My Heart

I really don't know where to start on the this and the next bunch of pictures. The Lord brought us to the Philippines to live and be a part of the people. We are on an island that is 50% poverty, 80 % child and teen incest, sodomy and rape and 90% dedicated to idols at birth. We have been here 15 months now and I am just able to start posting about the children and teens and people here. We love them all and we are happy to be here. But our heart has hurt more than we ever imagined was possible. It is not the safest place to be because we are "white" and they tell me I am the only white woman they have seen. Would we trade living here for anything. No, we are right where we belong. I look at these pictures and I cry all over again. These children are so beautiful and so hurt. We hold them as they sob and cry because of what they have been through and we know we have to send them back to the same situation. We tell them about the Lord but it is hard because we speak a different language but we are learning their language. The Lord gave us a wonderful interpreter and a wonderful Maestra (language teacher). Both the interpreter and Maestra have stolen our hearts. They call us Mama and Daddy and we feel honored. Many have become so precious to us.

We have many people to thank, Patty & Loretta and others who send us clothes & soaps and necessities to take to the village people. The wonderful Intercessor's at LifeWay Church. The need here is so great that it gets overwhelming sometimes. We could not do this without the help So Thank you all.
This is an ongoing story so please follow with us as we walk through each day not knowing what the day will bring.

Monday, September 11, 2017

I Want To Brag A Little

I just have to share a little and brag a lot. This is not a good picture and when I get time I will replace this one with a better picture but.... these awesome woman make home made dresses and pants and then others send toys for the children and teddy bears and clothes in all sizes for the men and boys and women and children and the new babies here. I tell you when the children and the teens and mothers and boys and men get these clothes that these people send and make they are so overjoyed. Thank You to those who send clothes also.The need is great and for some reason we are having a baby boom lately. The baby clothes have been awesome and so needed. We have given most of them away.

I just want to take time to thank you all for everything you send. The clothes, all sizes,  the toys, the medical aids  and the tooth brushes and tooth paste and the hair supplies and soap which the teenage girls go crazy over and the blankets and the utensils and containers to keep food in and everything. You all are amazing and thank you is just not big enough.  All of us on our little team of 7 counting us LOL are usually so busy with speaking and handing out clothes and making sure everyone gets something and that the children get a toy so it is really hard to get pictures. But I will try to do better. 

A big thank you to you all who help us supply things for the children and emergency food and supplies when they do not have any. This is a poverty island and poverty here is like nothing we have ever seen before.Squatters who have no place to go but live in a lean to with poles and a canvas and a bamboo mat for the whole family. I could go on but this was supposed to be short LOL 

I just had to say thank you and someone who had been on the field in Guatemala blessed us with pillows and a medical book and more. So I am for the first time in 2 years sleeping through the night and my husband is waking up without his neck hurting. Having been on the assignment we are on they knew what to send. Thank you so much 

A special Thank You to Patty and Loretta and all who help them and for helping them to cover the cost of sending to our people and children here.  Yes, we have fallen in love with them. They are so beautiful and I dare you to come here and not fall in love with these children and teens. There is so many more I want to thank but this is too long now. So please know that we thank you and honor you for your hearts and help. I will post a thank you to the others when I can.

  
This little girl was at a meeting we had and she loved her new dress.  

I met this woman at a mountain village church. She was huddled in the corner against the stone wall.  I motioned to her and asked her if  I could pray for her. With my interpreter we prayed and the little tiny woman would not look up.  I gave her a hug and the Lord let me feel some of the pain this little woman has experienced. It was more than I could handle and I and my interpreter cried and cried. After about 2 hours with her huddled in the corner like you see her now,  She gave me a small smile and I told her I would see her again and so with some of the clothes that have been sent to us to hand out I found some women's clothes that are small enough for her. I also found a sundress that someone made and sent that will fit her.   Thank you to all of you who send us clothes and toys and etc.  They  are so appreciated.   They say she has basically nothing and lives with some of her family but doesn't seem to ever talk or communicate. They told me about what her life had been like and that made me cry more.  I cry as I write this. I just want to see her and love her some more. 
Isn't she the cutest little girl. She is 8 years old and lives on the street. When we came across her she had on flip flops that only covered the front of her feet and were worn so bad. The bottom of her feet were calloused.  Her clothes were old and worn and dirty.  Someone was nice enough to cut her hair.We fell in love with her and she was selling catholic candles to light the candles at the Catholic church for 1 peso each.  I only had 10 peso's with me so you know she got 10 peso's LOL.  My interpreter and I ran back to the apt and got her some flip flops and clothes for her. She loved the filp flops so we thank the person who gave them to us and she loved the dresses.  Someone sent some of the cutest homemade dresses and she loved them.  In the bottom of the sack we put a soft teddy bear that a friend of ours sent us to give out.  She feeds herself and lives by selling the candles so she can eat.  I so wanted to take her home with me.  We are praying for land so we can rescue some of these children.  How can you not love them ?  

This is a hard one for me.  We found this girl walking on the street, dirty, thin and looking like she was a zombie.  We stopped her (my interpreter and the girl who lives below us. )  She wouldn't look straight at us.  Her eyes were dull and lifeless and when we talked to her  she mumbled answers.  I saw her hands, which I wish I could have gotten a better picture. They looked like hands of someone who was old and had worked in the dirt for many, many years. there was cracks clear down her fingernails and  her hands were so rough and calloused dirt that was so far down that it could not be washed out.  I opened her hands and I didn't get to take a picture because she closed them as fast as she could but I got to see the palms of her hands and they were covered with old puncture wounds and then newer ones on top.  I thought at first she was doing it to herself and then when I asked the Lord I felt like it was done to her so that her body would learn not to respond to pain.  We told her that she could come to us anytime she needed help and how to find us.  But a man walked by as she was leaving and gave her a look that I knew and an ugly laugh, he watched her and I realized what his thoughts were.  I wish there were words to say that could express the feelings we all had when she walked away from us and we had to let her go back to what she lived with.  We  are praying that we can find her again.  We wanted to give her clean clothes and flip flops but knew she would get hurt if she came back with anything new.