At the beginning of April, we had the opportunity to take a trip to the Philippines. As we mentioned in the prayer update at the top of the page, we met a man involved in a ministry called Kids International Ministries (KIM) who has been living and working in the Philippines for 18 years. KIM takes kids from extreme poverty or orphan situations and places them in a safe home where they are given the opportunity to grow and mature in a Christian environment. It's also been working with a specific impoverished community near Manila doing things like making clean water accessible and providing ways for sewage removal, as well as working in the southern island of Mindanao building a youth camp/Children's home. Without going into great detail, we'll just say for now that we feel we may be being led into this kind of ministry. We have begun to see our time in Korea as possibly a preparation of sorts for what is to come. We are super excited about this prospect, and covet your prayers for discernment and blessing in our lives. We'll post some pictures below of our trip, but none of them really give an accurate picture of the poverty around the neighborhood. The houses (shacks, really) were built from whatever scraps could be mustered and were often housing 5-10 people. There is no running water in the houses. Nonetheless, the people are smiley and joyful. If you want to visit KIM's website its http://www.kidsinternationalministries.org.
The Manila Children's Home that KIM runs.
Jess and Jaypee, one of the boys from the Manila Children's Home.
We did some hard physical labor a couple days of our trip. On this day, we hauled bags of cement and cinderblock up three flights of stairs to where workers were adding a fourth floor to the church next to KIM. We worked with this bunch of kids from a school in Taiwan.
This was taken after getting off that plane behind us. We flew to Mindanao, the big southern island of the Philippines. The man with the blue shirt is Jeff Long, the founder of KIM, and the other family is the Taylors from Seoul. We accompanied each other for most of our visit to the Philippines.
This is just a small glimpse of the beauty that covers the island of Mindanao. It was truly wonderful to be up in those mountains!
Here is a picture of the Children's Home that has been built by KIM in Mindanao. In the foreground is a newly cleared area that will become a full size soccer field. Behind the camera is an area for a covered basketball court, and to the left are buildings that will house campers every summer. I caught Dana Taylor unaware and was given a loving reprimand. Haha..
Ok, back to Manila for these photos. This is little Jessica, one of the girls at the Manila Children's Home. She was such a rambunctious little cutie with lots of spunk.
Regie is one of the older boys at the Children's Home. He has 3 other siblings that live at the home with him. All four kids are soon to be adopted back into a Filipino home that can support them.
Jeric is another boy from the Home. He and his sister are soon to move in with their aunt and uncle who will give them a loving home to live in.
One girl that really clung to Jess is Alexandria. She is a sweet little girl.
Benjie is one of the older boys at the Home. Fewer men come to the home than women, so Benjie capitalized on our stay by hanging on Russ as much as possible.
Gerald is a quiet little guy from the Home. Couldn't resist this great shot.
Chris John is a smiley little baby from the nursery at the Children's Home. He had a rough start to life, but through many hospital visits got back to full health and loves showing off those pearly whites.
Here is a shot of the Manila skyline from the top of Cuatro Community Center, a building that functions as a church, school, and dental clinic for the impoverished community surrounding KIM. KIM runs the school and the clinic.
An example of a two story squatter house built from scraps in Antipolo, near KIM.
This is one of the main streets in the neighboring community. On the right about halfway up the street is the outer wall of the Children's Home property. There is not a moment in the day when people aren't out and about on this street.
This girl's name was Jessica as well. She was not a child from the Home, but from the surrounding community. Her and her friends were out playing in the streets just about every time we went outside. We would often hear "Tita Jessica! Tito Russell!" when we came out the door. Tita and Tito mean "aunt" and "uncle" respectively. Most kids once they learned our names called us that. It's a cultural sign of respect from a child to an adult they know and trust.
Another day on our trip, we helped with the building of a home (made from cinderblock) in the impoverished neighborhood. A single man and his 5 children (one of whom has cerebral palsy) help out at KIM, so Jeff wanted to help him back- he built him a home nearby so we could help. These kids are from the squatter village where the house was built.
More kids from the neighborhood. Filipino kids love getting their picture taken.
This is a Jeepney, a popular bus-like transportation system widely used in the Philippines (or at least in Manila). All Jeepneys are decorated brightly and colorfully and are sometimes jampacked with people. It's not uncommon to see people hanging out the back going down the highway.
