Joyland Update

At the risk of making the team jealous, I will give a little update on Joyland.

I have been out to Joyland each day this week, to deliver Emma's Deborah to Tagalog lessons. It has been a joy, to share a bit of normal life with a lot of the kids, just for a few minutes each day, and to see how smoothly it runs, and how happy and content the children are, even without Pastor Rick and Suzet there, as they are taking a well earned break back home in Oz.

You will be happy to know, team, that despite some very high winds this week, and a lot of rain, the structures are looking good and solid.....

Even in Rick and Suzet's absence, the problems continue for Joyland, as this week, they had news that people from the barangay (local community) had been complaining that the children were being used as child labour. All because they do some gardening, and are having the joy of growing their own vegetables. I was there yesterday morning when they were proudly digging up some veggies they had planted themselves!!! Grant and Vanessa communicated with Rick and Suzet by e-mail, and Suzet answered in typically feisty fashion. "Let them come and see what we are doing here. We have nothing to fear. If anyone let these kids down, it was the local council, the local community."

The issue of the child labour has been resolved. The barangay captain came, visited, took photos, and is happy that they are treating the children very well.

When you hear some of the stories of these kids, you realise just what they have been saved from. But also look at their lives now, and see what they are being saved to.... Security, good nutrition, a roof over their heads, education, a future. Life in its fullness. And, of course, love.

On the way there this morning, I passed a funeral cortege. I have no idea how old the dead person was, or how they died. Buit it is quite conceivable that it was a child as young as those at Joyland, either dead through malnutrition or a preventable disease, or an accident on an unlit road at night. I mentioned it to Grant when I got there. And he said that the crazy thing about the criticism they have been receiving is that it is quite likely that some of the kids there now would not have lived to the end of this year, if it had not been for the intervention of Joyland in their lives. Their futures.

Avenue team, you have been a part of that.... And from the sound of things at our discussion on the last evening, we want to be an ongoing part of it. Any support will be welcomed...