"Cordova Children's Carnival" Written by Candace

Today we hosted a children’s carnival in Cordova, which is a small Island a few minutes south of where we’ve been staying the last three months.  We first thought about having this event after the team rented a boat from a local fisherman named Rodrigo (“Rego”) to go Island hopping.   The fishing village is an impoverished place that has many needs.   I had a chance to speak with some of the fishermen’s wives who began telling me about all their children. They smiled so big when we would exchange children names and ages. They were surprised that I had three children. One woman had eight kids.   When we were leaving the area I saw an open grassy field with over a hundred children running and playing.  That was the first time I thought about doing a children’s carnival there.  After mentioning to others on the team, they too thought it would be a good thing to do.   So after a month of brainstorming, discussing and planning, today we got to make it happen.

The team all came together to make the event a success.  Some of our Filipino friends even came and helped us out.  Jo Jo Balista helped the guys get the field ready, our friend Philip brought a crew from his youth group to help facilitate the carnival, and Nanay Vergie helped Rina and Hannah cook all day and helped serve the food.  We were so thankful to serve alongside them.  I thought we all worked really well together.  Craig was a blast with all the kiddos they all really loved him.  He is great to have around when you need someone to improvise.

We really weren’t sure how many kids would show up today.  On Friday, Shaun and I went to the barangay to pass out fliers and talk to some of the families (We had already got approval from the barangay to use the field).  When we arrived today we counted around 120 children.  At our last count we over 150 kids, and 50 moms!  Many of the mothers helped us throughout the entire event, from cleaning up the field with the guys to passing out food.  Some of them even participated in the games. 

The activities included a coloring station, necklace making station, beanbag toss, jump rope, Frisbee, water balloon toss, and a bible skit. We ended the night with a pancit, rice, and fried chicken dinner. We were able to feed everyone! It was wonderful! You could tell some of the moms and children were worried there wouldn’t be enough, but the team kept praying and had faith that God would make sure everyone had enough. J  We ended just before dark and a torrential rain came.  The team didn’t have a chance to eat, so the crew came back to our house where we hung out and shared a meal together.  

On a side note: A lot of the families present today were directly affected by a major ferryboat crash that happened off the coast of Cebu last month.  Not only did many people die in the crash, but also it caused a huge oil leak, which stopped all local fishing for over 25 days.  They were told not to fish until the “cleaning agent” they used to clean up the oil spill was able to dissolve and the fish returned.  Some time after the crash Clark and Rina went to Cordova to talk to some of the fisherman.  When they visited the market the fish stands were almost completely empty.  As of the other day, the situation hasn’t changed much. Many of the people in this area depend on fishing for their livelihood.  The barge company responsible for the crash only offered them rice for their troubles.  

            

Hello Everyone!

We are rounding out our time in Cebu. We are here 16 more days and they are packed with service opportunities and events. Please keep us in your prayers. We want to finish well. Here is what all we have going on the next 2 weeks!

- Continue to develop relationships with people in Cebu

- The men are teaching the Values class at the Asian Learning Center daily (7:30am-8:00am). There are 2 classes so they will be co teaching. Shaun & Craig will head up one class while Ty & Clark teach the other.

-Genesis Class is still happening on Mondays and Tuesdays at the Jail.

-Shalom Faculty Bible Studies on Wednesday Mornings.

-The men take turns teaching at Jaime’s Bible Study on Wednesday Nights. 

-Bible Studies during lunch times at the Lapu Lapu City dumpsite

-2 more  Sunday night Dinner & Bible Studies with our friends we have made.

-Saturday sunrise service with our friends at Shalom (the guys have been teaching the Lord’s prayer the last few weeks. This is the service that Mete, Arian, Philip, so it’s another opportunity to share the word with them)

-Street Children feeding on Tuesday Nights with our friend Grace.

-Meg’s Breastfeeding Seminars for local midwives.

-Meg is also on Call for births in Babag and will spend 2 nights a week assisting in births at Glory Reborn.

-Hannah will go again and teach the women in Cebu who have been brought out of abusive situations.

-Rina goes on weekly home visits with Ate Juliet, the social worker from Shalom. This is to assess children's living conditions and figure out ways to help those who are very poor and in need. 

-Candace and Meg will visit the red light district again at least one more time.

-Craig is heading up a Bible Seminar for Nehemiah Orphanage.

-Craig is having one on one Bible Studies with Romel, one of the Guards at the Lapu-Lapu city Jail.

- Children Carnival in Cordova. We think at least 150+ children will come.

- Movie Night #2 with our friends. Everyone really enjoyed the first one and wants a second one. 

-One Day Basketball Tournament (We are also considering a volleyball tournament)

-Team Trip to Water Island

- Farewell party with our friends in Cebu

Reflections on My Visit to a Local Dumpsite Written by Candace

Hey Everyone, I miss you all very much!  The last 4 months have gone fast, but so much growth has happened in my family, my heart, and my desire to serve the Lord.  The following is a brief family update: Elijah lost 4 more teeth, has performed two dances at his school, and practices Tagalog everyday (He loves to communicate with Jeepney drivers in Tagalog). He is growing up so fast! Noah is so curious.  She loves to observe people, and ask me why they do certain things. Chloe also is growing up a ton. She can speak in full sentences…they may not be spoken back-to-back, but she knows them J. Shaun is doing great! He’ll come back with more grey hairs, but it won’t be from living here, it will just be from making the kids sit down to eat J. Caring for my family in a new environment is accompanied with challenges and learning curves, but overall I am doing well.   

This past week I was able to visit the dumpsite and red light district in Cebu City. So much injustice takes place in these areas of needs; it’s hard to even know where to begin my processing. Here are some of the things I observed while in the dumpsite. I will post in a couple days about my visit to the red light district.

The Dumpsite:

This place has the worst living conditions one can imagine.  The men, women and children living there literally live in, eat and breathe trash all day long. Their houses are made of trash, their walkways are made of trash and the clothes they are wearing often come from the trash. It’s hard to describe all the horrific things I witnessed while there. 

-I saw newborn babies and children of all ages covered in dirt.

-I saw barefoot children running around on broken glass and animal feces. 

-I saw women bathing their children in the sewer water that lines the streets.

-I saw children covered head to toe in soars, scratches and scabs.

-I saw flies swarming all over a newborns face but the mother seemed too hopeless to shew them away. (Which makes sense because there weren’t a few flies, but thousands. When people tried to shew them away it did no good, because there were so many.)

- I saw little girls sitting and playing in piles of trash with NO pants or underwear on.

            These are just some of the things I witnessed that should NOT BE HAPPENING.  But I also saw these things while there…

-Mothers loving on their children.

-Children laughing and smiling.

-Children playing with broken toys, but seeming to care they were broken.

-I saw women smiling and talking together while cooking over a single open flame.

-I saw older folks playing dominos and chatting.   

These sights made every thing worse to me. I was so confused on how people could find joy in such a terrible place. How can children smile when their bodies are so infected? How did they find the strength to get up and live another day?  These are still questions I am thinking through.  I think a lot of the reason is they don’t think they deserve better. We have to free these people from the injustice they live in.  We learned that the government has tried to relocate the people living in the dumpsite to another location, but it didn’t work because education and subjective liberation weren’t included. Their mindsets are going to have to change before moving from the dumpsite makes sense to them. I want to help fix this mindset! We have to fix this mindset! But I am aware for us to be able to help people in situations like this our own mindset has to be changed. We can’t be a people who complain, we can’t be a people who take education for granted, and we can’t be a people who say we want to make a difference but don’t want to put in the work.

Lord, please help us to realize everyday is a new day to pick up our cross and follow you. Help us to wake up everyday more eager than the last to learn your word and not grow weary in doing good. I pray this is the best semester for everyone! We are so privileged to live for Jesus and share his goodness!