I’d thought I’d write a final entry. As Helen has said the six of us (Danny, Becs, Fi, Nicky, Woolley and myself) returned last night. We got into Heathrrow on time at about 8pm.We were met by Nicky’s mum and Chris.
Dawn this morning has brought to end a 22 hour night that began 2 hours into our flight from Hong Kong as we flew into the night over the vast snowy expanse of central China. We will now have to adjust physically and emotionally to being back home and picking up our normal lives.
It has been a tremendous experience that we will be conscious of for the rest of our lives. I have been particularly aware of God’s guiding hand being upon us. I have had a verse from Psalm 139 in mind throughout the trip:
If I rise on the wings of the dawn and settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast”
I want to thank God for revealing to us
the beauty of his creation
the fellowship of His world wide church
and His love and compassion for the poor and disadvantaged
Thank you everybody for your support. Please keep praying for Mark and Noel, Kanlungan and the children.
Peter

The main team have landed safely at Heathrow Airport this evening. I am sure many of us will get to see them and hear their news over the next few days and weeks. Please pray for them all as they process all that they have seen and done.

Please continue to pray for Noel and Mark as they stay on in Manila. Noel will be going to work at the farm and boys home for this week. Please pray for his safety and that he will be able to draw alongside the older boys in a positive way.

Mark will continue to keep the blog updates so please keep checking it.

Thanks you for your continued prayers and support.

Helen

Another great day here draws to a close.

After another fine Breakfast in the Coffee Shop, we spent the morning enjoying the farewell party at the Benitez House, which was moving as ever. The Kanlungan Staff put together a great presentation for us with many pictures from our trip – not many dry eyes from the Streetlight team!

We had lunch with at the Centre followed by a final round of ice cream, and then it was time for another emotional round of goodbyes.

Then shopping – first at the Balkybyan Gift Shop and then at another mall / market with many small stalls. It really is a great place.

Finally we went for a meal with some of the staff (including Ate Sol) and the boys from the Coffee Shop at TGI’s, which was great fun.

It was a strange day for me … going through all the goodbyes when I am not actually going. But obviously the visit moves into a new phase for me now … and I am grateful to have the opportunity to stay out here for an extended time.

But … an early start awaits tomorrow. We need to leave the hotel at 5:30am to be at the airport for 6am. The flight intinerary is as follows:

Depart Manila 8:15am (12:15am UK time) on CX912
Arrive Hong Kong 10:20am (2:15am UK time)

Depart Hong Kong 2:55pm (6:55am UK time) on CX253
Arrive London 8:10pm

Its been a great team and a great visit … but I’m sure many of you will hear about it first hand soon!

Will update with more info about the rest of my time here with Noel tomorrow

Thanks

Mark

Good evening (or morning everyone).

Just to let you know that Becca and I have had an amazing time with the girls at Laguna. Reassured that Ate Heidi who used to be house mother would be there along with a japanese volunteer, we thought we would be well covered. Hmmm! Not quite so as the volunteer stayed in her room pretty much all day and evening until today and Ate Heidi came and went a lot. BUT we had a brilliant time anyway.

There are 24 girls aged 8 to 19. They are all in school (though one only goes in the afternoon as she (probably) has ADHD and her teacher can’t cope with her all day!!! The day started at 5.00 (so we were up at about 4.40am) with devotions and Bible stidy Meanwhile one of the older girls had been up st 3.30 to cook breakfast…RICE (of course) and fried spam one morning and  morning and a hotdog sausage today. As guests we also had sweet pork yesterday. Given breakfast was at 5.45 I confess to finding it a bit of a test!!! Before school the girls all have household chores to do (they do all their own washing by hand, cook and clean) and then at 6.45 they depart on “tricycles” = motorbikes with sidecars designed for 2 but carrying about 7 children…when I say “carrying” I mean the kids sort of hang on (and I prayed!!!)

As the older girls have exams this week, some of them were around in the morning and either went back to bed or revised! The first lot were back for lunch at 11.30 but the exam group ate it at 10.45…we were very confused but basically HUGE bowls of rice were on the go all the time with small amounts of protein and even less veg. Having said that the girls seem very healthy and vibrant. Beck and I were just around – she helped with a lot of Maths revision…I DIDN’T!!!

We had been warned that we might be hanging around a bit in the day but with more girls around during the day that wasn’t the case. We had the chance to have quality time with these delightful young women. It is clear that we should not ask questions and we didn’t but some chose to tell us bits and pieces about their lives. What strikes me is how strong their sens eof being saved by God is and how they are dreaming dreams for the future that are all different and all exciting. Kanlungan is dedicated to helping them achieve their full potential. It is genuinely awe-inspiring to hear one of them say she wants to be a lawyer in order to protect children like them by bringing abusers to justice. Another wants to join the police to fight drugs because she has a brother who is addicted. All these girls have been abused but but are seeing restoration in their lives and have a very real faith.

Praying with them is something else!! I listened to the 8 year old who was in my evening prayer group last night. We all had to give a request and I asked for prayer for my daughter Beth who was 30 yesterday. I didn’t understand the language but I heard all our names and “Ate Beth’s” – she was fully on our case.

Yesterday afternoon we took a few of the girls to the local “Robinson” (Asda???) to buy ice cream. BIG MISTAKE!!! “This one! This one” was the cry and I loaded an inordinate amount into the trolley (sorry Mike – the bill will appear!). We also bought an ice cream scoop and had a brilliant time stuffing them with the most garish colour ice creams (including one that was cheese flavour!!!). I dread to think how many E-numbers were consumed. We did only let them have one so there was lots left over for today.With loads of heavy bags to carry, Ate HHeidi decided that we should take a tricycle. As the old lady I got the seat along with the bags – the others hung on as we whizzed back (not very far)…health and safety seems a long way away!

We also bought the ingredients to make spagetti bolognaise for lunch today as it was definitely our turn to cook. Now I am a seasoned camper and well used to cooking for large numbers but this was a challenge!! 1 gas ring (the other’s bottle had run out), a cockroach or 2 for company, none of the implements one is used to and strange wobbly pans. But Beck and I were a great team and the japanese volunteer emerged for a while to “help” (watch! the entertainment). We fed them all on time and sent them back to school covered in pasta sauce…RESULT!!! Heidi was unconvinced that this was enough for the 3 joining ss from the boys’ home and had done lots of rice and fried chicken to supplement our weird English meal. The funniest thing was discovering the first batch of girls appearing with plastic boxes to take some back to school for their friends…very flattering but we did have to stop them as we wouldn’t have had enough for the younger girls (or Danny, Noel and Woollie come to that!).

Saying goodbye was really hard and both Beck and I were very tearful! For me it was made harder by the little 8 year old sobbing uncontollably. She had become very attached to my Kindle and read CHAPTERS of the Bible to me from it and had become a little shadow. You try not to get attached, or really to let them become so, but I did and she did and it was TOO hard. This has been the hardest day emotionally for me – it has also ben the most amazing and privileged experience actually living alongside the girls not just as a visitor. Leaving was hard but I confess that having a clean, flushing loo AND A SHOWER back here has been VERY GOOD! The arrangements there are “interesting” (though luxurious compared with the boys!) For a shower there is a bucket and a scoop and cold water (that bit – the cold water is GOOD…it is very hot and sticky in Laguna and of course no air con!

Well, having started the day at 4.30 I am ready for bed. We have ended the day with a great meal out with the K’lungan staff – the rule was that no one could sit next to anyone of the same nationality…and we had a few different ones. LOTS of laughter and teasing…all in all a good end to a great

3 days.and now we just have one more day before the trek home. THANK YOU all so much for your prayers.

Lotsa love

Fi  xxx

Hi everyone back home,

Well we have just got back from our time at the boys home and the farm.  It was quite an experience!

As you already know, our sleeping arrangements were slightly unorthodox but we got on with it.  I was quite ready to see Becca’s smile after turning over and seeing Woolley smiling at me last night!!!  Some mental images I would like to lose.

It was a great time though.  The boys are very independent and do all their own cooking and cleaning.  They encourage one another and support each other.  They are disciplined in their devotions as well as passionate.  We helped them with some studying as they had exams this week.  We were helping with Math, English, IT, Science and Philosophy.  They are a great bunch of boys. All 17 of them sleep on matts o\in the main living space and a night before bed (9:00pm) we tell them a funny story with some acting (as you an image Noel and Woolley always make me the princess or the little girl!).

After morning devotions (5:00am)  we have breakfast and the boys head off to the farm.  Hazel the other staff worker was staying at the farm and he did all the running around.  We watched him make lunch with a machete and then serve it on a banana leaf.  There is a new building at the farm which is almost complete.  This will be the new home for the boys, I think St John’s raised some funds for this previously.  It is a great building with proper kitchen and toilet facilities as at the moment they have very little.  After lunch we cut grass with a machete which was quite exhausting!

Before leaving one of the boys asked if we would like to go see the river, I emphasize see because what it actually was, turned out to be hour trek through a river in the tropic!  Noel fell in the river and slipped a number of times.  We managed to save his phone but his wallet got wet.  We saw lots of dragonflies which then made us realise that there would also be leeches.  After about 50 minutes we got to a cliff face and the boys wanted us to climb.  I went up the first bit but Hazel said it was a bit unsafe so we went back.  It was quite an adventure and a good laugh also.

We went back to the boys home to get cleaned up, do devotions, study and dinner.  In the morning we dropped the children off at school and had one last visit to the farm to say goodbye to the boys there.  It was amazing to spend some proper time with the boys and to see the opportunities that these children now have because of the work of Kanlungan.

A rather intense but memorable few days, it is nice to be back at the hotel for a shower though

Few days left, please pray that I make the most of it.

Danny

Click on the picture of the farm to see the whole view.

Danny Wrote in a text earlier.

‘A tiring but good day. Grass cutting and wading through the river at the farm. Noel fell over several times! We ate our lunch off banana leaves.

Been tutoring at the boys home this evening as well as devotions with the boys.’

Hi everybody,

Nicki and I have been at Benitez all day. Mark joined us for some of the time but has also been out join the rest of the Kanlungan team on their retreat. He seemed to be in one piece when he came back; Leto  was driving the car he was in; his driving is the extreme Philippino driving experience!

Nicki and I stayed at Benitez helping with the children. It has been a pleasure to do this. They are lovely children, but they argue and are naughty at times like all  normal children. In fact, in many ways, they are better behaved than quite a lot of British kids. Benitez is very much about helping the children to learn how to be in a community and be ready to go to school, so adults who can spend time with them, and show them how to behave in a loving way is what we’re trying to do while the staff are away. With the worship times, there is a definite acknowledgement  that God is at the centre of all this. It has been good to spend more time with one group of the children and get to know some of them better. Tomorrow is our last day there.

The “boys” have been cutting grass at the farm. They seemed to survive last night! Fi and Becs are doing OK at Laguna.

Thank you again for all your support,

Peter

As the others are out of town, I thought I would give you another update. We had breakfast at the coffee shop and then went our seperate ways. As I said yesterday, our boys (Danny, Noel and Woolley) have gone to the boys home whichb is a couple of hours drive South from here. They will spend the day at the farm and then return to the boys home for when the boys come back from school. We’ve heard in a text that they have an interesting sleeping arrangement, the three of them will have to manage on two mattresses pushed together! Perhaps they will need some prayer!
Fi and Becs are at the girls home- Laguna.
Nicki, Mark and myself have been at Benitez for the day. This morning we arrived to find that a class from a local school had joined the children for the morning. They sang some songs, played games and had lunch together. After lunch, I took some time out to summarise and go through what I did yesterday. Mark also had some time back at the hotel to do some admin. Otherwise we have just spent time with the children. So it has been a much more low key day, but we hope just as helpful as the other days. The children have to work quite hard at times, for example the older ones have to wash their own clothes, help with the cooking and cleaning; however I have to say Benitez feels a “safe” place. Everybody joins together for an evening act of worship.
We managed the ride home on a jeepney. this was through some big areas of standing water from the rain that fell in the afternoon. I was amused to see driver having a cigarette- totally oblivious of the No Smoking sign!. There was also some interesting wild life running around on the floor, and that was when I noticed I could see through the floor in one or two places!
Than you for all the replies on the blog from yesterday. it is really encouraging to know so many people are supporting us.
Peter

Unfortunately my last entry under “thank you’” seems to have not been published which is a great pity as it included a photo from the farm yesterday as well as today’s medical mission.

I must thank so many people for today. Firstly to Flo and Michelle who spent many hours yesterday going around different pharmacies buying all the drugs we dispensed today, as well as for their help today at the different work stations  mentioned in Fi’s blog. Secondly to Myrna for working with me today, with her own professional knowledge and for translating.  Thirdly to the whole team for working so hard at the diferent ststions and in lookiung after the children with their mothers. Fourthly thanks to everybody at home for their prayers and also to so many others who have worked so hard behind the scenes, cooking food and doing all the other jobs to make today happen.

The day went very well. Many children didn’t need medical intervention, but quite a few did, and would not have had any help if we had not been there. There is one child who I remain particularly concerned about, can’t give details, but if you could pray for them.

I have been told my hand writing is very good! Flo said she could read all my prescriptions!

Tomorrow we move to different parts of the project and will remain there until Friday. I will be at Benitez with Nicki and Mark. Fi and Becs will be at Laguna - the girls home. Noel, Danny and Wooley witll be at the boy’s home/farm. We will be helping out while most of the permament staff go on a retreat.

Will blog again soon,

Peter