to holistically grow the community.  In Quezon City,
that has included planting a church, mentoring and
counseling community members, helping squatters get
land rights, assisting preschool students, working
with locals to start a recycling business, building up
a craft-making network, and helping to run Liloc, the
urban poor leadership school.

Another Servants worker I met was Daniel, who runs a
street child ministry in Quiapo.  Daniel and his team
go into the streets at night to play with kids who
have become disconnected from their homes.  While
they've taken in some of the kids on a full-time
basis, their primary objective is to get them reunited
with family members and help their families to raise
them in a positive environment.  The ministry has a
shelter that currently cares for eight students
full-time and is in the process of building a drop-in
center to serve many more kids.

As my time in the Philippines winds to a close, I am
reflecting on everything I've learned here and the
ways God has grown me in Him.  It has been the exact
experience that I was hoping for and given me much of
what I wanted to get out of the internship, along with
a lot that I never expected.  As things are still
opening up to me faster than I can process them,
you'll have to wait until I get back for me to share
in full everything I've learned here.  Thank you so
much for your support and your prayers, and pray for a
blessed last two days here and a safe return.  And
please, please pray for the families of Balic-Balic.

In His love,

Jon