Day 7

The group got up this morning at the normal time of 7:00am, but a few slept in and didn’t get any breaky (Joseph but not Alex and Sam because they are troopers). We set off to church at 8:00am which was just next door. We had high expectations of the worship because we heard the band practising last night near the children’s home, it was very encouraging. As we all got settled in our seats, the leader of the meeting came up and welcomed us to the church and hoped that we would join in fellowship with them. There were actually two meetings that morning, one in English and one in Tagalog. Mr Kieran Burne did an amazing job preaching at both services. He spoke about how if you’re a Christian you go to heaven and if you aren’t then you don’t. He spoke about the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness and the choice we had before us. After church we went back to the place we are now temporarily calling ‘home’ that is literally next door which was a bonus, because we couldn’t be bothered walking far in this heat. When we came home we just chillaxed for like two hours, which was a good effort.

After our ‘chillaxation’ period we jumped on the bus on the way to Tay Tay mall, which was most excellent because we tried some Japanese food - most people enjoyed it while others got the shock of their lives when they tried some ‘honey teriyaki chicken’ and their lips burst into flames. We learned Mr. Beacham was right; we couldn’t make any assumptions in Manila. A sweet sounding dish could just be the spiciest of them all.

Much to some people’s delight and other people’s horror we lined up to watch ‘Breaking Dawn’. The movie was equally mentioned on ‘highlights’ and ‘challenges’ lists.

After the movie we headed back to the ministry centre where some lucky teenagers discovered the game of ‘spoons’, while others stuck to the good old game of Uno.

We didn’t just visit the Children at the Children’s home, tonight we visited our friends. So many of the kids have left footprints in our heart, and we can only pray the memories will be cherished forever. Tonight we sang ‘God is good to me’, and Pastor Pete challenged the kids to see how fast they could go (singing and hand actions), they loved it. After some more reading, it was time for them to go to bed, we headed back to the ministry centre to hold our own devotions and de-brief before hitting the sack as well.

After hearing some of the teacher’s testimonies, Mr. Beacham asked if some of the students wanted to share theirs. A few courageous hearts began sharing their story and emotions ran as we really began to discover each other. It was hard to say and hard to hear but the group seems a thousand times closer now and I honestly believe we’ve made friends for life. It was concluded by a group hug (followed by several smaller ones) and a prayer that had so much love behind it.

Jordan Barham hosted our de-brief session tonight and I think we all agree (although we all love Pastor Pete) that he did an amazing job. A lot of people had things to share today, despite how relaxing our Sunday has been. 

By Sam D & Irene. (Photos to follow in the am)