Week #4: God's Perfect Timing

Hi guys! I'm really sorry it's been so long since I updated this, but I've been a little busy recently! You'll see why as you read on...

So last Tuesday was my first 'normal' Tuesday I think! 'Normal' being that what happened was what was meant to happen, according to my schedule. One thing I love about being here is that you can guarantee that things are definitely not going to go according to plan! Especially at the moment because it's rainy season, so the weather frequently disrupts our plans. Some people get frustrated by it, but I just love the uncertainty of it, and the perfect timing of it. By that, I mean that plans have always been cancelled when I've been behind on stuff (sleep, emails etc.) but when I've felt on top of things, everything has been on. I don't like the fact that the activities have been cancelled, and I would prefer them to be on, but every time I have thought that it was actually quite providential, and it reminds me again that God is looking after me and His timing is perfect!

Anyway, so back to Tuesday. After a lovely morning off, Maureen and I went to Tondo to meet Brenda and EJ to go on Home Visitations. Here are a few pictures:

Brenda, EJ and Maureen

One of the stores on the dump

First we visited the home of a girl who hasn't been to anything at the church recently, and then we visited a young woman (16) who had given birth to a baby son just last month. It was a great eye opener to the realities of life here – although there have been less teenage pregnancies each year than before PCF church started their ministry here, they still do happen. And it is heartbreaking each time!

Here's a picture of the baby (Jericho, “Jero”) with Maureen:

After that I went to Navotas for my weekly teaching there. As usual, I had a great time and the girls learnt a lot. They are very talented and love to learn – it's such a joy teaching them!

Sorry to go off on a side note again, but here is a video of Cristine (one of the Navotas students) and EJ dancing to Who Am I by Casting Crowns (choreographed by EJ). I think you'll agree with me that it is very good and they are extremely talented young people! http://www.youtube.com/user/treasuresintrash#p/u/11/q4SkA1IRhRQ And it is even more moving when you know where they've come from and their background, yet the joy they have within them, and I just love their smiles as they are dancing for God's glory! There are other videos of the youth on the PCF church channel if you wish to look through them. I'd highly recommend it!

On Wednesday I was a bit more homesick, which was the first time I've felt even a little homesick for quite a long time, but I still had a lovely day. We again had the morning off, and then we arrived in Tondo for the women's group at 4. However, for some reason they'd started at 3 and not let us know, so they were just finishing! As we didn't have anything really to do until 6, I sat down and read LOTR while Maureen went to go and get some more petrol and the women started to cook the dinner.

Then in the evening it was Sinag youth service, during which I was playing the piano and giving my testimony! I had written a rough outline of what I was going to say that morning, however I was still a little nervous about having to be translated - it's a very different experience to just speaking! I mentioned in last week's post that I was worried that I'd lose my thought track, but as soon as I stood up to speak, it was like all my nervousness just fell away, and I felt completely confident that I could do it. And the testimony went very well and I hardly looked at my paper with my prompts on it. Thank you to everyone who prayed for that!

Playing the piano...

You can't help but smile!

On Thursday I was helping in the school during the day, and fortunately it was a much calmer day than the previous week! I was helping in Marilyn's class in the morning, and then Jenny's in the afternoon - both of them kindergarten classes. In Marilyn's class I did the marking for her (which I thoroughly enjoyed!) and then she had a whole load of new toys which had arrived on a container van from UK the previous night, which the children were just allowed to have time to play with. My immediate reaction was 'why are the children coming to school if all they're going to do is play with toys, which they could do at home...??!' But then I realised that they don't. They don't have toys at home...any toys they have are ones they've found in the trash and cleaned up themselves. And they don't have time to just play and be children! Often the kids on the dumpsites and in the cemetery grow up way too quickly, and are usually expected to help their parents/relatives with the chores and even waste-picking from a very early age. I've walked through the dumpsite and seen very young children, who look no more than 5 or 6, scavenging for things that they can then sell on to earn the tiniest amount of money. It's heartbreaking! So it was such a pleasure being able to watch them play and just enjoy themselves, and be able to join in and play with them as well! I took many photos, but I won't bombard you with them all, so here are just a few:

After lunch, as I mentioned before, I was helping in Jenny's class. She gave me the task of covering the last few text books with plastic covering, so while I was being helpful, I was also able to watch the lesson. They started the afternoon with a prayer, and then Jenny led them in some songs. Here's a video:

Then she told them a bible story before an English lesson.

Earlier on in the day, I had been to the sponsorship department to ask about visiting our sponsor children while we are here (Mum and I sponsor children within the same family), and I was told the really sad news that their father had passed away aged 39 the previous month. They have no idea what caused it – they just woke up one morning and he was dead. And of course they had no money for an investigation into how he died. Following his death, the whole family (Mother and 4 children) had moved away from the dumpsite to a place that was 2 hours away from the school, so it was going to be slightly more tricky to visit them! However, I was told that the Mum works in the school in the livelihood department, and they were going to try and find her for me so I could meet her and talk with her.

So during the middle of the English class, Loos (one of the staff at the school) took me to meet her. Her English wasn't very good, but we were able to converse a little bit, and she was very glad to be able to meet me – as I was to meet her! We are hoping to still be able to visit the family even though it is 2 hours away, but nothing has been arranged just yet. Please pray it will all come together smoothly. Thank you :-)

Julia (the mother) and I

I used to sponsor another girl in this family, Angelika, but unfortunately she also passed away a few years ago – of Leukaemia. The mother was in tears as she told me that Angelika had always longed to meet me, and when she knew that she was going to die, she gave the picture of me that I had sent her to her Mum, and asked that her Mum would one day be able to meet me. It really touched me because I don't think I had realised just how much it means to the families over here that someone somewhere else cares enough to pay for them/their children to go to school and be educated. When I first started sponsoring Angelika I used to write to her frequently and send her pictures of me and my family etc. But as I grew busier and busier, it became something that I never had time to do, or just forgot to do. My sponsorship has now moved over to Angelika's sister, Julienne, and I regret not prioritising sending her photos and sending letters to her. And as soon as I get home I will remedy that. I think it becomes too easy to just see it as another lot of money that comes out of your bank account every month, and you forget just what the money is going towards. I know that is certainly what happened with me! So for those reading this who have sponsor children with PCF or other charity organisations, I'd like to really encourage you to contact your child regularly and build a relationship with him/her – unless you've lived in the depths of poverty, you will never know just how much it means to them!! And for those reading this who don't yet sponsor a child, I can't encourage you enough to find out more about sponsoring! It costs £18 a month, and if that at first seems a big commitment each month, think about what the £18 is giving. With that, you are giving a child a life, and a future. They will have the security of education, and the increased likelihood of escaping the poverty trap, and if you really think about it, you can spare that £18! So I've made it very easy for you by pasting the link here: http://p-c-f.org/sponsor-a-child.php. What are you waiting for! :-)

Anyway, apologies I keep going off at tangents this evening. I'm writing this fairly late at night (well, technically fairly early in the morning!) so that's the excuse I'm giving for my brain's inability to stay focused on what I'm meant to be writing :-)

After meeting Julia, I went back to the classroom only to discover that the children had been sent home early. The next day was a parade and presentation for 'Nutrition Month' and so the teachers were needed to help decorate a display board for that. We helped them until it was time for us to leave and go back home.

The following day, Friday, started fairly early with a 6am start, and getting to the school for 7.40am. The parade and presentation was meant to be from 8-10am, and then the children had the rest of the day off. But this is the Philippines, and the parade didn't start until getting on for 9.30, so unfortunately we weren't able to see much of it before we had to leave. Here are some pictures:

After going to the school, Maureen was going on to Ortigas for a meeting with Ron and Joanna, so I had the condo to myself for a few hours. Then at 4pm I left to pick Mum up from the airport. It all went smoothly, and we met fairly quickly and had no trouble getting a taxi home. So thank you to everyone who was praying for that! Mum has been writing her own little blog while she's been here, so do check it out here: http://www.freedomcounselling.net/category/philippines/

Saturday was a very long day for me, but I felt renewed after more time off than usual on the Friday, so it was fine. Again, I think it was the first Saturday that has been 'normal' according to my schedule!

I started the day by helping with the Tondo feeding, and then I was teaching a couple of the Tondo girls – Jovelyn and Rosemae. Because so many Saturdays have been messed up for various reasons, although I've been here 4 weeks now, it was only Rosemae's second lesson and Jovelyn's third. They are both doing well - Jovelyn in particular because she's had that extra lesson. In fact, she was doing so well that I suggested she played in the Sunday service the following morning instead of me, to get the practice at playing in a Worship Team. She wasn't confident she would be able to do it, but she did, and she did so very well! I wasn't able to be there, but Ron was there and he said she had played well.

So after teaching I went to the other church in Malabon for the youth service there. It was the first time I'd been there, so it was lovely seeing a new place! It's quite a small church, but it was very nice, even though the study was all in Tagalog so I couldn't understand a word! :-)

After the service I went back to Tondo to help Jovelyn at the Worship Group practice for the following morning. The first half was spent writing out the chords for her, because the guitarists all play by memory here with no music, and of course she wouldn't know what the chords were! (And neither did I, especially seeing as I didn't actually know most of the songs full stop! :P). That finished at 8pm and then I came home to the condo. The traffic was amazingly clear and I got home by 8.15! Once I got home, I went out for a frozen yoghurt with Mum as we had ran out of time to get one the previous night!

And that reminds me, I now have the photo of my frozen yoghurt that I had had the previous weekend:

I think I'm going to finish this blog post here because it is getting very long and also very late for me! But one final thought.

I've titled this post 'God's Perfect Timing', and I think this is one of things that constantly amazes me. Everything about this trip has been 'perfectly timed' and I know that God has everything to do with that! The time away from home has been just the right length – not too long, but long enough that I've got a feel of it and settled into the culture properly. And Mum came out here at just the right time – I had the perfect amount of time on my own, and now I've got just enough time with Mum to show her everything and to do the things with her that I wanted to do with her. I could carry on forever with a list of things that have been 'perfectly timed', but it's probably simpler and quicker to say that at least once a day I think 'Wow. That was perfectly timed!'. We often talk about the influence of 'Filipino Time' on our schedule here, but whether Filipino Timing or Western Timing, I've found it such a comfort to know that God plans for things to happen just when they do happen, and His plans are absolutely perfect!

Once again, I hope you've enjoyed reading about my adventures over here, and please feedback with any comments or questions! I will be writing another blog post as soon as I have time, although I can not foresee when that will be :-)


UPDATE: Since writing this on Wednesday evening, we have now arranged to visit our children tomorrow afternoon.


And since there were complaints at no food to guess last week, here are some frozen yoghurt flavours! :-)