Will they Make it?

A little boy with a Lakers jersey stands with his sister at his home at the edge of the Pulang Lupa garbage dump. He's looking at the church that has been planted there. It has started some modest income generation projects to provide an alternative to scavenging. Will he have options not available to his father? To some extent this question will be answered by the degree to which the church chooses a wholistic gospel over a privatized spirituality that cares more about heaven than it does about the seeking the shalom of God for his earth. With this little church on the dump site, so far, so good. A sign of hope for these little ones.

Not God's normal

The morning here in Manila was spent hearing from a leader on social entrepreneurship for slum communities, and then from Corrie deBoer on Appreciative Inquiry. After that we went to the Pataya Dump site to tour the government facility that displaced scavengers and then to the site of the Pataya Christian Church that is led by a bi-vocational pastor who runs a few businesses to employ scavengers. We saw scavengers standing waste deep in foul water "washing" plastic bags to be sold to recyclers. We saw an urban pig farm attached to the church with pigs that feed on the garbage of the site. We saw one of the pre-schools that Corrie planted. Signs of hope in dramatic circumstances. Those circumstances can be overwhelming, and I know they brought insight and conviction. We meditated on the fact that thousands of children know no other reality. They and their families understand this as normal. But this is not God's normal; his shalom plan for their lives and community is beyond their dreams.

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From Fearful Streets to Holy Sweets

These girls are living the conversion that the biblical character Onesimus did, as he learned that he was indeed not useless, as his world was telling him. These young women, victims of unspeakable things in their families and eventually the streets, are now safe, happy and growing confident in Christ in the Onesimo ministry home on Manila. Their healing is well under way. Our students were so moved by the whole model, which includes education, vocational training, counseling, and discipleship.

Signs of God in the Botocan Slum

BGU Student Eva Chow and her colleagues in our Manila course study an incarnational ministry of another BGU student Aaron Smith and his wife Emma in the Botocan slum. The church they lead above their home has doubled in size in the last year, amazingly with mostly men coming to Christ. They are sponsoring educational options for the community as well. This community is seeing the shalom of God established little by little. Our students are seeing their shalom vision grow.

BGU Students Reach Out in Red Light District

It seems almost fashionable these days to talk about the evils of sexual trafficking. It's another to spend the evening seeking out it's victims, standing in front of massage parlors praying, interceding for teenagers who pass us trying to catch our eye. We accompanied Samaritana, a ministry to women caught in prostitution in Manila founded by Jonathan Nambu, a BGU grad. It is an evening that few will forget, and it is our prayer that it catalyzes similar work in the cutie of our students.

Can God Grow Larger?

Update from Manila: How does one's God grow larger than we have perceived him? By interacting with how he is experienced in a context radically different from our own. When the Filipino experience meets the Korean/America experience, and the Ethiopian leader listens in, and the Indian leader synthesizes what is being said, and the leader from Hong Kong say "here's how that works in my setting." All I can say is WOW!