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


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.

1 comment:

  1. Oh Cathy - how heart breaking. Thankfully God knows her, and we can intercede on her behalf.
    Blessings
    Maxine

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