Josh & Brooke in the Philippines

A Note From Fr. Paul

2009-10-03T22:20:00.000+08:00

I received this note from Fr Paul via facebook today:

Brooke, thank you so much for your support.

We have been helping in particular about 60 families in Payatas. There are of course many more than that but we have been focussing on one area in particular (you might want to look at the facebook site of Miguel Paolo Rivera to see some pictures).

If we get more funds we are considering helping others as well as those 60 families.

Another thing that I am considering, again if we get enough funds, is whether we will be able to help any of the victims of the typhoon from Payatas in a longer term way. They are extremely poor people most of whom get their livelihood from scavenging on the rubbish dump.

Just after the typhoon I was with them as they were eating food picked up from the rubbish dump (meat thrown away on the garbage which they rescue and eat), actually even before the disaster this is what some of them eat. Maybe this disaster in their lives can be an opprtunity, if enough funds arrive, for them to recieve some longer term help (for example for a tutor for their children since without education they will almost certanly stay in poverty for the rest of their lives).

Anyway thanks for remembering and more than remembering. Please continue to keep everyone in your prayers even after the immediate news of everything dies down and most people forget.

GOD BLESS

Fr Paul

Typhoon Ondoy

2009-10-03T07:31:00.001+08:00

I am not entirely certain if this still works; we haven't updated this blog since returning to the US almost two years ago. However, I just wanted to take a moment to thank those of you who have responded to our pleas for financial assistance for our friends in Manila who were devastated by last week's typhoon and ensuing floods. Through your responsiveness and generosity, we were able to double the amount of money that we intended to send on our own.

Our friends in Manila, especially those we worked with in Payatas, were hit especially hard by the flooding. I have recently been in contact with both Mhel and Father Paul. Father Paul's small hovel in Payatas was flooded to the ceiling and his neighbors and many of the people he's worked with for years have been displaced. Mhel tells us that the people we worked with in Payatas are living in a school right now. Most of them have lost whatever meager possessions they had; all that is left is the clothes they were wearing when the storm hit. The funds we have raised will go to help meet these immediate needs - food and clothing.

Again, I cannot thank you enough for your generosity. Between this typhoon and the recent earthquakes and tsunami, it's so easy to feel overwhelmed by all of the urgent need and, ultimately, helpless. It means something to look that helplessness square in the face and give
what you can anyway, even as you feel that it can't possibly matter or make a dent in the sea of need.

It does.

Among the Fray

2007-12-12T09:07:00.000+08:00

Well, the journey is almost over. It feels like we’ve been here forever and leaving will be bittersweet. We’re so eager to see our friends and family again and that will be wonderful. But it’ll be hard leaving the people and communities we’ve formed bonds with. Especially the one’s like Dakutan and Payatas where we know the kinds of lives they have to return to.

Let me apologize for not updating this thing more regularly. Life gets in the way all too often. Anyway, this will be the last update for now. As we remain in contact, once we return to the States, with people we’ve met here, we’ll use this blogspace to post updates.

In other news, I AM DONE SCHOOL!!! I recently finished my two final projects and received A’s on both of them (ok, an A minus on one but Dr. Mtika can be tough). Anyway, so, I officially have my masters degree. That’s weird because international development is a field which seems impossible to “master” considering its ever-changing landscape. Anyway, I’m done, for now, and its Brooke’s turn. She will be returning to Eastern University in January to finish out her undergraduate degree in Anthropology.

There have been several highlights since I last posted an update. I really want to focus on one as we can fill you in on the rest when we get home.

Imagine you’re driving through and beyond the outskirts of a bustling, densely populated Asian metropolis. As you begin to exit the city limits, the mountains, once in the distance, begin to come into focus and to the fore. I remember thinking, “wow, you can see the mountains clearly today.” As you get closer and closer, it becomes clear that what you presumed were mountains were nothing more than massive mounds of waste at Payatas, Manila’s largest landfill.

It wasn’t long after this realization that a member of our team informed us that the little tents running up and down the sides of the trash heap were actually people’s homes. People live and feed off of the waste of one of the largest cities in the world. We entered Payatas. It was one of the locations the British team, with which I was working at the time, had a vested interest in so we were there to sponsor the building of a roof for a community center. There, I met father Paul, one of the founders of Heart of the Father, an England based Christian NGO. Father Paul is an extraordinary man who has actually made the move to Payatas, in and among the poorest of the poor. It is heroes like this, among the fray, who deserve the recognition they’ll never receive.

Father Paul has options, but he chooses to value the lives of the people of Payatas as he does his own, compelling him to become one of them. This is what it means to truly live. This is the abundant life Jesus offers; to value the lives of others, regardless of socioeconomic status, age, gender, sexual preference, ethnicity, habits, occupation, et cetera, as we do our own. None of us are more or less a “sinner” than anyone else. Sin is something that stains us from birth, no exception. But everyone…everyone is created in the image of God.

Shane Claiborne, in his book the Irresistible Revolution, tells a story that captures how significant an understanding of this concept is to our faith. He recounts an incident where he and some friends were hanging out. His friend says nonchalantly, “Shane, Jesus never talked to a prostitute.” Naturally, Shane became defensive and began to reach for his bible claiming, “Yes he did, I’ll show you where it is.” As he began flipping through the pages, his friend stops him and says, “Shane, Jesus never spoke to a prostitute because he never saw a prostitute. He saw a child of God whom he was madly in love with.”

I know it sounds cliché but, spending time in a developing country changes you. It can’t help but to. You begin to realize what matters in life. You begin to realize what is essential for living, for working, for having fun…for faith. We’ve met people from all walks of life here. Tradesman, government officials, wealthy landowners, the homeless, street kids, subsistence farmers and fisherman, priests, pastors, Catholics, Protestants, children, the elderly, the rich, the poor, prominent public speakers, et cetera. I’ve met Catholics desperately in love with God and Protestants simply going through the motions…and vice versa. Why? (And just because it’s obvious doesn’t mean it isn’t true or worth restating) because the true Church is not confined by a physical structure.

Just to leave you with one last thought. Rob Bell points out that in the Hebrew language, there’s no word for spiritual. It simply doesn’t translate or exist. So if you were to ask a 1st century Jew or even Jesus, a prominent Jewish rabbi, a question like, “How is your spiritual life?”, you would likely be given a peculiar gaze and a “What are you talking about?” in response. Why? Because there was no separation between life and faith, between theory and praxis, between what one believes and what one does. So when we feed the hungry, care for the oppressed, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, et cetera, this…is…Christ.

See you soon!! We love you all.

Update

2007-11-23T21:33:00.000+08:00

Hey everyone. Man did November go fast. I've been pretty busy lately trying to put everything together for my 2 projects. They're both due at the end of this month so, my appologies for not updating this thing more regularly. I'll try to make one more big update post in early Dec. after I get my work done. I want to tell you about a place called Peace Village we visited a couple of weeks ago and the Payatas landfill site that I forgot to tell you about last time. So, look for in update in about a week or so.

Trip to Manila

2007-11-03T20:36:00.000+08:00

Again, sorry it’s been a while since we’ve given an update. Things have been scattered here to say the least. Ok, so I wanted to talk about a little side trip I took with Pastor Bong (above). Bong is the pastor of a small Assemblies of God church in the midst of one of the largest relocation sites, Handumanan, on Negros (some residents pictured below). There are more than 150,000 squatters who’ve been relocated to this one area. These are people from as many different backgrounds that you can imagine, all forced to live together, in community, and get along. Somehow they make it work. It’s truly amazing. I must’ve seen a dozen pickup basketball games in Handumanan, at least eleven of which I received an invitation to join.

Bong explained to me that he used to be a relatively well-to-do business man here on Negros and that while he recognized God’s call on his life a long time ago, it wasn’t until a recent brush with death that he decided to submit to God. It was refreshing to see community development work/workers who are working from the ground up as opposed to assisting from without.

While I was visiting Handumanan with Bong, one of our last stops was at Randall’s house. Randall (pictured above) is a member of Bong’s congregation. He lives in a house about the size of an average American lawnmower shed with his 3 children, wife and grandfather. He has about a half an acre of farm land where he grows rice, peppers and various other produce. He asked if we’d eaten yet and Bong told him no. He began to gather firewood and ordered his oldest son to bring him a steel pot and a machete. We proceeded out to the field where Randall harvested some local root vegetables and sweet potatoes. After peeling them, he boiled them in the steel pot along with two fresh duck eggs. Bong explained to me that the root vegetables contained high traces of cyanide and that if not cooked properly, consuming them could be fatal. This gave me a new perspective on what it means to ask God’s blessing before we eat. I prayed His blessing on the food, Randall’s family and farm, and thanked Him for His creation that yields enough to sustain us.

The vegetables and fresh duck eggs were wonderful and needless to say, Randall was able to adequately remove enough of the cyanide that the potatoes didn’t kill me. It wasn’t until we were leaving that I realized what a special and holy moment I had just experienced. From Randall’s perspective, I was treated like a king. Bong explained to me that every week Randall gives him ten percent of his harvest. That’s all he has. The previous week he managed to harvest twenty sacks of rice, so he gave Bong two. It wasn’t often that his ducks laid fresh eggs and Randall was more than happy to offer them to Bong and I as a gift. Though Randall had little, he was selfless with what he had. I’ll never forget that meal.

Moving ahead. We spent this past week in Manila (400 miles north of where we’re staying in Bacolod City). Our flight arrived early Saturday morning and we spent all day at the Mall of Asia, the site of the GK Expo. The expo was exciting. There was a parade, live music, representatives from nearly every GK village, vendors, concessions, games, children’s activities, et cetera. There was something for everyone.

Far and away, my favorite part of the expo was a real, live monkey. Yes, a monkey. We were able to get pretty close to him and he looked at Brooke and me as curiously as we did him.

At the expo I was able to meet several interesting people. I met Tony Meloto, the founder and former executive director of Gawad Kalinga. I was also able to have an interesting conversation about microfinance with Tony’s successor, Tito Luis. The President of the Philippines, Gloria Arroyo, was also at the expo to demonstrate her support for GK’s development efforts.

In Manila, we were hosted by Tito Bong and Tita Leony Susara. Along with their two children Jamie and Richard, they provided us with wonderful hospitality. I’m not sure what it was, but Sunday night I got really sick…again. Similar symptoms to what I had a few weeks back. I couldn’t eat a thing all week. Needless to say, Brooke and I really miss home cooking.

Conveniently, Tita Leony used to work for the Department of Tourism in Manila so she was able to show us around the city a bit. We toured a few universities and caught the sunset in the Manila bay. The Old City is beautiful and rife with Spanish influence from the colonial period. There were beautiful cathedrals and cobblestone streets and the policeman still dressed in the ancient garb. In some places, it is easy to forget you’re in Asia as it has more of a European feel.

On Thursday, we were able to celebrate All Saints' Day with the Susaras. All Saints' Day is a unique national holiday where everyone gathers around the graves of their loved ones. There are games, food, music, dancing, et cetera. Admittedly, I felt a little out of place considering I had just met the Susaras four days prior and now I was celebrating a significant holiday with them. But, to them, Brooke and I may as well have been members of the family. In fact, we’ve made arrangements to stay with them the week before we return home as they want to help Brooke locate any traces of her family in La Union, in the north.

We have plenty of pictures to show everyone when we return and we appreciate all who take the time to check out the blog to see how we’re doing. Continue to pray for us until we return. We continue to miss everyone and think about you often. Until next time…

2007-10-30T15:20:00.000+08:00

Hey everyone. I know it's been a couple of weeks since we've updated the blog but I can assure you, we haven't forgotten about it. We flew into Manila on Saturday and will be here until the end of the week. We'll do our best to provide you with an update this coming weekend. For now, know that we're doing well and look forward to sharing more of trip with you in the coming weeks. Highlights include a real live monkey, almost meeting the president (of the Philippines), our trip to Payatas (where people make their homes at Manila's largest landfill), lunch at Randall's farm - a truly holy moment and much more. To be continued...

2007-10-15T11:38:00.000+08:00

This past week and a half has been pretty hectic. We went up to stay with Tito Mon for a few days last week. Mon is doing some amazing things with self-sustained, organic, waste-free farms that could drastically impact the landscape of poverty here in the Philippines and throughout the world. I’ll spare you the details as you probably aren’t as fascinated by them as me. Mon is a very wealthy landowner here with a heart for seeing poverty alleviated. He had a near death experience a few years back that changed his heart and perspective toward friends, family, wealth, the environment and life in general.

Mon took us up to the mountains and showed us some of the rice terraces and various contour farming methods. His motto, “there is no unproductive land, only unproductive farmers.” Mon’s methods allow him to grow nearly any crop he wants, even on the top of a mountain. We joined a group of farmers from Bayawan City, which is in the south of the island we’re on (Negros). Mon could name his price to run seminars, educating farmers on his methods. Instead, he does it for free. To see hearts changed, wealth redistributed and lives molded.

Moving ahead. Last Sunday we visited Promise City Church with Emma and her daughters. The church is pastored by Rick Sutcliffe – the same Rick who runs Joyland (mentioned in Brooke’s last post) with his wife Suzet. It’s an Assemblies of God congregation –Rick is from Australia – with a penchant for exuberant worship. After service, we joined Rick and Suzet for lunch. Rick wants me to speak at Promise City in a couple of weeks. We’ll see how that goes. Suzet and I had a wonderful conversation about community development and the work they’re doing at Joyland. Brooke and I will likely be spending a few nights there this week studying their project more fully and working with some children on their conversational English.

So, on Monday I spent the day with Ricky Lacson at the Couples for Christ meeting. It was more of a “nuts and bolts” type of meeting but still, it allowed me to gain a perspective into what they are about as an organization. Couples for Christ is responsible for founding Gawad Kalinga so the two are significantly intertwined. They are very much concerned with building communities that enable people to live with dignity.

Come Tuesday, I started feeling pretty ill. I’m not sure what it was, but all week I was sick with a stomach bug of some sort. Brooke saw me through until I was better on Friday, when she began feeling sick. So, this week has been hard. A lot of complaining, aching, sleepless nights, etc. But, we’re both feeling better now and looking forward to this coming week at Joyland.

Friday, Emma and I were able to visit two more GK villages with Ricky Lacson. These were much larger than the one’s we were exposed to the initial week. They were complete with schools and worship facilities and even farmland. In November, I have agreed to stay in the two communities for a few nights, to get to know the people better and how exactly their lives have been impacted by GK.

Until next time, know that we’re doing well and attempting to serve our God by loving others. Keep us in your prayers and trust that we miss you all dearly.

2007-10-12T16:50:00.000+08:00

Hey everyone. Hopefully we'll be able to leave a more detailed post in the next day or two but for now, I just wanted to check in to say things are good. We've been pretty busy and our internet access has been sporadic. Keep us in your prayers and we'll give an update soon.

GK Bonbon and Joyland

2007-10-02T13:18:00.000+08:00

I know that Josh already posted a bit about our first experience with a GK site, GK Mangrove Village in Ducatan, but we didn't take any pictures there, so I'll try to describe it a little bit. (Scroll down and read his post first, if you haven't already!) The homes there are built right on the shore, so they are set up on stilts to prevent flooding at high tide. While most GK villages are made of cinder block and concrete, the houses there are made of wood as termites aren't an issue in the salty soil. The floors are made of split pieces of bamboo and the houses are painted in GK's signature bright colors. Dogs freely roam the island here, and Ducatan is no exception. There were dogs and puppies everywhere, some that looked well cared for and others that were decidedly street dogs. There are signs everywhere around here warning about the dangers of rabies, so it alarmed me a bit to see these unkempt dogs playing with the children here. Ducatan also has a school building (the children sang their "ABCs" to Josh and I through the window) and a health clinic provided by GK.

Upon leaving Ducatan we went and had lunch at an excellent chicken barbecue restaurant with the group that we were accompanying. We were there with our friends Emma (pictured above), Ricky (pictured left), Mikmik and Paolo. Mikmik and Paolo (pictured together, below) work directly for GK. If I remember correctly, Mikmik is specifically overseeing projects here in Negros Occidental and Paolo oversees projects for the entire region of the Visayas. The restaurant we went to was decidedly not fast food, and we spent more time there than we had originally planned. When we finally finished up, we piled back into Emma’s truck and headed off to our second GK village of the day, GK Bonbon.

GK Bonbon is an area within a larger resettlement area. Tito Ricky mentioned to us back at the first site that some of the most successful GK villages are resettlements, where people are given new land away from the slum area where they previously lived. It was startling to see the difference between the GK houses and the non-GK houses (pictured, right) in the resettlement area. The GK houses were quite solid, beautifully painted and carefully landscaped, whereas the non-GK houses directly across the street were quite a bit more makeshift.

As we pulled up to the village, we noticed that there was a large group of people sitting under a tarp that had been hung out in front of one of the GK houses. Tito Ricky turned back to us in the car and explained that this meant someone had recently died and they were gathered together to support one another. I felt incredibly awkward in this situation, as simply arriving to anyone’s home unannounced is something I prefer not to do, let alone arriving as a stranger and a foreigner to someone’s wake. Emma told us that the gathered people playing cards out front were actually gambling to raise money for the funeral.

We set off down the road a bit, where Tito Ricky introduced us to a woman who was standing out in front of her beautiful blue house. She had carefully planted pepper plants and other indigenous fruit trees out in her tiny front lawn. She took us inside, where her house had been carefully divided into three small rooms and a bathroom, with her cooking area out the back door. She lives there with her husband and five children, the youngest of which sleeps in the bedroom with her, while three of the other children share the other bedroom and the fifth sleeps right inside the front door. Keep in mind that even with an area of only 235 square feet, these houses are huge steps up from how the villagers lived previously.

On our way out of GK Bonbon, Emma’s truck became stuck in the mud right outside the house of mourning. In an instant, a group of men and children from the wake surrounded the truck and pushed us out. We were quickly back on our way, and headed to Joyland.

Joyland is a school and orphanage that's been founded by Emma's pastors, Rick and Suzette. Rick is an Australian and his wife, Suzette, is a Filipina. After spending about 15 years living and pastoring in Oz, they've returned to the Philippines. They were the most recent tenants of the house where Josh and I now live (along with their son, Ben, who Josh mentioned in his post), and about three months ago they moved on to the campus of Joyland.

Joyland is a beautiful community they've established that serves many local needs. While it is indeed an orphange, it is also a school for local children. As Suzette explained it to me, "If a child's family can pay for them to go to school, they pay. If they can't pay, they pay in sweat, and if we take them in, the tuition is free." Suzette and Rick have a very well thought-out plan here, and they've put a lot of love into the project.

Currently the campus has five buildings, one classroom (pictured above), one office which will eventually be the mess hall (pictured below), two dormitories that fit 30 kids each (these will be more classrooms, once they are able to build smaller huts for the students), and Rick and Suzette's family home (which will eventually be the office, as they will also be living in the student huts).

The purpose of their education is really to make them employable by the time they are old enough to leave school. Knowing that a new International airport is being built in Silay right down the road from their campus, Suzette is planning to have courses available in hotel/restaurant management in anticipation of the need for hospitality workers that will come with the new airport. Already, she has a couple of her laborers taking lessons in cooking, in order to one day start a small restaurant on campus that will use the organic produce that they grow. Rick and Suzette have put absolutely all of their personal savings into this venture and have more yet to do. As Rick told us, "If you wait for all of the funding to come in, you'll never get started, so when God gives you a task to do you just have to do it. The money will come."

We stayed at Joyland longer than we had planned and didn't make it to the other GK sites we had set out to visit that afternoon. We needed to get back to Talisay so that Emma could pick up her kids from school. On our way home from Joyland, we passed this ox-cart that was being driven by a young boy. Emma pulled over - well, it's more correct to say that Emma parked in the road and Josh opened the truck's back door to take this picture. He just missed getting one of the boy and his friends waving back at us.

Negros Occidental

2007-10-02T10:56:00.000+08:00

The flight into Manila was smooth and rather uneventful. In fact, thankfully, we even managed to get all of our luggage – and on time. After retrieving our bags and going through customs, we proceeded outside to meet up with our contact Mhel from Singles for Christ. The only problem was, Mhel was no where to be found. We scoured the crowd and the various placards on display. None of them said “Josh” or “Brooke” or “Josh and Brooke” or “Brooke and Josh” etc. By this time, the street was filled with people, all looking for a contact or cab. I must’ve bled, “Westerner in need of assistance” because within a few minutes, two different security guards and a woman, who appeared to be an airport maid of sorts, offered to help us find our contact or assistance with the phone. The cop gave me seven pesos to make a phone call. Still, no Mhel. Eventually, the woman whom I perceived to be a maid allowed me to use her cell phone to contact Emma Randall, our primary contact from Heart of the Father. Finally, some sort of contact. Emma informed me that Mhel was trying to text her and told her that he is on his way. About that time, Mhel arrives. Brooke yells over, “Josh, here’s a guy with a placard that says ‘Josh’.” Bingo.

Mhel (pictured above) is friendly and eager to meet us. He’s in his late 20’s and his nonchalant approach to life is particularly typical here in the Philippines. There’s simply no rush. On the one hand, it’s rather refreshing. On the other, it’s probably been the toughest adjustment coming from a region of the world that is fast-paced, that places emphasis on the transaction in a relationship and prioritizes punctuality and efficiency above all else.

Mhel, Brooke and I called for a cab and made our way to our condo downtown. Mind you, it’s about 11 pm at this time and everything’s dark. It’s extremely humid and has been raining for about 3 weeks on and off. The drive through Manila was exciting and contradictory to the rest of Filipino culture. Everyone drives like a New York cab driver here. It’s almost as if they’ve adopted the “hurry up and wait” approach to life. Anyway, we arrive to our condo which ends up being in one of the more upscale portions of the city. As Mhel puts it, “where all of the money is made.” We settle in, unpack our bags, and go to 7-11 for some siopas (see picture).

The next morning, we went out to breakfast at Jollibee – the Filipino version of McDonald’s – with everything from burgers and chicken to traditional local food such as beef tapas and garlic rice. After breakfast, we returned back to the condo, cleaned up and headed off to Manila’s domestic airport. Mhel had to go to work early that day so, we told him just to take us to the airport when he went and we’d wait there until our flight for Bacolod City. At 4:30 PM we headed out and were on our way to our new home.

We arrived at the Bacolod City airport around 6 PM Saturday and finally met our contact, Emma Randall. Emma said, “I looked at all of the people waiting for the luggage and saw this head towering above all the rest. I though ‘that must be Josh’.” She knew we were exhausted so, in typical Filipino style, she drove us to our new house as quickly as possible – with one short stop along the way for chicken BBQ. Bacolod City is renowned for their chicken BBQ and I can now attest to its greatness.

We finally arrived to our new home. We live on the lefthand side of the building pictured above and have a bedroom, bathroom and a kitchen/living room area. It’s much more than we expected and we were pleasantly surprised. AC and a warm shower, what more do you need? Shortly after arriving we headed off to a party, yes a party. It was a wonderful birthday celebration for a fourteen year old girl in our neighborhood. The sense of community here is marvelous and is to be commended. There, we met several wonderful people who all made us feel at home. The fed us, took us in, cared for us, and treated us like part of their family. There, we met Ricky Lacson. Tito Ricky not only owns our subdivision but is the head of productivity for GK and has a heart for bringing the rich face to face with the poor with expectations of poverty being alleviated. He is a well respected member of the community here and seems to make friends easily, whether it is with the rich or poor. Oh, and he was educated at Philadelphia’s own LaSalle University – bonus points Ricky, bonus points. After the party, it was home and to sleep.

The next day, we intended to attend church with Emma but jet lag has a funny way of knocking you off your feet at a moments notice. Brooke and I woke up around 5 am, were up for 3 hours, and woke up again around 12:30pm. Weird. Emma and her 3 curious daughters Deborah, Anna and Ellie arrived with lunch. They brought their friends Ben (left, with Emma in the background) and Joe (below, flanked by Anna, Deb and Ellie), two ornery young men, along from church. Needless to say, with 5 youngsters in the house now, Brooke and I were awake whether we wanted to be or not.

Skipping ahead to Monday. A group of us headed out to a few of the village sites today. Admittedly, it was hard. The children were enthralled with us. Many of the young boys would climb steps in an attempt to become eye level with me. The children were beautiful. I now know what Jesus means when he says whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it. Amidst their poverty, they smiled, laughed, played in the street and were simply alive. The life in their eyes was unlike anything I had ever seen. Their innocence was contagious. But they were also hungry.

We were welcomed into one of the villager’s homes. I counted her and 8 children living in a space, no bigger than a few hundred square feet. She was holding her youngest daughter Ariel. Ariel must’ve been a year old, tops, and she had big beautiful brown eyes. I held her hand and pinched her cheek in an attempt to get her to smile. I think she was a bit in awe of us as she had probably never seen someone’s head almost hit the roof of her house before.

As we made our way though the village, we found out that several of the fishing boats had been destroyed by the bad storm the night before. Without fishing, they have no source of income. GK is working to develop alternative sources of income – easily sustainable micro-businesses within the villages so that fishing is not their only means of subsistence. We noticed, at one point, Emma was lagging behind a bit. She was surrounded by the villagers. She came to learn that many of them had not eaten for 7 days. She bought them all food, mainly rice. Again, because the fishing has been so poor due to the weather, it has been even more of struggle to eat than normal.

As we left the village, Ricky began immediately talking about chicken BBQ. It caught me off guard a bit as we had just come from the worst poverty I had ever seen. I thought, “How can they be so numb?” Well Ricky and Paulo, one of the other GK workers, apparently picked up on our silence and explained the desensitization that most of them have undergone. They see it everyday. Ricky explained, “These are the poorest of the poor.”

As I thought about what he said, strangely a part of me became envious. Not of the poverty, the starvation, the combined stench of human waste with the salt water of the Pacific, but of the humility and curiosity with which they approached life. They were the image of God not yet corrupted by the ravenous quest for mammon. They were lives uninfluenced by the powers of consumerism and a market-driven economy. Their quest was for their daily bread, nothing more. They are those whom Jesus calls blessed, for theirs is the kingdom of God.

Getting Settled

2007-09-30T20:06:00.000+08:00

Hey everyone. We've arrived safely in Bacolod City, Philippines and are settling into our new home. Emma, our contact from Heart of the Father, has been hospitable, helpful and gracious toward us and we couldn't have asked for anyone better. We'll post some pictures later but for now, just know that we're safe and trying to recover from jet lag. Keep us in your prayers as the weeks ahead will undoubtedly be even more and more challenging.

Tickets booked!

2007-09-14T04:25:00.000+08:00

We've finally booked the trip! We're leaving two weeks from yesterday, on September 27th! So now it's crunch time. We're trying to squeeze a lot of Very Important Errands and Friend/Family Time into these next couple weeks.

Today, I have to go and get all of my vaccinations for the trip, so that should be a fun way to spend my afternoon. My Pop-Pop is up from Tennessee right now, and we're having dinner with him tonight. Josh may be competing in a Jiu-Jitsu tournament tomorrow, but he hasn't decided for sure yet. If not, we might go see Tony Mac's football game again (but this time we'll take sunscreen). Sunday morning we're helping a friend out at her booth for the Restaurant Festival in West Chester and Sunday night we're having a Thanksgiving-style dinner with Josh's mom. Next Wednesday, we'll be going with friends to see my favorite non-Josh singer/songwriter perform. My brother's birthday is next Friday and then on Saturday we'll be heading down to DC to check out a Filipino restaurant and visit with Josh's brother and his wife, before returning home to watch UFC 76 with our friends late Saturday night. (I'm truly sorry if you read this paragraph. That was more for my benefit and thought organization. I promise I'll make any future lists much more entertaining to read.)

Josh talked to Emma, our contact in the Philippines, last night on Skype and it sounds as though we'll have a house to stay in as soon as we get there. A two-unit house in her subdivision recently became available for rent, and the group has decided that it would be the perfect place for them to host incoming missionaries and other volunteers. From what I understand, we'll have one unit to ourselves and we'll have new "neighbors" coming and going during the three months we're there. It'll cost us only about $340 a month, and she said that any monthly utility bills, such as water, will be very cheap - something like $5. It's currently unfurnished, but Emma made it sound as though they'd be working to get it as least slightly furnished before our arrival. This is exciting, because originally the plan was for us to stay with Emma and her family until we were able to find an apartment on our own. I don't have any problem staying with a host family, however, I'm glad that our first weeks won't be consumed with finding a place to stay.

She also gave Josh a list of things she thinks we might want to bring with us, like collapsible mosquito nets and self-inflating bed mats for when we're "out in the field" and comfortable, long-sleeved, lightweight clothes. She suggested that clothes and shoes could be purchased quite cheaply in the Philippines once we arrive there, which Josh told me with great enthusiasm. (He's not keen do much pre-trip shopping or to pack has heavily as I intend to do.) I reminded Josh that he's 6'4" and sometimes has trouble finding clothes and shoes in the US that fit him properly. He mentioned this to Emma, and she confirmed my concern when she stated that even as a slim 5'5" she sometimes struggles to find things in her size. Now, if a slim 5'5" woman struggles to find clothes that fit, what hope is there for an athletic giant and his chubby wife? Let's just say that we'll be well-packed for those three months.

What We're Doing Here

2007-08-28T23:08:00.000+08:00

Hey everyone. Brooke and I are heading over to the Philippines at the end of September/beginning of October. We've decided to open up this blog to keep everyone posted on everything we'll be doing while working for GK. We plan on taking as many pictures and videos as possible and posting them here as consistently as possible. I'm pretty new to the whole "blogging" scene but, so far, I can honestly say it's much easier than postcards. Anyway, we're both looking forward to experiencing Filipino culture and learning as much as possible about how God is working to advance his kingdom throughout the entire world.

Personally, I'm excited to have a first hand opportunity to implement the skills and training I've been taught throughout my graduate program. I have no doubt Dr. Bronkema and Eastern University have sufficiently equipped me to play my part in taking the good news of the kingdom to the ends of the earth. For me, that includes reaching out to and caring for the poor and oppressed. Jesus says in John 12:8, "For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me." Combined with Matthew 25:40, "Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me", this is the basis for what I believe to not only be my responsibility as a follower of Christ, but of all who call themselves a Christian. Well, without turning this into a theological battlefield, I just wanted to leave you with a glimpse of what compels me. To be continued...