Update from the Far Flung Ones

Well, we have not been very good at keeping our avid readers up to date, have we? All kinds of reasons for that. Internet coverage at Emma’s house has been very intermittent; we have not been near or by an internet cafe very often; and we have been so busy, doing the stuff we came out here to do....

So, this is a bit of a progress report. The team arrived safely from the UK on Saturday evening (29th March), dropped their stuff off at the accommodation and freshened up, then got their first taste of native fare, with a trip to the Bacolod Chicken House, for chicken and rice, then a touch of Bacolod cafe society, with pudding and coffee at Cafe Bob’s. A gentle enough introduction..

Sunday, after breakfast, we went to Promise City Church, the local church Emma attends. Rick, the pastor (a straight talking Aussie) and Suzet, his Filipino wife, also run Joyland, a children’s home in Silay, which currently houses 15 kids, but educates an additional three more, with plans for more to join in due course. More about that later. Church was good, with some great worship led by a pretty awesome band, and a typically straight to the point (though very funny) sermon from Rick, about fighting the fight of faith. That was quite an apt reminder, that when we are engaged in the Christian life, really engaged in it, and not just playing at it, we are likely to go through tough times, encounter opposition, have to fight our way through. The events immediately leading up to the team’s visit, with the fire at Emma’s house, was a reminder that things do not always go according to plan, In a way, it seemed like the worst preparation, but it could have been so much worse, and God’s hand in limiting the damage to property, and also to preventing the potential damage to Emma and her girls, was evident. Some of us found ourselves thinking that it would be a pretty good mission trip, if that was the level of opposition...

After lunch on Sunday, we went out to Joyland, to the children’s home, and the team got their first introduction to the 15 wonderful children, aged between 2 and 12, who live there. 6 of them moved there just before Christmas, and the remaining 9 towards the end of January. These kids were living in the worst extremes of poverty, and were extremely shy and pretty shell-shocked, just a few months ago. Now, the majority of them are really beginning to feel at home in the safe environment at Joyland. Rick and Suzet have a great team around them, and the kids really know they are loved and cared for. And on Sunday afternoon, they had a whole load of extra titos and titas (Uncles and aunts) looking after them. It was a lovely couple of hours, getting to know the kids a bit, getting them used to us..... A few of the guys (Gordon, Reg, Glen) who were clearly identified as the brains of the building outfit from Avenue, surveyed the building works required, and came up with a plan to construct the three verandahs which we had been tasked to provide. The others built something different. Friendships, relationships, which are so important out here. The building guys found that a good few necessary tools were not available, but the others only really needed to use two main tools, which we had in ready supply.... A big smile, and a loving heart.... Both were really easy to use, being with the kids made it impossible not to respond with love, and smiles and laughter.

It was dark by the time we left, and we went back to Cafe Bob’s for a snack and coffee, before the hard work of the next few days began.

Monday, after breakfast, we travelled out to Joyland, together with four volunteers from the Payatas area of Manila, who are over in Negros, working with Emma amongst the young people at Dacutan. The guys were engaged in either grunt work (digging holes, shifting wood, mixing cement, etc) or skilled labour (constructing the verandahs round the school room and one of the dorms); Ami, Alison and Deb were included in the classroom activities, reading to the kids, practicing conversational English, etc; and the Payatas volunteers were set to cooking, etc. Round about 3.30, school finished, and that was the cue for a lot of play time, to take over from the the work, for most of the team. Tuesday saw us do more of the same, and although we had some frustrations, including having to move some of the holes dug, in order to align the verandahs differently, and also obtain different corrugated iron sheets for the verandahs to match the existing roof, we got over these, and the English mentality coped pretty well with the Filipino way of life, pretty well, when all was said and done. Things are very different here!!!!

Due to some problems with the iron roofing sheets, we could not finish the job on the Tuesday as planned, but the building work some of the team were due to do on Wednesday and Thursday in Dacutan was not possible, due to a change of plan, by the local Gawad Kalinga community, so that proved beneficial, as it meant that the team could be split, with those who were more skilled in building being released to continue with the work at Joyland, and the others to concentrate on the kids activities.... More about that in another blog...

Suffice to say that the ability to be flexible and go with the flow is very necessary, and here it gave us the chance to finish what we started, to the great joy of the people at Joyland. We still have a couple of hours more work to do there, but we will finish that on Monday. At the same time, some wonderful relationships have been built with the children and staff there, who desperately needed some encouragement after the news that almost all of the kids were suffering from Tuberculosis, which will be very costly to treat. Some good news has come since, but the arrival of the UK team could not have come at a better time, to encourage Rick and Suzet, and it is great to see how the body of Christ can work together, across international boundaries, across cultures, etc. Faith in action.... God’s kingdom, coming, here on earth, in this part of the Philippines.

Enough for now...

Love Jo and the rest of the team