Passing By

How often do we drive by a man on the streets asking for money? Just the other day I drove through Chicago to a friends wedding. On the way I saw a young man half his teeth were missing, yet he could be hardly older then me. He was holding a sign saying he was homeless. We drove on by. Who is he, why is he on the streets at such a young age? Why doesn’t he go get an education or a job? What parents would let their kids be on the streets? All these are some of the many questions we think of. Why don’t we learn what happened. Lets stop making assumptions, were all guilty of this myself included. Instead we can learn what the real reason is, go learn their name let them share there story. The easiest thing we can do and the cheapest is talk with them. Learn their story, we all have a story so whats yours, whats theres?  I encourage you to go out this week meet one person, they don’t have to be homeless but that be sweet if they were or even someone who sits alone every week in the cafeteria or local restaurant you go to alot. Let them talk about their life. Every story is important and when you put a face to an issue it becomes personnel.

Reaching are full Potential

As a ministry team here at Sunshine Gospel Ministries we have been meeting together weekly to discuss Radical Together, by David Platt. Only a few chapters in, yet I have been wrestling with one of his thought provoking questions. He challenged his readers to consider the ministries their involved with, and the money they spend. He didn’t ask whether the ministry is good but if it is the most effective way to share God’s word. Platt says it like this, “We have to put everything, even good things in the church, up for reconsideration before God, releasing them wholly to him and asking him to show us his priorities and purposes for each” (Platt, 9). That simple statement really challenged me, to evaluate how I go about my ministry, am I really doing it the most effective way with the resources I’ve been given?

Some questions I began to comb through as I evaluated my own life were; who does God say is my neighbor? Is my life-style and work, my free time, my spending, my giving used in the best way for the glory of God. So how can I make my resources and time most effective for God? Once I thought through these I began to write down some things I could change. They didn’t have to be big changes.

 I started off with my money. Not having much money makes it easier to know where I spend it. The biggest money expense after rent is food. Now I love to go out to eat and I tend to go at least 3 times a week, so I decided why not cut back to one meal with others and one by myself. So one less meal a week and I made one meal with the purpose of fellowship. Last year I worked on my tithing realizing that I struggled to give god just 10% I decided to donate to a cause every month in order to make sure I was giving at least 10% if not more monthly. Since then most months I’ve also found myself more available to give to others and churches with the extras the lord has provided me with. Here’s one last change I made in my own life, my free time. As I look at my journals over the past year I notice that I wasn’t daily in the word some weeks I was missing four days. Yet most days I was watching a movie. So I decided daily I will spend time in the Word and instead of watching movies, I will read more books. So this summer I began that challenge and yes I’ve watched some movies but without missing a day I’ve been in the word and I’ve read Seven books. Even the little things in our life might need to be reevaluated to allow ourselves to be more available to God. I hope this may encourage you all to evaluate your own lives to and walk in this journey along side me!  

Community

Head up look right look left, why is it that I’m fearful to walk down my street on the south side of Chicago. Yes its dangerous, yes there are problems, but there are problems everywhere. Every neighborhood, every city, every country has its problems. I’ve slept in the slums of Manila, stayed in a remote village in Zambia yet I find myself reciting scripture as I walk,  “though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me” (Psalm 23:4) The people here are no different then anywhere else I’ve been. We are all creations of God beautiful yet corrupted by sin.

Looking back at my journal over the past two weeks, I saw that paragraph staring up from the pages. My fearful attitude from that first day got torn down before my eyes and was replaced with passions and love for my new neighborhood. God’s opened my eyes to the beautiful community that exists here in Woodlawn. Everyday I walk to Sunshine Gospel Ministries where I’m interning, I love my daily walks. Getting to talk to the elderly men in the community has become one of the main reasons I prefer to walk. Just today on my way back from the suburbs I came across one of my neighbors who I say hi to every morning. This time I sat and talked with him for a while he first complimented my hair cut and then went on to learn about why I choose to move here, he went on to encourage me in my ministry. We shared the next few minutes talking about the impact one conversation can have on the youth… haha ironically he was having an impact on me. It amazes me that on my walks I come across men and women who ask me how my day is and talk with me about their lives.

Community, here is strong. Hopefully this summer God will reveal to me more about how community can develop and grow. Robert Brault, a freelance writer wrote in one of his blog posts, “I nod to a passing stranger, and the stranger nods back, and two human beings go off, feeling a little less anonymous.”  The nod was always fun in high school sort of acknowledging one another. Yet here instead of nod, a simple “how ya doin?” sparks so many conversations and relationships. How many conversations do I miss a day because I am too busy to say how are you to someone. Today on the CTA L, I met a woman who told me how she has tried to kill herself 8 times from crack to overdosing on prescription drugs yet somehow she hasn’t died. I asked her why do you think that your still alive after all that. She responded, by simply saying God seems to have a purpose for my life, I just don’t know what that is. What if I never talked to her, and never got to hear her. Never got to reveal God in her life.

So I hope I can leave a little encouragement on seeking community. One passage from the Bible which is awesome when it comes to community is Acts 2:42-47. Here’s some great books that I’d encourage for our own growth as well as a larger desire for community Crazy Love, Irresistible Revolution, Radical. For those that you that believe in the power of prayer I would love some prayer for this week we are taking all of our kids to Michigan, for summer camp! Many kids are not Christians, most have very rough lives, and all come from the South Side of Chicago. 

Food options

Learning more and more about the city I call home has become a pursuit of mine over the past year. Yet over all my exploration and understanding of the city one huge mystery has laid untouched for me. The South side; known by most people as dangerous. So over the next two months I want to maybe shed some light on this other side of Chicago. I don’t know exactly where my journeys here will take me, or What God has in store for me while I’m here but I hope to effectively and accurately display that on my blog site.

A week ago I moved into the Woodlawn Neighborhood over on the south side of Chicago. The neighborhood is mainly residential with very little stores or other options for food. I can walk from my house over on 62^nd ST. to Save a Lot, a very small grocery store barely bigger then a 7Eleven, there are also two corner stores and one family restaurant. For starters this surprised me a year ago when I first moved to Chicago. How do some neighborhoods have very little options for people to choose from? How can you make healthy choices on food when there are few to none to choose from?

Some of the money we pay for taxes goes to provide low-income families living below the poverty line in the US money for food. The majority of families in this neighborhood I live in are below this line. So imagine you are low-income family struggling to make ends meet. You apply for a Links card, food stamps and are accepted to help pay for groceries for your family. Yet when you go to the store all you see are frozen foods and isles of junk food. So you have to buy these frozen foods, and you think to yourself well at least there’s food.

For me its become just an annoyance, I have to get a ride to a store or take the L but for most in this community that’s not an easy option. It’s to much of an expense when you barely have money to cover rent. So my question over this thought is how does a bad diet affect our daily life?

Quick response I’m sure any of you can go do some longer research then just look it up on answers.com but this is what I gathered from this site. “Junk foods also consist of refined (processed) carbohydrate. Refined (processed) carbohydrates are a major cause of weight gain, obesity, and many diet related diseases. For good health and well-being, these foods should be strictly limited apart from the occasional treat”

I don’t have any answers on how this can be fixed in a quick and easy way. Some long term ideas are the role of the church, and Christians. Sunshine Gospel Ministries provides a fresh food market weekly here in Woodlawn that accepts the food stamps, Links card. More organizations both Christian and non-could very much improve this issue by helping their neighbors go to places that provide fresh food. Or those of us in business could open up a restaurant or grocery store in a low-income neighborhood. Yes that business wouldn’t make as much as somewhere else but it would enhance the community and the life of others. There’s more to life then money and status

Young Life Work Week

Thoughts from a beautiful trip to Michigan Timber Wolf, Young Life camp. This past week I got the opportunity to take a young life group from the north side of Chicago; Lane Tech, Lincoln Park, and Lakeview high school students. We spent a week at Timber Wolf camp in Lake city Michigan. The day was split between cleaning the dining hall in order to prepare it for the summer camp, and the second half of the day was free time and activities.

I was in charge of all the boys and got to teach them how to clean. Their amazement over the small things in life was great. For instance on the ride there from Chicago they got all excited when they saw cows and all wanted to see the cows. Everything seemed like a new experience, which they tackled with excitement. The cleaning for the boys consisted of washing all the dishes after every meal. Which although it was work the boys had fun in the midst of it all. We had water fights with the hoses and spray bottles and danced to the music as we worked. Some of the other jobs we did was wiping all the chairs down, and using a lift to dust the upper windows in the dinning hall. We cleaned out all the grills as well. It was great to get to relive moments in my own life with the boys from teaching the boys how to sweep and mop, to cleaning toilets and washing dishes not to mention dusting. Everything was new to them and everything had to be taught which was great.

We got everyone to ride the go-karts they had at the camp as well as to climb the rock wall. We had a gym and game room available to the students during the day as well. From snowball fights to broomball we had a lot of fun getting to know each other. Every morning we spent a half an hour on a bible study and devotion time, which went very smoothly. I got to share on death and judgment which I taught on from Hebrews 9:27, while cross-referencing Psalm 50, and Romans 3:23, 6:23. How we, humans are all sinners. These passages teach that sin earns (wages) us death, but God knew that we could never achieve perfection, only he was capable of perfection and so he sent himself as Jesus his son who traded his perfection for our imperfection so that we could carry his title of perfection to be able to be with God as his perfect creations.

Overall it was a wonderful week. The majority of the students were new to Young Life and Christianity so it was wonderful to get to share something I’m very passionate about with them. Another awesome take away is that, Lincoln Park high school where I work as a Young Life rep has never had an official club yet. But we got eight of the students at the camp from the school and they all plan on coming weekly to club and want to do other activities as a group. Who knows where God will take this! Even if it doesn’t grow he is sovereign and I need to always remember that. 

Life back in the states

So it's now been a few weeks since I got back from the Philippines. I miss it alot, especially the warmth, although here in Chicago it got up to 80 today! Since I left I've been able to stay in contact with some of the the youth leaders from week two when we ran a VBS. My hardest part adjusting back to life has been just getting back into the swing of school.

I loved the trip their, such a wonderful experience. Even though I've gone once before on an oversees mission trip this time I witnessed how my growth in maturity through the relationships I was able to build with those we met there. When I left Zambia two years ago I left no lasting friendships except with the missionaries we stayed with. This time I was brought to tears by a student who was crying because we were leaving and life would just return to normal. It's hard just to think about those we got to know. Some of them who live in Dupax a squatter community in Manila are waiting to hear from the government whether there being relocated. Forced to move because the government wants to build a highway.

Update on life here in Chicago, About to leave for a week. taking student from Lincoln Park high school to a camp called Timber wolf in Michigan with Young Life. I'll be in charge of 15 high school students. So I'm excited for that. Although school is rough having to get 3 weeks of hw done by this friday to be able to leave. So lots of all nighters, right now I'm taking an hour break to recharge a bit. Weathers been nice, went to the beach today! Got to slack line play frisbee, jump in Lake Michigan as well as take natalie on a walk along the beach and then through Lincoln Park.

Well time to get back to hw, just thought it would be nice to get something on here, wish it could've been done like a week ago but ya know life happens. Till my next post I recommend you all enjoy life!! :)

-JR

Week 2 Bulacan

      Thought it might be easier to just make one post so I'm going to take my journals and attempt to shorten them, this will still be long but its a week worth of VBS. First day in Bulacan running VBS. It was an early morning we had an hour drive out to Bulacan and the first session we ran was at 8 am for around a hundred kids. We got there and had a few bumps, we didn't know we were going to be running a morning and afternoon program as well as a youth night every night. Amber our team leader decided it would be best that we run both vbs but youth night only do every other night. I was in charge of games for the week which was so much fun. We did lots of songs with motions which the kids loved! Biggest thought of the day, was the joy of knowing that I'd get to work with the same kids everyday! 

       We ran the VBS program out of a church, in Bulacan. The church had some cinderblocks and a tarp over it. Pastor Jon-Jon was very gracious and kind to us. Some of the elders would come everyday to cook for us as well as make sure everything was going well. They were such a blessing as well! The church is raising up youth leaders who are in high school and college. The youth leaders were so wonderful all week helping us, translating for us, teaching us there songs with motions and just hanging out with us. It was so hard to leave them all.

       Tuesday we ran two VBS programs and had youth night. Got to enjoy watching the sunrise during my daily devotion. After the first VBS session after we had walked the students home me and Pastor Jon-Jon played basketball on one of the town courts. After lunch I walked to the church to ask pastor a question about youth night and found over a hundred kids waiting for us. They were an hour early and I heard they had been there for awhile waiting. So I asked Macy one of the youth leaders if she would be up to running a VBS program with me for an hour. So we had the other youth leaders join us and we sang songs and had the kids do the motions. Had them all recap monday's lesson and memory verse. Then used the wordless bracelets to share the gospel with them. I taught them the meaning and Macy did a wonderful job translating even with how fast I speak, which was hard for the other translators yet they all did such a wonderful job. All the young adults came over that night for youth night and we sang praise and worship songs and Sarah taught a message. We had a wonderful time playing games and relaxing all together on the roof of the house we were staying in, in Bulacan.

         Wednesday day 3 we ran two VBS programs and things went well. We got to buy trumpas, spinning caps. And the students taught us how to play it! It was a really relaxing day. Day four I gave a message on resurrection. We also had youth night which was sad because it was are last night there. The girls on our team had the girl youth leaders sleep over with them. 

      Friday....wow was friday hard this was are last day and we left at 1 pm. The first session my friend jolly was crying before it started and i asked him why and it was because he was going to miss Ricky and me that broke me down. Then the students had a skit performed on Pastor's testimony and that got all of us crying. then all the kids gave us hugs and more hugs and gifts. It was so hard to say goodbye. especially knowing that these kids ahve to go back to rough lives where they don't have someone to pick them up and give them a hug. one of the young kids is named Ishmael and for some reason the town calls him F U he is insulted by all and his own family treats him like dirt. That broke are team, we all wish we could take home some these kids. The  other hard part was leaving the youth leaders. They were so wonderful all week. They are so great with the kids and are walking with the Lord. I hope to be able to keep in touch with all of them and be able to see them again.

Sunday Day 8

       It's been a great day! Today we got up early and went to a church in the red light district of Manila. I shared my testimony, didn't feel like i ddi a great job sharing. It was a challenge to share without a translator, so i tried to use simpler words. I'm pretty sure i stuttered and stumbled on my words so hopefully they still got fed spiritually. Erika, our team singer she's got a wonderful voice. She sang amazing grace wile Tim played Guitar. Tim then preached a wonderful message. Enjoyed my time at the church I believe it was an assembly of God church.
   Ate lunch at Jollibee it's bigger then McDonalds over here, tasted pretty good. I like American fries better though. After Erika went to visit her family and Tito June went to visit his so I tagged along in order to hit up the largest and most dangerous market in all of Asia. Its like a giant flea market the size of a city. It was crazy if anyone of you ever come i recommend going but take a local you trust. Lots of snatchers and easy to bargain if you have a local. For instance nice shoes are less then 10 dollars sandals maybe 5 dollars. Samurai swords 10 dollars butterfly knifes like 3. Jewelry is bought for like a dollar and they come in bulk so cheap. Had a lot of time I mainly bartered more for fun the prices were already so much cheaper. in the Philippines the stands anywhere near Manilla gets there products from Divisoria market. I bought a samurai sword, butterfly knife, foot long knife, sandals, crazy high top kicks, tons of necklaces and bracelets, arm bands, and a swimsuit. Lots of fun also tried out a pedicab thats a bike that has a side car for 2 passengers.
           Oggie an old friend from when my family lived on campus at Michigan State , when I was 18 months old, came to take me out to dinner. His niece Julla joined us as well. They picked me up from the guest house and took me out to the College Oggie teaches at, UP University of the Philippines. Its the best school in the Philippines, we got dinner and desert on campus. The campus was very large and looked great! Dinner was wonderful, as well as the conversations. Got to hear stories from when I was a toddler. Asked alot about their lifestyle and culture as well.
           Week one and our 2 day break is now over but so far m time here has been wonderful. I already miss PBJ with Mark. VBS program starts tomorrow wake up in 5 hours then head out to the province of Bulacan to run VBS for the week. Pray for strength for the team. As well as sleep! Some of the team has been really suffering from a lack of sleep. I most likely will not have internet out there we are going to roughing it not like I did in the community last thursday but we will be living very simply. I might go use an internet cafe once while I'm there manly more for fun :)

-JR

Day 7 saturday (Day of peace)

         Probably my hardest day... I'm not a big fan of laying and relaxing even if its for recharging energy. For me relaxing days are slower paced ministry days or visiting other ministries. That being said it was way to long of a drive. The nice part of the drive was that it got me to play out alot of my thoughts out and think about whats been going on. We went out to sarah's family, one of the girls on are team. Here family livid in the Province of Laguna in an area called lumbon. We ate with her family and then went to a local pool and then they brought us more food. Then went to another aunt's house and ate there.

While at the pool we could look out over some low range mountains, and rice fields. So Tim, Ricky, Kevin , Tito June, and our Driver Erwin headed out to the rice field because we wanted to walk through it. we got some local kids to take us through the fields. We then headed over to the local basketball court to meet alot of the community. We played a game of ball 5 v 5. It was good, we lost by 1 point and had a lot of fun meeting people. Ricky, Kevin and I taught frisbee with a bunch of the Local kids and gave out the wordless bracelets to them as well.  This was my favorite part of the day because we got to go out and do some ministry. Yet the day was a little to chill for me.

Tomorrow we are running 3 local churches in Manila. So pray for that

Dupax Day 6

Woke up in Renee's place I slept on the floor that night and never knew when it was morning cuase he leaves a light on and there was no light shining in. He cooked a wonderful breakfast I really enjoyed it! If I get the opportunity to come back to the Philippines I hope to be able to stay with Renee again.

    Me and Eric caught a jeepney down commonwealth and walked over to Marks house where we met the team and spent he morning praying and preparing for a big day. The last day with Mark, the Mcdowell family truly blessed us while we were staying in Manila. We enjoyed another wonderful lunch with them and then loaded up for a big Pbj day in Dupax. It was awesome to see O'Neal, woods and the other guys, they couldn't go the day before for PBJ because they were afraid they'd get shot because it was a rival community so there's alot of gang violence. We did the same thing as the day before except with different people. Had a wonderful time here. 

       We went out afterwards to youth night with the PBJ Youth. Mark AKA AWOL, a rapper was MC. Interesting environment. The break dancers from thursday  came out and O'Neal and his boys came out as well. Coolest part is knowing that these guys come from rival communities and would never step into each other's community yet they gathered together here in the Lords name together. Shared some great worship together, and A local pastor preached on calling. Afterwards they had open mic, opened up with music celebrity here in Manila. We actually heard her on the radio saturday(today) some of the guys from the worship band joined some other guys and played their music, a local Christian band. Ricky rapped with help from Ron who dropped a sick beat. Then Mark AWOL rapped with another guy to close up the night. Great end to a wonderful time with PBJ. Im gonna miss all of them!

Day 5 night sleeping in Delapaz Squatter community

 Originally I was going to stay with a man named Alan and his family yet he was drinking when we got there so I couldn't stay the night with his family. THis is very common here because when you say you do something its not specific to when here. We knew Alan fro mBible study he had gone once, Be praying for him and his family. I ended up staying with Renee, his daughter Hillary and his son Jon-Jon. Hillary played with eric's camera alot he had been living with them for  a few weeks before our team had arrived in Manilla. Eric and Hillary exchanged words in English and Tagalog using a language dictionary. 

Heres a picture of when we had visited there the first day and these were some shots of the place I stated at this was the first time when we were just visiting. 

The kitchen of Renee's place. In the morning he cooked us a wonderful breakfast! And we got to sit and talk for a while down there. Hillary got a call from her sponsor in Washington D.C. so she had to the agency. They were a wodnerful family being praying for the Renee is looking for a job right now to support his family. His daughter makes the bracelets we had out the wordless bible bracelets. I got contact info so I can get them back in the states so we can support these people. The bracelets are made by over 12 families in Delapaz and helps support them. 

PBJ Thursday day 5

Finally had a chance to settle down and write down how things have been going. Thursday was a little bit relaxing in the early day. Spent the morning sleeping in and then praying as a team eating lunch together then packed up everything to head into the squatter area to share the gospel. 

     we drew a large crowd not just because we were white. We had a jeepney(Jeep bus) loaded with sound equipment drumming buckets  and basketballs. It had a basketball hoop that came off the jeepney. We set up a game where the kids would dunk on a hoop we would hold up while standing on a bucket. wed get them to do all sorts of trick dunks on it. The girls on are team had chalk and coloring pages for the girls. Eric set up sound equipment and pumped out some music for the crowds that were gathering. We had some buckets and drumsticks which we gave out and we started making some beats on the side. some break dancers from the community showed up and I did some gymnastics with them and learned some breakdancing. It was an interesting ministry, going into squatter areas and just chillen playing ball dancing rapping drumming, whatever tools we had to use we used. 

     We started a 3 on 3 basketball contest and formed a big circle around the court for everyone to watch the locals play ball. After we had a dunk contest on our hoop which was a bit shorter then a normal hoop. I joined in and took 2nd in the dunk contest definitely alot of fun. Ricky rapped again and had the guys translate the message of the his raps. Then Marc shared the gospel with the kids and we passed out the wordless bracelets. I lost track of how may we gave out this week over 3 thousand by now. 

      That night we came back earlier then usual and got to eat a meal with some of our team who was working at VBS. It was nice to eat a dinner with the team. Big prayer for this day and still now is my shoulder, doing tricks with the teenagers messed up my shoulder which has been injured since summer before junior year of high school from gymnastics. But its usually fine somehow popped it out while doing one handed handstand jumps with them.

Day 4

Today we had a busy packed day they then and very relaxing. Relaxed in the early morning and headed out around noon to some squatter neighborhoods. Spent time playing with kids and talking to people. Sharing more bracelets today we shared 1,200 more. I went into one mans house/shack where there was a open casket for his father who just had died got to spend time with the family they are burring him tomorrow. Be praying for them! 

            Many hard cases in these neighborhoods. Sat with 5 boys who were drinking, 2 were completely drunk. Spun around some more kids. noticed more deformed and special needs children here. 

One weird aspect here is that the poverty in the slums isn't the bottom. There are even homeless people on the streets who cant even stay in the slums. 

         Mark McDowell led a bible study with government workers in a government building and ricky was rapping. We then went to one last neighborhood where we ran into some friends from the basketball court last night with PBJ. O'Neal and Ron who live in Dupox(Cant spell) they were playing ball on the courts there so we got to say hi again. We spread the news that we will be by on friday. It will be a big show and lots of stuff happening. Big youth night, rapping breakdanceing, basketball...etc

We got done early then headed back to the guest house where we met up with the VBS team and went to the mall for dinner. Later in the evening Ricky, Erikka, Tito June and I went out and got some motorcycles for a joyride... 1 dollar for us to ride around for 20 minutes we had them race around the area haha lots of fun. 

     Be praying for the community Dupox(might be spelled wrong) the city of Manilla is tearing it down and forcing the people to move to a relocation area. Very bad! We will be ministering there on friday again. Pray for O'Neal and his family in Dupox who will be moving out to Bulacan. Pray for our team, many are tired, Ricky's foot is hurt, Nathan is sick, A few of us have colds as well. The prayers are very appreciated 

       

Day 3 PBJ Ministry

Wow today, crazy day headed out to Mark McDowell's house prayed as a team and then headed out to some squatter areas. His ministry is called PBJ (Philippino basketball for Jesus)  two missionaries one from Germany and the other from Switzerland joined us for the first half of the day. We spent the early day part of the day meeting the people of one squatter area/community. Played with hundreds of kids gave out a 800 of these wordless bracelets. the bracelets have 5 colors, yellow (Heaven) Black (Sin)Red (Blood of Christ) white (Forgiveness) Green (Grow) now we hand out these bracelets and then explain it in tagalog. Not many people speaks English in the squatter areas.
      I played lots of basketball with them and would do some gymnastics! The kids loved having me lift them up and throw them up in the air or spin them in circles. Played some interesting pool table games in some shack in a squatter areas. Many interesting stories from the area.
       We got some barbecue food from the markets and lots of mangos and bananas which are both amazing here. We headed over to the squatter area we went to yesterday its called Dupox (spelling is off)  its where Eric Strand is staying in one of the man made cave shacks underneath the metal shacks. played with the kids there. Then had a bible study with students in another part of Manila and then played basketball with the high schoolers that night as well as a PBA coach(NBA for the Philippines) came out to join us as well. Awesome day pray for the children we met today and the their families. as well as for the seeds we are sowing here. As well as for our team, foot injuries and any unseen sickness's.

A few quick pictures

Some of the first kids we met

They love that pose

Our team in Chicago

Day 2 plus some

The flights got confusing so here is the last leg of the flight and the first day here in Manilla.

            Slept most the flight to Manila (4 hours) I met a missionary named Raven and two other men whom I talked to for and half an hour while waiting to get through customs. We got to the guest house close to 2 am exhausted and tired we sat around abed cutting up donkeys for the team running a vbs program.

            Up around 6 and breakfast at 7, the days started with the samaritana team going out and the VBS team going out. My team went out for a two hour walk visiting the local markets and street shops. While touring the area we were greeted by everyone because they like to stop and stare at the white person. We caught a taxi which dropped us off near some squatter areas.The squatter areas were far worse then what I saw in South Africa. Shacks on top of each other man made caves where many families livid. The sewage flowed openly in some parts or just underneath you. We met some families and some children. We then went to get lunch at Mark McDowells house. 

            We then went out with 200 wordless bracelets in order to share the gospel with the street children. We went to many different squatter areas called communities and met the children and talked with them. Most kids were dressed very lightly some kids that were 3 and under didn’t even have clothes. We spoke with both the young and then teenagers and the adults. Very hard to communicate when we only know a few tagalog words and many of the children knew little to no English. Did some handstands and handspring with the kids who loved to play. As well as  talking with some carpenters and complimenting their work.  The city of Manila is covered in a layer of Smaug.

            One awesome takeaway from today is these bracelets and how to use them wherever I am just giving them to someone and explaining what it means. Gave them to the kids, the gas station workers restaurant workers whoever. 

-JR

Day 1

So I thought it would be sweet to use this blog to post every day about the day here in Manilla Philippines. Im here to share the gospel with the people. Working I'm the Slums around Manila.

            Day 1. leaving Chicago. I woke up earlier then I expected, probably over excited about the flight.  Spent some time doing my morning devotions said my goodbyes and got a lovely surprise by my dad and step mom who came down to wish me a goodbye. We took pictures as a team and we were off. At Ohare Airport Kevin Tim and I chased down Michael Vick. We talked with him in a cologne and perfume store… he accidentally sprayed himself with perfume and asked us to tell us what we thought, needless to say we didn’t have the heart to tell him he smelled like a woman. Yet we got some autographs then said goodbye.

            We flew first to Detroit and had an hour layover there. Currently its 1 am Chicago and Were two hours away from Nagoya Japan which is just outside of Tokyo. The flights been long got to write my message on John 20 the resurrection of Jesus, which was great just to do my own study on it J 

            So far I’ve watched the social network, interesting movie. Watched unstoppable, very intense definitely something to check out. After I watched hereafter, definitely a thought provoking film. Although I probably thought of stuff Clint eastwood wasn’t intending the audience to think of. One was over twin brothers one died and the other wanted to figure out what happened to him, he turned to religion yet fled because in short they had never gone to church and therefore he had gone to hell. Hard question to answer, what do you tell a young boy who just lost his brother when he asks you where will his brother go since hes dead. What do you tell him?  Just finished the town, which was a good movie yet for some reason I came away with more ministry questions. These are the people I want to live with, minister with, yet how can I effectively minister to guys that ant get out of gangs, to many threads holding them down. Their family (whatever’s left) their girlfriend.. whatever such a tight rope to thread.

            All in all day one has left me with some things to ponder for awhile. Hopefully I get some sleep going to sleep for the last two hours hopefully then goin to sleep on the flight to Manila.

Extra Luxuries

               When you see someone begging on the street, do you pass by without a glance? Do you drop a few coins into their cup? Do you offer them a meal? Do you simply have a conversation with them? The other night at dinner, I was wrestling with these ideas in my head. While talking with different people around my school, Moody Bible Institute, I got confused. Confusion, over the question should we give generously to the poor and the sick? As well as, what exactly does that mean?

I believe that we should give with what we have. Now this doesn’t have to be money, many of us don’t exactly have money to give. One idea is to go out and meet someone in need. Typically their need is something you can meet. For instance, I sat with my friend Alexander, a streetwise vendor at Millennium Park. After an hour of sitting with him, he mentioned how useful a water bottle is. So I asked him if he needed one. After a nod of his head, I offered mine to him. Alexander’s face lit up. For me, it was just a water bottle, but to him it seemed like so much more.

Relationships with the homeless becomes challenging then because they develop a dependency. So we need to avoid this dependency. One idea to solve this is in your approach. You can start by sitting down, and sharing a water bottle or sandwich. Just simply listen to them for fifteen minutes or more if the conversation is flowing well. The relationship needs to be established where there is a two way street, giving and receiving. Once this develops, if it does, then the process of giving is less likely to lead to a dependency relationship.

We each have extra clothes and food. We don’t need to make up excuses about why we shouldn’t give to the poor and homeless we see everyday. We can give what we don’t need the leftovers we throw away, the clothes we toss. There is so much extra stuff lying around. We are always upgrading our computers, phones, Ipods, and cars. What are we doing with the old devices? Maybe we can sell it for some money, and go buy someone a meal. Never make an excuse to not give away what were wasting.

-- JR , Picture at top is of a man named Shorty in downtown Chicago, taken summer of 2010 by my friend Rob Cook.