Week 1- Discerning Purpose

I've been so busy that I haven't had time to write! They keep us pretty scheduled here. I'll touch on a few things from this week.

We went to church at Puno UMC. The service was great and it was nice to have a similarly organized service to those from home. When we got there it was like God had answered our prayers. Literally. The air conditioning hit us like a wave of relief. I'm pretty sure I almost cried. It seems silly but this has been a bit of a rough adjustment. We had air conditioning last week at NCCP and I don't think we knew how lucky we were. By the simple act of having AC the church provided some much needed relief. We will be attending a different church every week. I have decided to keep all of the bulletins to make a collection when I get home. Each week we will share with the youth of the church about what we are doing and why. We have already heard stories of the impact we had on the first group of kids we talked to. (One was a ChemE too! But I didn't find out until after). 

The church was the home church of our "local GJV" Sueña. Sueña is my new Filipina BFF. :D She is with us most every day. She has been taking us on all the public transportation options and making sure we don't get lost. She commutes 2.5 hours every morning and every night to get to us and back home. She spent a couple nights at the Decker home with us because it was too late to go back. She is a full time volunteer and a student deaconess. And also super dedicated! And we love her for it! 

On Monday we got our schedules for the whole time we are here. Thank goodness they put some rest days in because they are keeping us busy! I am always exhausted by the end of the day. We then went to a couple tourist destinations around the city including Fort Santiago and Razil Park. We had a ton of pictures after that excursion. We even walked over a replica of the Philippines which was cool to see it represented in 3D. 

On Tuesday we had a unique experience. We visited the urban poor community Paranaque. The community will not exist after 2016 as it is scheduled to be demolished to make way for new flood prevention structures. While some of my group had visited before during training, this was my first experience there. The smell was overwhelming at times. It was a rotten odor that pervaded every corner of the community. The "streets" were narrow pathways that wound in seemingly unrecognizable patterns. It would be easy to get lost in there. We were given the chance to meet one of the families. The woman we met was Tita Rose. While her husband worked on a boat motor behind her we were able to ask her questions with the help of our Tagalog speaking friend from Batis Center for Women, Glen. She used to work as seamstress but went blind in one eye and was unable to stay employed. Her husband runs boats up and down the river, fishing to make a living. That suffices for most of the year but after storms the river is too churned up to fish an income becomes short. There is a plan to relocate them to another community, but there is no river there. I tell this story to put a face on the issue of the cycle of poverty. One of the main issues we are looking at is forced migration in the Philippines. There is a lack of infrastructure to create the jobs necessary to employ all the Filipinos. 28% of the population is unemployed or underemployed. The house we were in is actually built over the river. I could look through the bamboo floor and see the water. I felt a bit voyeuristic looking in on their lives and leaving having done nothing. Who was I to come in and see their lifestyle and leave just as easily? It is sometimes hard to discern the meaning of all of this, of why I have been placed here and why I am doing what I am doing. I think it comes back to being able to share these stories. To bring to light the injustices people face everyday. John 10:10, our focus verse for this mission journey states, "I came that you may have life and have it abundantly." They are living an abundant life in their own right but they are also being oppressed by a corrupt system. So take my story as you will.

This experience was followed by dinner at the Mall of Asia, the biggest mall in Asia. And if you have read my previous posts you will know that the regular Filipino malls are huge.  This could probably rival all the malls in Burlington county put together. And then some. We had dinner and rode the MOA eye (a Ferris wheel that overlooked the mall, the city, and the ocean. It was quite different from the afternoon's experience.

We led the morning devotions time for the UMC headquarters the next day. We shared our experiences and where we were from.

Yesterday was spent at Migrante International. We heard more testimonials of survivors of human trafficking. They were equally compelling as those I heard last week during training.

Today was our day off so I finally had time to write! I mostly caught up on sleep but also saw 22 Jump Street and wrote this blog post.

It's hard here sometimes but I know I have a ton of support coming from everyone back home! I really appreciate all the prayers being sent my way. Pray for an adjustment to the weather. Pray for strength to get through the week. Pray for the three others serving with me, Nicole, Tekeya, and Kosta.

I'll leave you with one of the only phrases I can remember in Tagalog.
Mahal kita.
I love you <3