There....and back again!

I apologise, this blog post is well overdue! I arrived back in England on 6th August, only to leave again on 9th and not get back until 14th. And since then I've just been finding my feet and getting settled back into life in England, so this is the first chance I've had to write up my conclusion to my trip. And also I didn't ever get to write about what I did on the last 4 days I was in Manila! So here goes...

On the Monday it was my normal day off, and amongst other things Mum and I visited the Hobbit House. It is a restaurant bar in Manila that happened to be just around the corner from where we were staying, and all the waiters are Hobbit sized and everything is Lord of the Rings style. It was lovely, and you can read all about our time there here: http://www.theonering.net/torwp/2011/08/03/46945-torn-spy-visits-hobbit-house-in-manila/

Tuesday was another unexpected day off because there was a crossover of two typhoons which meant flood levels were very high! So we spent the day around the condo and in the mall buying a few things to bring home with us. When I say a few, my suitcase was 37lbs heavier on the way back than it was on the way out! So you have some picture of the pile of stuff we bought :-)


Then on Wednesday it was my final day of volunteering with the church. I had the morning off and then I taught two of the girls in the afternoon before helping with the feeding in the evening. It was sad saying goodbye to everyone in the evening, especially when I know that it's going to be at least another 3 years before I see them all again.


Thursday was a normal Thursday for the most part - I was volunteering in a couple of the classes at the school during the day. And then in the evening we went out for a meal with Ron, Joanna and Maureen before taking a taxi to catch our plane to Dubai!


Dubai, although very hot, was a really nice break before getting back to the business of England. We had a lovely hotel room for the night, and we were able to visit the Dubai Mall (including its Aquarium and Ice Rink etc.!) as well as wander through some of the back streets and just observe a completely different culture.


Then on the Saturday we caught our plane from Dubai airport to come back to England! At first it really didn't feel like being 'home' - my heart was still with the people in Manila. And walking into my house was the weirdest feeling - a feeling of familiarity, but at the same time it didn't feel familiar at all. However I adjust to things very quickly, and I fitted right back into crazy life at 'home'.


I look back on my time in Manila and I can only say 'WOW!!!'. I had so many amazing experiences out there, and I grew so much as a person and especially in my faith and confidence. A summary of my time there can be found in Hosea 14-16:



¹⁴ “Therefore I am now going to allure her;
   I will lead her into the wilderness
   and speak tenderly to her.
¹⁵ There I will give her back her vineyards,
   and will make the Valley of Trouble a door of hope.
There she will sing as in the days of her youth,
   as in the day she came up out of Egypt.
 ¹⁶ “In that day,” declares the LORD,
   “you will call me ‘my husband’;
   you will no longer call me ‘my master.’



There were of course challenges, but the challenges only made my experience richer and I wouldn't have skipped them for the world! I am very much looking forward to when I can next go out and hopefully next time I can spend a few months there. 6 weeks was the perfect length of time this time round, but I would definitely like to go for longer next time.


If anyone has any questions about specifics of how I found the experience or just about anything, then feel free to email me (lisaloopylatin@freedomcounselling.net) or contact me on Facebook etc. I'm not sure that I'll often check this blog now that I'm not posting.


Finally, I want to say a massive THANK YOU to everyone. Everyone who persuaded me to get this blog in the first place, everyone who faithfully read every post I've written, everyone who messaged me with verses and encouragements or even just to say hello, everyone who helped fundraising, everyone who just supported me in the many many ways that I've needed it. And then of course everyone who welcomed me back to England because if it wasn't for you guys I think I might've just got straight back on the plane to go back over there again! ;-) THANK YOU! :-)


(P.S. Apologies for the lack of photos in this post, at the current time I have lost all my photos from 1st Aug - 6th Aug! I hope they're hiding somewhere and I just need to find them, but if not then at least I still have my memories... :-))

Penultimate Week

Hello!

I'm going to try and make this post not too long, mainly because I don't have much time before I have to go out this evening!

I finished my previous post with Saturday, so I will start up this one with Sunday. The church was once again flooded so the service took place at the New School while we were helping with the feeding in the church building. I love helping with the feeding – it is such a privilege to feed the children. And last Sunday we were able to feed 290 children and didn't have to turn any away because of no food!

We finished the feeding early so we went over to the New School to see the end of the service. It was Mum's first time at the school so I was able to show her round and introduce her to some of the people there which was nice. We left there at around 11.30 and then Fernando drove us to the bus station where we caught a bus to Baguio! Baguio is a province about 6hrs north of Manila where PCF have a church and an office. We were planning on taking a few days off to see a bit of the Philippines that wasn't Manila anyway, so we had decided to combine it with seeing a bit more of the work PCF do and visit the sites in Baguio. We got into Baguio station at 8.30pm and Ptr Eddie met us and showed us to our Hotel, which was really lovely of him! We hadn't expected that at all.

The Hotel we were staying at was lovely and really made us feel welcome. That is just the culture though – I haven't been anywhere and not made to feel welcome. The people go out of their way to look after you and always go the extra mile. That's definitely something I will miss being back in England! And I think it's definitely something we can learn from them.

The next day, Monday, we were able to have a bit of a lie-in before Ptr Eddie picked us up at 10 to show us around the sites. There is just a tiny church and an office with a couple of extra rooms for livelihood Mums. They don't have a school here, but instead they sponsor the children to go to state schools. They do make some of the products here though, and have about 20 Mums who now have a much larger regular income, doing something that is a lot safer than picking trash!

Here are some photos of the mission and the area and dump:

View from the bus!

If you compare them to the photos of the dumps in Manila, you can immediately tell that they are a lot cleaner. But that doesn't mean that the work is any less important – it's just as vital that the children and the adults are taken off the dumps!

After seeing round the site, we were able to go shopping in the wonderful market stalls they have here. It was wonderful and very cheap compared to England!! Then we went for a wander and saw a bit more of Baguio the city.

We travelled back to Manila the next morning, arriving at the bus station at 5pm. We were meant to then go onto Navotas (I had a lesson I needed to teach), but it had been raining all day and the flooding (and therefore the traffic) was very very bad, so we were unable to go and instead had the evening at home. It was a shame, but quite providential seeing as we had just been away for a couple of days!

On Wednesday the rain was still just as bad, and again all activities were cancelled. So effectively, I had 3 days off again! And because we had spent 2 of them in travelling to and from Baguio, I was very glad of the third one to rest and get my strength up. Although I then did go to bed very late on the Wednesday evening (because I was writing the previous blog post to this one) which I suffered greatly for over the next 2 days!

Thursday was a fairly 'normal' day with helping in the kindergarten classes during the day. During the morning class I covered the last of their new text books, did some marking and played with the children etc. In the afternoon class there wasn't much for me to do, so I was just sat down. Not a good thing to do if you've only had 4/5 hours sleep the previous night! I only fell asleep once, but I was very close to doing so on a lot more occasions! I did play a bit with the teacher's 3 year old daughter whom she had brought into the class and was being a bit disruptive. So I kept her occupied! :)

Friday was my day for helping in the school again and was very like Thursday in terms of what I did! Except in the afternoon I sat in on Mum's group for some of the boys aged 9-14. We finished there at 3pm, and then we went across to the church to do Wednesday's feeding that we had missed because of the rain. That went well as always, and then we returned back to the condo.

Mum leading the boys group

Some of the children we gave food to

Saturday was a very long day, a lot longer than usual, but very very enjoyable! We started with feeding at the church and then I taught a lesson while Mum led a women's group.

Bagging up the food! I'm wet because it was raining :)

Mum leading the women's group

And then at 2pm we had the privilege of being able to visit the family of our sponsor children! It took us a couple of hours to get there, but it was well worth it just to see the looks on their faces as we arrived. They were so excited to be able to meet us! One of the social workers who came with us offered to be our 'official photographer', so he used my camera and took loads of photos throughout our visit. So for this rare occasion, there are actually quite a few that have me in them! And it meant I was able to concentrate all my attention on spending time with Julienne, my sponsor child, rather than having to always be thinking about taking lots of pictures to remember the visit by!

At first we saw the house where they had moved to. The family is living with the mother's brother and his children, and in total there are 13 of them living in this tiny almost one-roomed house! (there's a little bit 'upstairs' so that's why it's ALMOST one-roomed :-)). Then we drove to see where they will eventually be living – there will only be the 5 of them in this house I think, but although there will be more space, it is still no where near big enough! Here are the pictures so you can see for yourself:

One of the 2 rooms in their new house

The other of the rooms

This is a washing area they will share with the other houses around

And the toilet!

The group of us that went to visit the house

The same group but with Chris (one of the social workers) in it instead of me!

The group of children we gathered!

Repairing the van!

After that, we were just on our way back to the other house when our vehicle broke down! We had been planning on leaving fairly soon after that because it would be another 2 hours to get back, but instead we had to stay for a lot longer. In some ways it was good because we were able to spend a lot more time with the children, but I'm sure we began to be a bit in the way. We didn't want to stop them getting on, so in the end we left the driver in the village and came back to Manila by public transport. It was quite an adventure! We took a pedicab and then an FX bus followed by a train and a taxi! The train wasn't like a train we have in England. More like the underground tube, but attached to wires like a tram and above ground!

We ended up getting back after 10pm, so after quickly cooking some dinner (I hadn't eaten anything other than crisps since 8am!) we went to bed.

It was really really nice to see our Sponsor Children, and exceeded any expectations I had of the visit. Julienne was so lovely and so very sweet! At one point she asked me where my father was, and when I said 'England', she replied in the sweetest voice with 'My Father's in Heaven'. It was the way she said it that really broke my heart. She's only 7, but has had to live through so much more than we will ever have to live through! She couldn't stop smiling and saying thank you, but I think I really should be the one thanking her!

On Sunday we were helping with the feeding once again, and then Mum and I went to Navotas. Mum was leading another woman's group – this time for the ladies in Navotas – while I was teaching a one off Music Theory lesson to a couple of the girls; Brenda and Cristine. They really impressed me with how quickly they learnt and in an hour and a half I was able to teach them a lot more than I had expected to be able to! And as usual I really enjoyed the lesson and we had great fun.

After the lesson we came home because the kids church was cancelled due to rain and flooding. And then I spent the evening relaxing and catching up on emails and messages!

And now we only have 3 and a bit days left before we catch a plane to come home to England! The time has gone very quickly, and I have been so grateful for every single experience that I've encountered while being out here. I haven't always enjoyed everything (although I have enjoyed almost everything), but even the 'bad' experiences have been good!


As always, I hope you've enjoyed this one, and another blog post will be coming later in the week.... :-)

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! :-)