For phase 4 of dry dock, I was the leader of a challenge team of three (including me). We took a 5hr bus ride, then a 2hr jeepney to the tiny village of Maislap in Rodriguez, Rizal a rural province a few hours outside of Manila.
Marina (Brazil), Deborah (South Africa) and I spent 3 weeks working and living alongside a preschool and all the ministry involved in village life. Marina and Deborah assisted the preschool teachers each morning while I gave their mother's conversational English classes. In the afternoons we did many house visits to the student's families. This was a great opportunity to link the new teachers with the community as we provided the excuse for them to meet and talk. There had been an issue with a previous teacher and it was important for the new teachers to gain the trust of the families, for teaching purposes and also as the preschool is being used as a tool to share the gospel and reach out to the students and their families.
We visited a different church each weekend where we got the opportunity to do children's programs, share our testimonies and encourage the local churches. Much of this involved a few hours of travel in jeepneys and FX vans and each time, somebody would engage us in conversation asking if we were missionaries! This opened up some wonderful conversations where we could share the gospel, not only to the people speaking to us but everyone travelling as 16-20 people fit in a jeep or FX! One man got the OM website details from us and we were contacted a week later from the ship's head office in Mosbach that he had written in about his great experience with us!
It was an amazing time of seeing God answer prayers - EVERY single prayer was answered, and most of them immediately after being prayed! We saw a woman healed from a heart condition, conversations open up and He really did wonderful things with the mums in my English classes! One notable time was that I had prayed that one of the mums would bring up the topic of faith without me saying a word - I wanted to be sure it was God, and not me trying to force something. 20 minutes after I prayed this, a new mum I'd never met before joined our class. She sat in silence for 2 minutes before asking, "What is your faith? Can you tell me about the cross you're wearing on the necklace?" This might not sound so special, except that my clothes covered the cross - you could not see I was even wearing a necklace, yet she was asking about it! Everyone else was confused until I pulled it out from under my clothing and we ended up having great conversations and sharing with all the ladies!
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| We had the opportunity to share the gospel with over 200 freshman (17-20yrs old). We did a drama, I shared the gospel through the paper cross rip, then Marina shared her testimony and over 50 of the students then prayed to accept Christ! |
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| Me explaining the gospel through the paper cross rip |
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| The students following along, ripping their own paper until you unfold it and ends up with... a cross! |
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| Praying to accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour |
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| Preaching at a church |
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| The Filipino toilets (known as CR - comfort room) are not made for flushing toilet paper. We discovered this a little too late and had a team bonding experience on our first afternoon with trying to fix a blocked toilet! |
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| We lived next to a Muslim community, hearing the call to prayer 5 times a day. One of these families attended our preschool and we built a great friendship with them and were regularly invited to lunch here |
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| Beautiful rice fields along the way to our Muslim friends |
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| we had to cross this river to get back |
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| we found many new friends through this time |
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| We had to fetch our water in buckets from this artesian well several times a day. This water was for showering, flushing the toilet and whatever else was necessary except for cooking and drinking - it was not odd to find worms in the water... It was a great testimony to the villagers that we did every day life as they did, washing our clothes by hand at the well as they did and it provided some great conversation opportunities! |
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| This was half of the preschool. Cherry was one of the teachers who stayed with us many evenings through our time with them. She is 22 years old and a new Christian. We became good friends and it was a good opportunity to disciple her and help her grow in God. |
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| Our team, our host, the 3 preschool teachers and a visiting team from Logos Hope, just checking up on us! |
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| We discovered there was a Christian family in the village and so we organised some Bible studies and fellowship time with them. Through our home visits, we discovered 2 of the school families are also Christian and we began these studies that they will continue after we leave. |
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| Kids church - working on a memory verse with the kids! |
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| The best songs always have actions! |
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| In many churches we were asked for a 'special number', which meant they wanted us to sing a song! |
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| The amazing mothers looked after us so well and Ate (sister) George made this sketch for us as a thank you and on the other side were messages from each mother. |
