Day 26 - Tuesday 27th June

Tuesday was a better day in terms of weather as we barely had any rain and finally got to see some of the amazing beauty of the Philippines. We had an early start at 6pm and then were taken round the community so see some of the projects that the social workers and CCM had been helping in. They had given the people a boat, some pigs and other capital items to help them.

Some of you might be wondering what the connection is with this small village. About a year ago in Dec 2004, there was a combination of 3 typhoons that hit this part of the coast. Because some stupid people had cut down a lot of the trees from mountains (illegal logging), the heavy rain caused landslides and floods in this community. It buried alive several hundred people and destroyed/damaged a lot more homes and buildings. Some of the western churches saw this and asked if CCM was able to use any money to help these people. CCM was initially reluctant to take on another project that was unrelated to its children work and so far away but two social workers (Reah and Estella) volunteered to do the work. So they used the money to invest in the community rather than simply hand out rice packages and emergency relief. This was their 11th visit and now they are simply following up their investment and sorting out any problems. Pastor Ellis is not so keen on them taking so much time off their work here now that the project is almost completed so they took their own holiday to come and do this work.

So after the tour round the community we headed to the river where we spent an hour swimming. The river looks out onto the sea with a hilly backdrop and the water is clear and fresh, straight from the mountains. The tide was strong so we couldn't go out that far but it was really lovely. After exploring the area a bit we headed down to the beach. The beach was pebbly and the tide strong so we paddled around near the edge as the waves coming in were massive and almost took us off our feet. I believe it was the Philippine Sea we were in. After a while we headed back to the house where we were staying. Reah and Estella were holding progress meetings with different groups of the community and were still busy so we had a light snack, packed our bags and headed back to the beach, to where the boat would come and pick us up in an hours time. It takes about half an hour to walk but this time as there was no rain we were able to take our time and take in the scenery. Imagine Jurrasic Park scenery (without the dinosaurs) and you've got pretty much what it looks like. Its a really isolated spot, the only way to quickly get to it is by boat otherwise it takes several days over the mountains. Once we arrived at our pickup spot we spent more time in the sea and also explored some of the nearby rock clefts. Once Reah and Estella arrived they joined us for a bit before the boat came and we headed back. As the weather was nicer, so was the sea. The water was calm, deep blue and warm and we were able to sit on the edges of the boats and dangle our legs in whilst going along. We had lunch aboard the boat. Then once we arrived at Dingalen we changed into dry clothes, had some jack fruit to tide us over and got the minibus back. By this time several people were red again from the sun. The journey was quite long coming back - probably because we were all so tired but it had been such a fun trip. Even the wet Monday was good. These people that we have seen are about as rural as you can get and their lifestyles are quite different from what you find in Manila.

We headed to bed the moment we got back!

Day 27: Wednesday 28th June & Thursday 29th

Well Wednesday has come and gone and I'm writing this last blog entry about an hour before we are heading off to the airport. The Housemothers have all gone on a 3 day retreat so we said goodbye to them wednesday morning and became house mothers ourselves for a day. It didn't really amount to anything however as the girls are so well organised that all we had to really do was watch them. Some members of the church had also come in to help. Becci & I were in the Bethany home whilst the three American girls were in Emmaus. It meant two days of early risings though as we had to get up to say goodbye to the mothers and on thursday to see the children off to school. We stayed in the staff rooms in the homes for the night.

Wednesday & Thursday have mainly been days of packing and cleaning our rooms as well as playing with the children. They got hold of our cameras again! It was Abi's birthday (one of the American girls) and she was 18. The older girls cooked her a special meal in the evening and we bought her ice cream. Our visas finally arrived (ironically the day before we leave) as well as the cards that we are bringing home. A correction to the price I stated early - it is 75p per card not per pack.

One thing that Becci reminded me that I'd missed on the Saturday blog was the fact that we went to the early morning market with the housemothers. When i say early this was the earliest we'd been up. We left at 4 so we were up around 3.30. They like to get their early to get the fresh meal and fish. The housemothers take it in turns to go each week and take one of the older girls with them to carry the bags. Each of us was assigned to go with one housemother and I went with Bethany's housemother Gerlie. The people loved to have their pictures taken, display their products and even with broken english tell us a bit about themselves. Most of the fish were still alive, the meal was freshly cut from animals - as all parts of the animals were sold and carved up in front of you. The market is open 24 hours so a lot of people were asleep on chairs. We spent 3 hours there before heading home at 7 and collapsing into bed for a few hours.

Becci & I would just like to say a big thank you to everyone who has kept up with our blog and our trip. We have really appreciated your prayers, best wishes and emails along the way and look forward to seeing you all soon. Take care everyone. Love Sarah

Days 25: Monday 26th June

Unfortunately, we had to get up really early again Monday morning (as you can probably tell I'm not really a morning person, especially not at four in the morning!) We had to be at the bus station at six so that we would have enough time to travel the long distance across the island. We met Estella and the others at the station and got on the bus (what we would call a coach but they call a bus), for the first three hours of our journey. On the bus we were able to catch up on some sleep, (well everyone except Sarah!), have a sort of second breakfast, and watch a bit of some film that wasn't really that good!
After we got of the bus we got into a van (minibus) that took us the two hours to the coast, dropping of some things with Estella's relatives on the way. This part of the journey took us past rice fields, crops of other kinds and moutains, so we saw some of the natral beauty of the Philippines. Once we got to the coast it started to pour with rain and we were told that we were experiencing the tail end of a typhoon that was, fortuately moving away, but we decided to go ahead and finish the journey anyway, (after wrapping up all our things in plastic bags). So we all got into the small boat that was waiting for us and headed off along the coast. The journey took about three hours and was interesting because the sea was a little choppy! I was sat on the bamboo poles that stick out over the edge of the boat, over the beautiful green-blue sea and so I had to hold on tight!!!!
By the time we got to the shore and had got off the boat we were all soaked through, and still had a half hour walk in the pouring rain! Jennifer and I decided that we were so wet anyway that we would try and protest our bags as much as possible, having them on our front and covering them with our umbrellas! Estella thought this was funny and said we looked like soliders of to war with our shields! The walk took us across rivers and streams swollen with all the rain (I don't know how many times I nearly lost my flip-flops!), and through jungle-like terrain, before we got to the house we were staying in! You may think that this sounds like a miserable and uncomfortable walk, but it was exciting, and didn't really care much by that point! We had got to the point where it was just funny when we lost our shoes and they threatened to go floating off to sea for the tenth time!
We were staying in one of the houses of the people who live in that area that Estella and Reah made contact with and are helping. There are three tiny bedrooms, a living room and a kitchen with an outhouse sort of building on one side, and a CR a little way off outside. (This is big for a filippino house, most of the time they have one room which they share and use for everything)
After we had changed into some dry clothes (so glad we had put them in plastic bags!) we had some tea and then went to bed shortly after as everyone goes to bed early because they don't have many lights they can put on when it gets dark, and as their days go from early morning to early evening.
The five of us girls shared they floor in one of the tiny rooms and the social workers shared a bed in the room next door. The floor wasn't exactly the most comfortable of palces to sleep, but we were all so tired that we managed to catch at least a few hours!

That's it from me! Cya soon!
Becci x

Days 23 & 24: Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th June

Well due to lack of time we've combined a few days just to let you know what we did on them. Saturday was a fairly uninteresting day compared to others but it was nice to relax with the children for a whole day. We were meant to go to the medical clinic that the church runs every Saturday morning but this was cancelled unfortunately. So we headed home and the rains started to come down. So we mainly stayed indoors with the children and they taught us traditional Filiapino games and we also played some familiar ones such as Twister (I actually played) and Memory.

Saturday evening was our Farewell party. It was a really lovely occasion. Each of the houses sang us a song as did the house mothers. Songs that were particularly moving were Amazing Grace (one of my favourites) and Friends are friends forever, if the Lord is the Lord of them (sang by the housemothers). The children played games in order to answer questions about each of us and Becci & I were tested on our Tagalog. We didn't do that well and for every time we got something wrong one of the girls was allowed to draw on our faces with lipstick. When we got something right we were able to put lipstick on the girls. I ended up looking like I had war paint on me whilst Becci looked quite hippy like. We sang wide, wide as the ocean again, presented them all with gifts and made short farewell speeches. Then we all had dinner together and took group photos. A very moving occasion that produced tears in the eyes of both Becci & myself.

Sunday was similar to previous Sundays with the services all being in Tagalog. However the morning Bible study was on different types of church governance and parts of it were in english so we could understand. We had dinner with the church members this time and then retreated into the library again to finish our books. It's been quite nice as different members have come and chatted to us and today was no exception. After the evening service we had church fellowship at the manse and this time the three American girls gave their testimonies. After that we ate balut. And here is what it is - a half formed embryonic duck with beak, feathers etc. You get it in an egg and you are supposed to drink the fluid and eat the contents. Thank goodness it was dark so we didn't see the contents of what we were eating. It didn't look pleasant but we downed it nonetheless. The taste was................ hard to describe but similar i suppose to a normal chicken egg. We had a large group of spectators delighted at the fact that we were trying one of their specialities. Would I eat it again.............not really sure.

A good two days. Luv Sarah

Day 22: Friday 23rd June

Friday we had a leisurely morning helping out in the office, finishing reports and cutting out hundreds of paper shapes as well as doing a bit of tidying of our room and some washing.
After lunch Ate Fe took us to pick up some of the children from school.
As there are so many children who want to go to school here and only limited teachers and resources the day is split into two sessions with half of the children going to school from six to lunchtime and the others doing from lunch until about five or six in the evening.
We got stared at by most of the people there but the girls were pleased to see us and insisted on introducing us to their friends and showing us their classrooms. After that we were dropped of at the CCM office so that we could video an interview with Kuya Arnel, the director of CCM. As Sarah didn't bring her tripod I had to hold the camera so my arm was aching by the time we finished!
We then headed of to Gateway to get some presents for the children. When we had asked Ate Mai what we should get she told us to get socks and umbrellas, so we ended up getting 21 pairs of socks and 15 umbrellas!! I think the staff of the shop thought we were strange, they kept telling us that there was 15 umbrellas and seemed shocked we when said that that was right! We also got hats for the two smallest girls as they don't need either sock or umbrellas and presents for each house and little things for the housemothers and social workers.
Although when we left the office we thought we had too much time to shop we ended up taking about three hours getting those things and got back to the office just in time!
We took a jeepney back to Masinag and it was the most scary jeepney ride I have ever had! (not that I've had that many!) The driver was a maniac! Both he and the person who sits in the front seat and takes the money kept asking us questions, such as "Are you american?" (which got confusing as we were with the American girls and one of the girls from Hope house, so there were two English, three American and one Fillipino!) and then in reponse to our answer, "Where's England?" so I resigned myself to the fact that we would be refered to as Americans for the journey! I think they were talking about us at one point as well, because I kept hearing the word 'Americano'. They obviously felt confident enough that we didn't speak the language to talk about us whilst we were still there!
But we got home in one piece, had dinner in Hebron and then went to bed!

Day 21, Thursday 22nd June

So we are now a week to go before leaving and time seems to have flown by. And now being here for so long we are attached to the Philippines and the people and don't really want to leave them all. But our own little island is also very much on our hearts and we do look forward to returning also!

By now for what we did on Thursday. One of the social workers decided to take us on a visit to see one of the families of the CCM girls. The girl was a 14 year old called Angela, who was taken into care on account of her being one of 10 children and her parents could not afford to keep her. However she still visits them regularly. The family live in a squatter area which is located very near to a large dump. And it is at this dump that the father tries to find work savaging. Everything has to be sifted through to get out all plastics, metals etc and then try and get some money for them. The only problem is that wages are low and work comes one day and not another. The father told us he made about 1.60 the previous day but today there was no work for him. The dump has been named Smokey Mountain and we were taken then to see it. Its not exactly a pleasant sight and even more disturbing to see the people practically living next to it. An amusing thing however was that they didn't want visitors to see it without a special permit from the major of the city. Then should we get that we would get a special orientation regarding the rubbish pile and get a guided tour round it. On top of that when we eventually found a side route in, they didn't want us taking photos of it. Bizzare I know! The homes were strewn with litter and there were flies everywhere. Disease is more prevalent here.

After we finished viewing this mountain as they call it we headed back to the office. From there Becci & I went over to Faith House where I did my second devotion to the older girls. They seemed to understand what I was getting at. After that we headed over to the church for our last drop in centre. This is something we really have enjoyed helping with as most other things the church does, we can't really participate because of language barriers. Prayers were answered when around 100 people showed up again (despite the fact that the law I mentioned last week is still in place). The street people simply move in a circle when the police hassle them and are in the area. Becci did some filming of some of the street children that CCM is putting through school. There are 10 of them and so far they have lasted 3 weeks. Its a really big deal for these kids because they live on the streets (unlike the other sponsered children who at least have a roof over them in a slum). Therefore the parents have to be educated about the concepts of washing, uniforms, timetables and assignments and this is all made extra difficult as they are on the streets. A lot of their stuff such as uniforms often goes missing or is stolen and so these children require more money to replace items. They will eventually all get sponsors. Please pray they will remain in school and not drop out.

Once the drop in centre was done, we had a meal together and then we got a jeepney home again.

Day 20, Wednesday 21st June

Wednesday was supposed to be our day off but in our opinion we already spend most of our time here 'having a rest', so after breakfast we went to the office to ask if there were any jobs that they wanted us to do and they gave us some, (well, Sarah had two, and I had four), reports to edit. These reports were either progress or incident reports about the children in the homes that were going to the children's sponsors in England. We had to check that the spellings were right, (so I don't know why they asked me!), and that the sentences made sense, basically making sure that it was good English and that someone in England would be able to understand what they had written!

But before I could get all of mine finished we had to head off out.

Ate Vergie, (one of the social workers based at the homes), took us to visit the home of one of the girls, Remy. Her mother lives in a squatter area some distance from Masinag so we got a crowded train, (like the underground, but above the road), and a jeepney and had to walk a little way before we got there. Remy's mother has learning difficulties and so is deemed unfit to look after children. She has other children but they are cared for by a different organisation. Both the mother and the father would rather that all the children were cared for by a Catholic organisation, but as Remy was refered to CCM she will now stay there. Only Remy's mother was in when we got there and apparently she never goes out but stays in the small dark room all the time. Ate Vergie talked with her for a little while and gave her some bananas as a gift. When we looked around the room, which was pitifully bare, we noticed that there were three cockroaches in one corner (big ones too!), and although I'm sure this is common throughout the community we had not seen anything like that before and it really brought it home what a dirty, disease-ridden area they live in.

Having just seen that we then went and experienced a very different way of living, when we went back to Megamall. This felt a little odd after what we had just seen, but it's shocking how quickly you can forget.

It took us a little longer to find the right place this time as Ate Vergie didn't know what shop we were talking about and then we had some difficulty finding it (the mall really is that big!) But eventually we ended up in the right place and were able to finish shopping for presents.

We had to get an even more crowded train back to Cubao and it was a squezze getting everyone in, dispite being in the compartment reserved for only women, children and the elderly. But we got there and made our way to the church for the prayer meeting.

We were there too early for the meeting and so were able to have a rest in the library before it started.

After the prayer meeting we gave all our bags to Ate Fe, who was going back in the van, whilst we stayed to help with the street outreach. We met some of the street people we had met the last time we did the outreach, but they were in a slightly different place. We also met some new people, one of whom was a nine month old baby (whose name changed each time we asked so I'm not sure about the name!) and her mother. Although a little unsure by the five white faces at first, (the American girls were also with us), she soon gave us a big grin which was lovely to see. We also met one of the girls who is being put through school by CCM and we got shown her lovely yellow uniform. Although I would love to have stayed and helped more there is not much we can do really, as we don't speak Tagalog and they speak very little English, so after a short while we got a jeepney back to Masinag and headed off to bed.

Day 19, Tuesday 20th June

Well Tuesday was another interesting day as we were introduced to the Livelihood projects that the church runs. As well as caring for children, they also try to help the parents towards a better living. One part of the project is the giving of low interest loans to people to start up small businesses and the other part is skills training and actually employing people to do certain things. The skills training takes place at certain times of the year in things like cooking, sewing, welding, computers and card making. Then for two days a week the church employs 10 people to come and make professional cards which they will then sell to make some sort of a living. The cards are absolutely amazing. Sadly they cannot sell in the Philippines due to prices being so low. So the church is hoping that they will be sold in England and the US, through the churches, where their price will be significantly lower in comparison to the shops. They make them for all occasions, particularly Christmas.

The problem is that they can only employ 10 people over 2 days when they would like to employ more. The problem is that the people are becoming faster and more experienced in making them and more cards are being produced than can be sold at the moment. So they have had to limit how many are made, until the project is suffciently advertised. What they really want is people to buy the cards not out of pity for the people but because they are good cards. Ideally they want some stability for the people and therefore are looking for around 30-40 churches (or groups/individuals) to make regular commitments to purchase cards. Thus the project will not collapse after a few years. Becci & I are bringing a sizeable amount of cards back to the UK to sell so please ask us when we get back about them. They are going to cost 75p for 2 cards. If you like them, more can be ordered.

So Matthew, an english missionary here who works alongside CRBC with street people, took us to see the project and asked us to give any suggestions about designs. He then showed us the rag making project which is a product that can be sold in the Philippines. However it is at a very low cost. Members of the church supervise all these people and get alongside them to build relationships and ultimately share the gospel with them. As a result there are over 10 Bible Studies going on and some of the people come to church. The church seems to have got a healthy balance between their social work and their spiritual work.

After viewing the projects we headed back to Matthew's for pizza and fellowship. Matthew has been working out here in the Philippines for 3 years. Before that he did several short term trips out here. The church that sent him was Trinity Baptist Church in Gloucester. It was Matthew who had the vision for the drop in centre and set it up. He has a real love for the people here which is very moving and it was really interesting to hear about his work. He is coming to the UK for 2 months in October so perhaps some people in UK might be able to meet him.

Then we were taken to a Mega Mall to do a bit of souvenir shopping. After that we had lunch at Hope House and then came back to join in a devotion that the housemothers were leading in Emmaus. Again a very inspiring and moving day.

Luv Sarah

Day 18 - Monday 19th June

Well Monday was a day spent at the CCM office, with the social workers, where we were put to good use. We headed over to the office in the morning after saying goodbye to Pastor & Mrs Tripp. It has been a truly amazing experience getting to know them and one feels like we now have a set of Christian grandparents. Pastor Tripp gave a moving morning devotion for the staff before he left which we were allowed to sit in on. In that devotion he warned against grumbling, complaining, revenge and slander and brought out of the Bible passage that instead we should love, judge fairly and build each other up. In total they have given 32 hours teaching to the people here over the last 10 days , stayed up late, and lost their voices numerous occasions and now they are in India to do more of the same. Apparently Pastor Tripp is fully booked for the next 5 years in terms of international engagements.

At the office wewere subsequently given reports to edit, lists to update and write up neatly, spreadsheets to be completed and tables to be drawn in several of their books. Becci was given the tasks of checking reports. Reports are sent out to all the sponsors of the children, on their progress, if there are problems and if they are dropped from the program for some reason. They like to have people from the countries in question (US, UK and Australia) to check them for the right vocabularly, sentance structure and grammer. There are slight differences which they really want to get right. The tasks took us up to lunchtime and we shared lunch with the staff. There are 10 CCM staff that work in this office though they are not all in at once. Our tasks continued into the evening with a short break for ice cream as it was one of the girls birthdays. She was 23 and its the tradition in the Philippines that the birthday person brings in food to share. One of the older girls brought Becci & myself back to the children's homes via a jeepney. Again it was jammed packed and blasting out Michael Jackson and horrible fumes at the same time. I ended up with a live chicken sitting at my feet in a box which was amusing.

As soon as we got back we had to bolt down our dinner before it was finally time for me to do my first devotion for the children. This devotion has been put off for different reasons for a week or so and now unfortunately i only had about half an hour to collect my thoughts and calm myself before I had to begin. We sang 'wide wide as the ocean with them again' and then i explained the parable of the lost son to them (with the help of visuals Becci had drawn me) and then made a few simple points about it. I ended with prayer and then the children sang the welcome song to three new visitors that arrived today from the US. Their names are Abigail & Amelia Spinney and their friend Jennifer. They are all 17-18 years old and its their first time abroad. They arrived last week but had to wait for Pastor & Mrs Tripp to leave before there was room at the homes for them. So now we have them as neighbours which will be interesting as 5 girls vie for the bathroom in the morning. But it will all work out well I'm sure. We have been moved into the Tripps room at their request, since it has air conditioning and they said they wanted us to experience it a bit before we left. So after the devotion we retreated back to a very cool room and called it a night. All in all, a good and profitable day.

God Bless. Love Sarah

Day 17, Sunday 18th June

Well its our 3rd Sunday here in the Philippines and it truely feels like we've been here only a few days. The day was pretty much like our first Sunday with the usual get down for breakfast at 7 am to leave at 7.30 when in fact we ended up leaving nearer 8 am for a 9 am start (it only takes 15 mins to get to the church). We thought we had Filapino time sussed as being always half an hour late but it really seems that the only rule we can see is that the time that they say to be somewhere or to start something, that is the time it is definately not going to be. A mystery indeed! The services were again in Tagalog but we were given notes in the morning which were in english. Pastor Mon took the subject of church unity and peace for the bible class and then in the main sermon he preached on Colossians 2 v 1-10 and the call to christians to not be decieved by hollow and deceptive philosophy, which seeks to undermine the sufficiency of Christ (namely that he is totally sufficient for everything we need as he is God and Sovereign ruler of all). The evening service was taken from 1 Peter 1 v 16 and the call from God to "be holy as I am holy". Unfortunately that is all I understood because there were no notes and it was completely in Tagalog. But I pray that the words spoken would bless the congregation that heard it. Becci and I spent the afternoon reading in the library again and also chatting with members of the congregation. After the evening service we went back to the CCM office to have after church fellowship. Becci and I were asked to give our testimonies as Richard did last week but it was a smaller group this time and comprised of the older girls from the two CCM Homes, Faith and Hope House (as well as Pastor Ellis). And it was interesting that afterwards some of the girls had questions to ask of us - such as the reason why we became Christians and also why did people mock our faiths and scorn at them. It was a good opportunity for Pastor Ellis to carry on from there to explain things further to them. After that we came back to the CCM homes for dinner. Another day has sped buy! It's going too fast! Luv Sarah

Day 15 - Friday 16th June

Friday was another busy-but-not-very-interesting-to-write-about day! So don't expect this to be very long!!
We spent the whole day in Masiang (that is how you really spell Macena, but we never saw it written down until the other day!), which was quite relaxing after the busy few days before (shopping is hard work you know!).
We had been asked to sort out and organise the library in any spare time that we had, so we made the most of not having anything else planned, and the peace and quite whilst the children were at school, to get on with this job. Sarah did most of the work I have to say, I was busy making sure that the few children who were 'helping' us didn't disrupt our nicely oraginsed heaps of books! I did do some work I promise! Sarah was making a list of all the recently aquired books on the computer, wherever possible in catagories. (She's better at that sort of thing than me, she's more organised than me!!!)
That took all morning, until we were called for lunch in Galilee with everyone who had stayed in the homes. Can't remember what we had but I'm pretty sure that there was rice in it somewhere and I know that it tasted good because nearly everything does here! (I say nearly everything because I'm not really a fan of liver, which seems to surface fairly often!)
After lunch I went and read one of my many books in our room, whilst Sarah prepared her devotion for the older girls downstairs. After I'd finished my book I started drawing some pictures for Sarah's devotion for the younger girls, on the prodigal son. I decided to sit outside on the roof because it was a nicer temperature out there than in the room. Then Sarah came back up and helped me finish them off, until we were joined by some of the girls who had come up to sort out tables and chairs for the Tripps farewell party.
We then spent some time playing with them until it was time for the party.
Each of the houses sang a song for the Tripps and the housemothers did one all together. Inbetween each song the children were asked various questions about Pastor and Mrs Tripp, such as; 'how many children do they have?' (3), 'how many grandchildren?' (7), and 'What is Pastor Tripp's full name?' This last question caused some confusion as I don't think anyone had asked him and a lot of the girls were just changing the title Mr? Dr? Pastor? but they got it eventually! The girls who got the question right would recieve a prize of sweets.
The Tripps then taught everyone a song about Moses, and Pastor Tripp gave a small speech saying thanks. Then we had some food, which unfortuately included liver!!! but the rest of it was really nice! We had this gorgeous sort of frozen cake sort of dessert thing, which had mango in (my new favourite fruit!) It was really, really nice and so I had 2 (small) pieces!
Then it was time for bed, for a good night's sleep in preparation for another busy day on Saturday!
That's it! Hope you're still awake! (if not you can wake up now, it's over!)
ttfn Becci x

Day 16 - Saturday 17th June

Saturday was another early start as we needed to be at Higher Rock Church, where we were holding the seminar for 8 so that we could register everyone before 9! So that meant leaving the homes at 7 (which meant that we had to be up about 6 in order to b ready and have had breakfast!), so that we could get to the meeting place, and then drive to the church, picking up everyone else on the way!
We arrived at the church just after 8, were put to work straight away Sarah helping sort out those who had pre-registered and me with those who were registering there and then. Pretty soon were swamped with people to register! About 400 people came and we had to try and get them all registered in an hour! Our job was made a little difficult because we found it hard to understand people's accents in the noisy hall, even if they spoke English! Fortunately we were not on our own and the social workers, (who were also cting as ushers for the day), managd to keep things running smothly!
We joined everyone else in the main hall for the seminar, which was split into six sessions and was basically what we had heard Pastor Tripp speak on at the other talks and seminars. During the first break we helped sort out the remaining few people who had not yet been regitered, because they arrived late and at lunchtime we helped to hand out the lunches (Chicken and rice!).
Everything seemed to go really well, and we left Pastor Tripp, (who nearly lost his voice he was doing that much talking!), signing hundreds of copies of his book, 'Shepherding A Child's Heart', to go back to Masinag for dinner.
We played with some of the girls for a bit and then went to bed to recover from all those early mornings s that we would be refreshed and ready for Sunday!
Hope you appreciate my attempts to make the blog more colourful!
ttfn
Becci x

Day 12: Tuesday 13th June- Visiting Tagatay

Thankfully Tuesday didn't start as early as Monday! We set off from the homes at about eight, with a short stop at Pastor Ellis' house to exchange some of our money, and picking Richard up on the way.
It was about an hours drive to our destination, a volcano situated in the middle of lake Taal. However we had plenty of entertainment as, as well as the usual accompaniment of some of the housemothers, (which today included Ate Fae, Ate Mai, Ate Janet, and Ate Gina), we were also joined by two of the younger children from the homes, Claire, who is four, and Chelly-Joy (not Cherry-Joy as we first thought- it's short for Rachel-Joy), who is three! Although they slept for the first part of the journey the last part was made more interesting by them singing us various songs, in both English and Tagalog, and by them shouting out of the window. Ate Gina translated for us and apparently they were shouting about it being a beautiful place! Chely-Joy also kept shouting '' every time we passed a cow!
The drive took us up and down hills and through pineapple plantations. When we reached the top of the last hill, before beginning to head down to the shore of the lake, there was a fantastic view down to the lake and the volcano. This was where we picked up the person who would arrange our boat trip across the lake to the volcano, so that we coluld climb up it.
Before crossing the lake we had KFC for lunch, and we discovered that Richard is Superman!!!!! (or at least that he looks like the pictures of superman (from the new film) that were on the cups that we had our drinks in!)
We had to wear life jackets for the boat journey, but they only had one size and the little girls were swamped by them! But they looked soooo cute and we had to take photos!
Once we got to the shore of the volcano the locals tried to persuade us to take horse ride up to the top, or buy one of the many things they had on offer, but we were determined to walk up and we already had everything that we needed!
The children were left at the bottom with Ate Mai, which was probably just as well because it was quite a steep climb to the top of one of the craters! The soil was hot and in some places there was steam coming off the rocks!
It was well worth the climb though, a fantastic view out across the lake, and down into the crater itself. (Sorry! I keep metioning the views don't I? but they are fab!!!!!) We took lots of pictures, (which don't really capture what it's really like), and debated about who had taken the most artistic picture so far!
After a short rest we then climbed back down to the bottom, which took about half the time it took to get up there, despite Ate Fae taking us down the wrong turning! Then back across the lake in the boat, having met back up with Ate Mai and the children, and a short drive to 'The People's Park in the Sky'
This is a park, (surprisingly enough!), which is perched at the top of a hill so that you can see for miles and miles and miles! More fantastic views! From this vantage point we could see, among other things, the volcano that we had just climbed up. There was a children's play park there so we admired the view and waited while the girls had a play. It wasn't long before Richard joined them, chasing them round, and in and out of a giant plastic pineapple! Both Claire and Chelly-Joy found this highly entertaining, (as did we!), even though it nearly ended in tears! (This was not Richard's fault, by the way!)
We did a bit of souviner shopping, and the housemothers brought lots of bananas and pineapples, then we headed back to the girls homes with Chelly-Joy and Claire both sitting on Richard's knee!
Sarah was supposed to have led a devotion that night, but we got back later than intended and so it was moved to another day and we just had a quick meal in the Hebron house (instead of Emmaus like usual), and then went of to bed!
Right! Sorry that took me so long to finish that Sarah has already done Wednesday!
ttfn Becci x

Day 14 - Thursdays 15th June - Farewell Richard

Well today was the day that Richard ended his time here in the Philippines. It's amazing how quickly these past two weeks have gone. We headed to the church again in the morning to listen to Pastor Tripps seminar again until around 11.30. Then we had some lunch and headed off to the airport with Richard. Unfortunately we were only able to stay with him for 2 mins as the parking guard wanted us to move. However we were not allowed in the terminal so it didn't really matter. He had to be there 3 hours before his flight. Then we headed back to the church for a final half hour of Pastor Tripps seminar. Afterwards there was a church meeting regarding the conference this Saturday where it seems Becci & I will be involved with the registration and also being ushers. Good thing they all will speak english. After the meeting we headed to the CCM office to check email before the drop in centre began at 6.30 again. We had our first trip in a tricycle which was fun. Its a small carriage attached to a motorbike which takes you around and can fit two people in it. As its so low to the floor you do feel a lot more bumps and pollution in your face but yet another fun ride and experience!

The drop in centre routine was the same as last week but numbers were low this evening. We had about 70 as supposed to the 110 last week. And it was soon related to us that the police and the MMDA (Metro Manila Development Agency) had put in a new rule - no street people are allowed to sleep in Cubao. If they are found they will be moved on, if they resist they will be arrested. Subsequently there were many sad tales to be told. The street people have absolutely nowhere to go. They cannot even go in the side streets and its too far to walk to the next town. Many, Pastor Ellis said, will go underground for a few days, hide under bridges and try and wait it out, until attitudes change. However this is supposedly the most inflexible rule yet and the police are showing no leeway. One man came in asking for painkillers as the police had beaten him up. Another regular at the drop in centre was in jail, for throwing a rock at one of the policemen when he fired his gun in the air to try and move the people on. Several are resisting so fights are breaking out. As we walked back that evening we say people waiting on concrete blocks to see if the police were gone and then perhaps they could try to get some sleep. Pastor Ellis's only comfort was that at least the police don't shoot them outright as they do in Mexico and Brazil, where street people often just dissapear. However since the police here carry guns, perhaps thats not too far away either.

The problem is that the authorities are trying to give the city a better image, particularly in light of the new posh mall. Shop keepers in particular want the street people gone as they are bad for business. And admitted some of the street people are into drugs, prostitution and theft. But the great majority are simply trying to survive on the streets with their families and aren't doing anything wrong. Please pray for the church here as they do not know how to advise these homeless people on the current situation. They want to help but also to keep within the law. Please pray that this law will be lifted or relaxed in the next few days. If it stays in place it puts the churches ministry to these people and the drop in centre itself in question.

Another sad event which we saw on our way home was a dreadful accident just near the children's home. A big articulated truck going down a hill had lost its brakes and crumpled into a motobike and the back of a jeepney, killing around 8 people. We didn't witness the event or the immediate aftermath but heard about it and saw the crushed vehicles later on. A sobering reminder that life can be taken from you so quickly, wherever you are. Therefore as Proverbs 3 5 says Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.

Take care everyone. Luv Sarah

Day 13 - Wednesday 14th June

Wednesday was a less active day compared to the previous two days of trips/outings. Pastor Ted Tripp was giving seminars over the Tues/Wed/Thurs for the pastors in the Manila area so we went down to the church in the morning to join Richard and listen to them for a bit. We also had some stuff we wanted Richard to take back to the UK for us so we had to get hold of some scales to check his luggage weight. He was just in the limit!

The church has a library (very nicely air conditioned) where the talks were broadcast from the main room so we could listen without taking anyone's place. We helped for a bit in preparing lunch for the pastors (rice again - what a surprise!) before heading down to the mall to buy ourselves lunch. We keep asking if there are things we can do but its a well oiled machine here and often they just tell us to rest! So as it was Richards last full day they encouraged us on this occasion to head to the mall to do some shopping.

The mall we headed to was called Gateway, the one we have been to several times before. Unfortunately its like any other mall we would have at home - it doesn't stock exclusively Filiapino products but day to day stuff. So you kind of wander around but don't buy much. We found a few unique things however including a lovely little Filiapino Christian bookshop which we spent a lot of time in. Almost everything there was stocked in english which was nice. And again the prices everywhere were so cheap. You may disaprove but we ate at Burger King for lunch. But at such prices such as 1 pound 25p for a whole meal, you can't resist, come on! We spent a few hours there before heading back to the church in time for the end of the seminar. Then we all headed back to the homes for dinner (including the Tripps). We spent a few hours with the children before heading back again to the church for the evening prayer meeting. This time it was unfortunately all in Tagalog. But we were able to understand the prayer requests.

The church particularly prayed for its sunday services (including the 4 churches it has planted) and for the main seminar that Pastor Tripp will give this coming Saturday. They are expecting around 300 people to come and so they have hired out a bigger building. Pastor Tripp is going to speak from 9am to 4pm that day. As you can imagine he has had quite a busy schedule but the people here are so appreciative of his teaching. He has done sessions all day Friday, Saturday, preached Sunday evening and did after church fellowship, whole day seminars Tue-Thurs and then all day Sat and all day Sunday. Please pray that God will sustain him in his preaching and give him the wisdom in what to say. He says he's fairly brain dead after most sessions but seems to come back each day with a great freshness and zeal which is fantastic to see. He's given each of us here a copy of his book "Shepherding a childs heart" so that will be nice to read.

A relatively quiet day but nice! Take care everyone. Love Sarah

Day Eleven: Monday 12th June- Church Outing

Monday started very early as we had to get up at 4:45am!!!!! (I still haven't recovered!) We were joining some of the members of CRBC on their church outing, to a place called Villa Lorenza, as it was Independance day. Everyone was meeting at the church at 6:30, (They like early mornings here!), as it takes just over an hour to get there and they wanted to spend as much time as possible there. So after everyone had eventually arrived we all piled into the minibuses, (it doesn't seem to matter how many seats there are, just squeeze in as many people as is comfortably possible!), and set off! Sarah and I were in the front, (there are two passenger seats in the front), with Sarah in the seat with the seatbelt and me in the one without!! Fortunately I trust Ate Fae's driving! On the way we drove past increasingly few buildings as we moved out of the main city and into a more rural, farming type area, replacing the shops and houses for rice fields and shacks.
At the villa we all congregated in a raised hut type thing next to a swimming pool for a time of worship and fellowship. We sang a few hymns and Pastor Mon read from the Bible, and spoke to us about the importance of spending time with your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. (At least I think that's right, he was speaking in Tagalog, so I didn't understand the whole thing!)
Then everyone went off to do different things, with most people, including Sarah and Richard, heading off to one or another of the four or five swimming pools that there was there.
As some people had discovered that Richard is a lifeguard he was bombarded with requests for him to demonstrate his skills and teach various people how to swim! He was also challenged to a race by some of the other men, which of course, he won by miles as he swims like a fish!!!!!!
After a couple of hours it was time for lunch, which consisted of various dishes provided by different people and was shared out. There was even fish cooked on a grill at the villa! (with head and tail still on of course!) We weren't joined by cats for this meal, but by hundreds of flies, which was annoying because it took twice as long to eat as we had to keep swatting them away!
Then after a short rest it was back to the pools for the rest of the afternooon, with a short ice-cream break, until it was time to dry off and go home. We closed the day with a group photo and prayer.
The whole day was really enjoyable, and it was good to spend time with the people there, talking to them and getting to know them better!
On the way back there was a rather interesting incident when Ate Fae braked and I slid off my seat and into the dashboard!!!! I'm ok! Just a small bruise on my knee!
We also managed to go the wrong way once and had to ask for directions! So all in all it was an interesting journey back!
We were treated to a fantastic view as we came down off a hill we had just climbed, just before entering into the city- you could see buildings stretching out to the horizon almost.
Richard came back to the homes with us and we spent some time playing with the children before tea.
I discovered that I had gone a lovely shade of pink from sitting in the sun, mostly on my arms up to where my t-shirt sleeves came to, but also on the front of my legs! People here seem to think this is amusing as they only go a darker shade of what they already are, not bright pink!!
Well that's about it for Monday!
Cya soon!
Pixie xx
(or Becci for those of you who don't know me by that name!)

Day 10 - Sunday 11th

We had the opportunity of hearing not one but two english sermons on sunday. The first was at a plant of a chinese church which is about to be officially given independence and be named 'Calvary Reformed Evangelical Church'. Getting to this church was the first obstacle to overcome! For Sarah and Becci it was quite simple they went with the pastor of the church who lives not so far from the girls' home, for me it was not so simple. It had been previously arranged that i was to be getting a lift with one of the social workers (estella), however when i arrived home on saturday night from wacthing the footbal i was greeted by dal who is a bhurmese student at the miniserial academy. Dal's English is not too good and he was supposed to tell me that i would go with dal instead of estella but he instead asked me how i was getting there and left it at that. This led to confusion, however after some phone calls i was able to get a lift with estella and a couple of the other social workers. When I arrived i found sarah and becci there already but dal did not appear (it turns out that he went to a bhurmese fellowship instead)!
I had said that we had heard two english sermons, however that is not entirely correct as the morning service was scottish and the evening american! The pastor of the CREC is a Scottish fellow named Gilbert MCAdam. He spoke in the adult Sunday school about the observance of the Lords day, saying how we should look at the commands positives rather than thinking of the limitations of the Sabbath. The morning service was led by one of the elders however pastor McAdam preached. The subject was 'On what basis can you be right wih God' It contrasted self righteousness and humility and the text for the sermon was the parable of the tax collector and the pharisee praying at the temple, and he spoke very ably. We went to the mall for lunch, and then headed back to Cubao Reformed Babtist for the evening service which was at 4.
The preacher at CRBC was Rev. Tedd Tripp who is from Penssylvania, USA. He is in the Phillipines with his wife Margie giving a group of seminars on the family culminating in a conference on Sturday entitled 'Shepparding a Child's Heart' . I have been very impressed with what i have heard of these seminars so far as they are based firmly and purely from scripture and are extremely practical. He spoke from Romans 8 v31-end of chapter. The theme of the message was our position in Christ. This sermon was very encouraging as it spelt out the sure hope we have of salvation and the power of him that we are saved through.
After the evening service there was a church fellowship, where i was surprised to be asked to share my testimony and answer a few questions, such as a my first impressions of the phillipines. I beleive Sarah and Becci captured it on video so you'll have to ask them to see it. After me Heather spoke a bit of what she had done in the time she spent here and Pastor and Mrs Tripp spoke of the work they do in the USA, where rev Tripp pastors a church and Mrs Tripp is president of the school affiliated with the church. After the fellowship Becci and Sarah went back to the home and i stayed at the church had some dinner cooked by Tony and then went to bed.

Day Eight - Friday 9th June

I'm seemingly writing several posts in one go. Friday was not very full in terms of activities but we enjoyed ourselves. We started the day by clearing up their playground which borders the house. It is open to the public but CCM maintain it. However there was a lot of litter, broken glass and tall grass which needed to be cleared. It's still not done and perhaps another day we will come back to it. However working in the sun and heat makes you faint quite quickly. The rest of the day was taken up with seminars. On Thursday we saw some new arrivals from the US fly in, Pastor Ted Tripp and his wife Margie, who are staying just next door to use for a week and giving a variety of seminars to the church, the housemothers and to the seminary that the church runs (which begins next week).

Pastor Tripp has written a book called"Shepharding a child's heart" which basically takes the view that all behaviour from children is an outflow from whats in their heart. Therefore instead of always trying to tackle certain behaviours with either threats or rewards, we should tackle the root causes of their behaviour - the attitudes of their hearts. We can force them to say sorry to not fight, to share etc but this is merely an outward act and doesn't change anything. However what they were not saying was that you take away consequences from a child but rather you apply them in a way that the child will think about the spirtual nature of their problem and that you will try and help them deal with that by praying for them.

So Pastor & Mrs Tripp did 3 seminars on Friday - an Introduction, one on Consequences and one on Communication with the children. We were allowed to sit in and they were very interesting. However we unfortunately will miss the practical application on Saturday as we are down the church working. The House mothers particularly seem to desire this as they are having to look after 12 children at times which are not their own and they often don't have so much time to attend to all of them, and they have the worry that dealing with one child could cause jealously among the others. They are also concerned about getting certain behaviours to stop immediately (tackling the behaviour as there are house rules). Its interesting to see what practical points Pastor Tripp and his wife will have for them. However its a little unerving for me as I'm going to have to do my devotion in front of them next week.

Their seminars took up most of the day. Richard came round to do some fixing of the cupboards and also sat in on one of the seminars with me and Becci. We stopped for breaks inbetween. Then after the seminars the three of us played with the children until dusk in the playground. The girls have particularly taken to Richard which is nice to see, given some of their backgrounds with males. They love to have him carry them, go down the slides with them, push them on the swings and hold them on his shoulders whilst they swing on the monkey bars. One tiny girl called Cherry Joy (aged 2-3 I think) has become particulary attached to Richard, clinging on to him wherever he goes and wanting always to be carried. Richard seems rather fond of her too! All in all a pleasant evening although they got hold of our cameras again, made the batteries flat, again, and both Becci and I ended up with around 100 interesting looking photos (many of which we deleted later), again. We're thinking we might need to be a bit firmer in the future!

Take care. Sarah

Day Nine - Saturday 10th June

Well Saturday has been another long but profitable day. Today we headed to the church to participate in their working party (doing jobs around the church). One of the older girls in the house took us there as we don't yet know our way around. On they way several interesting things happened. First our jeepney bumped into the car in front and so we all had to get out and change. And secondly the clouds sent down a flash flood which was fortunately from the time we got in the jeepney to when we got out.

There were sadly not many people at the working party but that meant there was plenty to do at least. Richard was set to work cleaning all the fans which meant taking them apart and washing all the pieces. You can't imagine how dirty they were and there were lots to do. It took him most of the day. Becci and I were put to work cleaning the window frames of dust. They are kind of like gratings over the windows and very hard to wash. After cleaning several of the windows which were quite large we then had to wash all the chairs which had accumulated a lot of dust on the legs. After that we also wiped down the bottoms of tables. So the working party seemed more like church cleaning in the end, as the others waxed the floor and put out chairs. We stopped for lunch around 12 with KFC and rice and were done by about 3pm.

Once back at the homes we rested for a bit before beginning a task we had been given by the housemothers, which was sorting their library. They have had some new books in which they wanted listed, coded and hopefully covered with some plastic. So its quite a big task that can keep us occupied if we are ever lost for something to do. However our big mistake was that we started this job on a Saturday with all the children at home. Subsequently they all wanted to help and piles of books in certain catagories were destroyed, all books were opened, read, thrown around, fought over and the children crowed round us on the computers as we made our lists. I was quite surprised that we managed to get done what we did but that was probably due to Heather eventually getting all the children out of the office so we could have some peace and quiet. They meant well but their excitment does get the best of them at times.

Once we had done that we went out and played with the children. The younger ones in particular are very affectionate and continually want to play with us and hug us. Most of them don't speak much english and so we can't get what they are saying. But many games such as hide and seek, the playground, tug of war and london bridge is falling down seem universal. They have such boundless energy in this heat, its amazing. They play really well together including the younger ones which are aged 2-3. The older ones (15 up) keep to themselves. My only regret is I'm still having trouble remembering all the childrens names. As the evening draws on they revert to quieter options such as playing in their rooms or on the piano. Some of them want me to teach them short tunes which they are learning really well. Richard wasn't with us this evening as Matthew invited him out to see the England game and stay over at his house. We are looking forward tomorrow to two english sermons. Also please remember me in your prayers as I prepare a devotion for next week.

Take care. Sarah

Day Seven - Visiting the community

Thursday was by far the most interesting day for me this holiday as we were taken to see the community (a.k.a slums/squatter settlements). Squatter settlements in the Philippines are officially places where the government owns the land but has allowed people to stay there and make homes but with the proviso that they have to move on if the government needs the land for anything. We were taken to three different slums (one interestingly called New York) for around 3 hours by Tina, one of the social workers at CCM.

It is extremely hard to describe what we have seen or even convey it through pictures and video footage. None of it will ever do it justice but I will certainly do my best now to tell you about it. It was not the most pleansant experience and I don't think the reality has truly come home about what we saw. We came and we left, yet people spend their days and nights in these places and there are a lot of problems that we no doubt didn't see nor grasp as we only got a small snapshot of this kind of life.

Anyway we started walking to the slums as we were taken down a normal road you then suddenly dart between two of the houses down a small alleyway which is where these people live. Its only enough for one person to walk but down but there are dozens of houses each side, squashed togehter, with makeshift roofs above the alleyway which makes them dark (you can't even see your feet so one trips over quite a bit). There is running water coming down them from the river and rain as well as when people do their washing outside and throw out dirty water(which means TB flourishes). The smell leaves a lot to be desired and I'll leave it at that. There are many different passageways, almost like an underground city. There are some central points with a bit of light where people meet. A lot of people bring things to do out into the light. Many of them seperate paper, sell junk and do other sorts of things to try and earn a bit of money.

The connection CCM has with these slums is that as well as them having over 40 children in the homes where we are, they also help over 300 families within the slums. They get sponsers to help the children of the slums go to school and also provide Livelihood projects for the parents so that they can earn income. The aim is not total funding but more a percentage. For example the sponsership pays for things such as uniforms, books and any fees but the food of the child is still the parents responsibility. So we were taken round to several of these families which joyfully welcomed us in. They were so thankful that we visited, wanted us to take photos of them and got chairs for us to sit down with them. There is a great openess about these people and they all seem so happy, despite their circumstances.

Within a house, there can be as many as four floors and each family occupies one floor. A family is typically 7 children with some that we met being as many as 14. And the amazing thing is that often they all sleep and eat in one tiny room. You get into their houses (or rooms) through tiny trap doors and it can easily get claustraphobic. You have to climb oddly shaped ladders in the dark which was an adventure in and of itself. The homes are very basic. The houses are constructed with odd timber, sheets and wood, some not with sides and most not with any windows. At lot jet out over the river and of course as soon as it rains, the majority of these houses go under the water and they have to evacuate. So now I will never call on it to rain heavy again.

The people have to pay rent to stay in the settlements as well as money for electricity and water. They earn only about 1.50 to 2 pounds a day and so it is very hard to make ends meet. Yet an interesting fact is that they all have televisions which is their main method of communication. They buy them second hand mostly and they are quite cheap. There are many more children that CMM wishes to help but doesn't have the funds to do so. They only have a limited amount of social workers and it results in one social worker beings responsible for over 50-60 families. The church runs bible studies in the slums, encourages them to attend church and also gives them a Bible. The problem in the Philippines as some of you may have gathered is that they have a very high birth rate and high unemployment too. Pastor Ellis said that when he came here over 30 years ago the population was around 39 million and now it is around 80 million. So they are struggling to find any work and sometimes even an education is not enough to lift them out of their poverty.

I don't know if I can say much more about the slums except that I hope that this and our photos and memories that we will share with you when we get back , will enable you to be more aware of this situation (and others like it around the globe) and make it a matter of prayer as it is a definate reality.

So after visiting the slums we headed back to the office where CCM has all its social workers. They are kept busy obviously visiting but also writing reports to the various sponsers in the UK, US and Australia on the progress of the children. We had lunch with them and then after a few hours went off with Matthew (another English person who permanently lives in the Philippines and works specifically with street/slum people) to a bible study. There was about 12 there and Matthew explained the basics of the gospel to them. We had a few more exciting rides on jeepneys as a result. After that we went to Faith House, which is the house where the older girls (18+) live and Richard led a devotion for them on the Parable of the Ten Virgins and urging them to be prepared. He did it really well and they all seemed to understand and some even asked questions. We had dinner with them and then headed back to the church in time for the Drop in Centre.

Now the Drop in Centre is a fantastic work. People don't drop in as we know it where they come at any time and leave at any time but rather they come into the church for a set amount of time. The church bascially puts on a meal for all the homeless people that want it and as a result they get over 100 people coming in for food. They can also wash themselves and their clothes should they so wish. Members of the church volunteer to help (around 20 people) and the homeless people get a hot meal and a bible talk. However preparing it is manic and we got caught up in it. Getting out 100 bowls, plates and spoons was the first job as they have an interesting way of doing things. They cover everything with plastic bags which you just whip off at the end and put in the bin. However everything has to be bagged which takes a while. Then we dished out the rice, vegetables, meat and soup and formed a line of serving. We apparently hit a record time of doing it. And once they are done, everything has to be cleaned up and I mean a thorough clean. Even the chairs are washed down twice. Then we (all the people that helped) had a meal together. Just to give you an indication of time, the drop in centre starts at 6.30 and we were done by 9.15. We then headed ready to collapse. It was our longest day so far but a really interesting one.

And last comment from me - I'm writing this as England go to the pitch for their first World Cup match against Paraguay and I'm gutted that I can't see it live on screen. But am following it online. COME ON ENGLAND!!!!!

Luv ya all. Sarah

Day Six: Wednesday 7th June

Today was a doing nothing day so there is nothing to write!!!
Ok, so that's not quite true! Richard seemed to have a fairly productive day at the church, changing light bulbs and taps, but for Sarah and I there were no specific tasks for us to do in the homes, meaning that we spent most of the day chilling in our room (sleeping or sewing, but you will have to guess who did what!!!) We did clean our room- changing the sheets and washing the floor, which was fairly useful I guess!
During the day we did manage to have good conversations with some of the housemothers, talking about where they come from, how they became a christains, and how they came to be housemothers. When the children are home there is not much of an oppourtunity to do this, as they are so busy and you are likely to be interupted by one of the children! As a result we feel that we know them a bit better now, and know more about how the houses are run. We learnt that some of the children who are slower learners have extra tutorials to help them keep up with their classmates.
We also found out about what happens when the children are too old to live in the homes on the Mecena site. (The home in Mecena are for girls up to the age of 17/18) What happens is that, if they do not go back and live with their families, then they will go to another house also run by CCM while they continue to study, until such a time as they are able to move out.
So the morning wasn't entirely wasted!!
In the afternoon Heather, Sarah and I, (Richard was still at the church), went to a market just down the road from where we are staying to have a look around. Sarah brought half a coconut shell! (I can't remember if we have already explained, but here they use this to polish their floors) Then we all went and got ice-creams of various different flavours from 7 eleven. I think I ended up with a cheese flavour one!! It actually tasted quite nice, in fact I didn't even realise it was cheese until Sarah looked at the ingredients and told me there was processed cheese in it! As there didn't seem to be anything else that could be a flavour we assumed it must be cheese! I did notice bits of cheese in it, which was weird for an ice-cream, but it still tasted Ok! I don't know that I would of chosen it if I had known the flavour though!
When we got back to the home some of the children had come back from school, and they had another session taking hundreds of pictures with our cameras!
CRBC have their prayer meetings on a Wednesday Evening and so left for the church at about 6, after our dinner.
The prayer meeting was almost entirely in Tagalog, so it was very hard to understand what was going on, but I think that we were able to get the jist of it! (I'm speaking for myself here, I'm assuming the others understood a little at least!) The hymns were in English so we could join in with them, although they seem to sing a lot slower than we do at home! They also wrote the matters for prayer on a whiteboard in English. The Bible Study was from Genisis ch 4- about Cain and Abel, and how as christian brothers and sisters we should care for each other. (that's the general idea of it, i think, from what I understood, but I'm not entirley sure of the details) They have a slightly different way of organising their praying, (at least to what happens in my church), giving a couple of matters for prayer, praying about it and then giving a few more matters, then praying, and so on.
After the meeting we were taken along the road, with some of the members of the church to hand out tracts to passers by. (that sounds a little forced according to Sarah but I assure you that we were happy to do it!) People seemed happy to take them and people were looking at them, not just throwing them away. Pray that people will take notice of what they read and that God will work in their lives.
Having done that we continued down the road and met with some of the people who live on the streets in that area. It was a real eye-opener to see these people for real, to meet them and learn their names. Suddenly they are no longer pictures of people, images on the T.V, or cold statistics, but real living people with names, personalities and lives. Despite their bleak situation I noticed smiling faces; they seemed pleased to meet us and wanted to know all about us and to tell us about them and to show us their children (including a one month old baby who was lying asleep by the side of the road). I found it was a hard thing to see, but I am glad that I have, as this will help me to see things differently now when I see pictures or statistics. Hopefully I will be reminded of this experience and be able to see the human side.
Richard then stayed with them and the people from the church whilst those of us who needed to get back to the homes took a Jeepney to Mecena.
Riding in a Jeepney is definately an experience! There is always loud music playing and, although when we got on it was empty, it soon started filling up! Just when you think it's full someone else gets on, and then another, and another! I think at full capacity there can be 24/25 sitting and another two hanging on the back! Not to mention the driving and the fact you get on and off in the middle of the road!!!!
That was about It really! Not bad, I managed to write quite a lot for a day when I said there was nothing to write!
TTFN Becci x

Day Five

Hi its richard writing my first entry onto the blog. Sorry it's been long, but i hve limited acess to the internet since i am staying at the church and not at the girls' home like Sarah and Becky.

I will update on what I have done/experienced that sarah and Becky have not. Firstly as I mentioned I am staying in an appartment at the church which is about 10-20 minutes from the girls' home (depending on traffic) and there are three others staying at the church as well, Tony the caretaker, Daal who is a bhurmese student at the seminary and Leo who is the old caretaker's son. On Sunday afternoon after the morning service there was a time when some of the officers of the church did sme open air preaching in the streets. I went along with them and watched, with a few others but the preaching was in tagalog so i couldnt understand it. The preaching was relatively well recieved, there were around 30 who styed and listened. There was no vocal or physical taunting, some appeared intersted but i think most of the people stayed out of courtesy, as is the culture here.

Tuesday 6th June

In the morning i went to the shopping centre with tony after helping with some basic chores around the church. The shopping centre was upmarket and had shops such as adidas, nike and Marks and Spencer! After lunch i was picked up by the minibus that was collecting the girls from the home who attended elementary school. I spent the rest of the day there and we played with the children, who enjoyed playing with our cameras and took alot of pictures, five pictures of my feet were taken on becky's camera alone! Some of the girls took us up a hill near the home that gave a great view of the city, and that was a good opportunity for even more photos. I was also able to learn more of the circumstances that some of the girls were in before coming to the home, and they are very sad stories and the girls really appreciate the security that comes from staying at the home.
After we had dinner at the home me, sarah and becky gave the devotion to the girls. We shared with them our testimonies and taught them a chorus ("wide, wide as the ocean...."). We had been asked to each take devotions for the girls' the day before and we thought that as this first one was short notice we would share it, and tell them of something familiar to us, I am taking a devotion on friday, but this will be to an older goup. I then was given a lift back to church, and when they found that i have a licence i was offered to drive at some point while i am over here. The offer was quikly rejected as it seems the drivers here all have a death wish! That is all from me today

Day Four, Monday 4th June - Sightseeing in Manila

Monday was sightseeing day for us and Ate Fe, Ate Mai and Ate Jenie, along with a member of the church called Tony, took us out to see the old Spanish capital called Intramuros in the centre of Manila. It took quite a while to get into the centre as we are on the outskirts but we were entertained by Tony who acted as our guide and told us all about the history of the Philippines. The old capital is not much to see as a lot of it was destroyed in the Second World War and only a few ruins remain. It was built in the 1570's and is really a city within a city, seperated from the rest of Manila by its crumbling walls. You can walk from one end to the other in a few minutes.

Within Intramuros there is Fort Santiago, seat of the colonial powers of both Spain and the US as well as being used as a prison and torture chamber under the spanish regime and the scene of countless military-police atrocities during the Japanese occupation in Wordld war Two. At the far end of the fort there is the infamous dungeon overlooking the river where American and Filippino POWS were incarcerated and left to drown by the rising tide. There is a memorial to them there. We took lots of pictures and were rushed round by Tony as the heat was quite intense and there was no shade to realistically stay in one place for a long time.

The other place inside Intramuros which was of some interest was the Rizal Shrine Museum. Revolutionary Jose Rizal is the Philippine national hero. He was a lawyer and a writer who studied abroad and became anti colonial and started up a reform movement in the Philippines. Other groups practised violence for which he was blamed and thrown into prison and eventually executed. The museum holds some of his works, his clothes and other items and even oddly a small bone of his. They have statues outside dedicated to him and you can trace his last footsteps through Intramuros. It only cost 15 peso's to get. in At the moment the exchange rate is around 96 pesos to a pound so that comes to around 15p. Everything here is very cheap. They have many gardens within the walls where people come in the evenings to relax. The guards are dressed up in the old spanish uniforms for additional effect.

Once we had finished walking around Intramorous we stopped for lunch and the house mothers (much to our surprise) had brought with them a huge spread of shrimps, noodles, rice, potato & corned beef, chicken and ice tea. It was so scrummy that we ended up with a huge litter of miaowing cats under our feet , begging for scraps. After we had finished lunch we were treated to coconut juice outside the city wall. A man with a stall would hack away at a green coconut to remove the skin and then make a hole at the top from which you could drink from. Whilst Richard was told to drink it straight from the hole, Becci & I used the more delicate method of straws. And once we were finished our coconuts were halved and we were able to eat some of the coconut itself. After that we went into a little gift shop. Again very cheap prices as Becci was able to get three pairs of earnings for 100 pesos which is about a pound.

We then drove on to San Agustin Church and the Augustinian monastery. Over 90% of the population in the Philippines are Catholic, courtesy of their previous spanish rulers. So there are many churches dotted all over the place. But this church was different because it is the oldest stone church in the Philippines (built in 1587) and was the only building to survive the bombings of World War Two. To get an idea of how much Manila was bombed by both the Japanese and American in the war, note this: apparently only Warsaw suffered more damage. A lot of you might not think much happened in the Philippines during the war as its so far out but its actually quite a strategic place. The americans have very two big cases. It was occuiped by the Japanese for two years when they kicked the Americans out. The Americans regained it with local Filippino help later on in the Battle of Manila in in 1945.

Anyway so the church and monastery - The architecture inside the church is of a magnificant baroque style and worth a visit for that alone. It's very grand with a vaulted ceiling and dome. It also contains the tomb of the founder of Manila - a man called Legazpi. Within the monastery there a museum of icons and artefacts ranging from an 18th centry spanish pipe organ, lots of paintings, models and pots. Within the monastery there is Father Blanco' Garden, a lovely neat little area of tropical greenery and stone paths, fountains, and plants. The gardens are so nice that they are hired out for wedding receptions I'm told. It was rather sad to see all the idols they had in place which obviously cost a lot of money to make and upon which they all seem to rely on. The monks used to make medicines to help the poor, through cultivating certain plants in the garden. Again a very interesting visit. After that the heat had got to us and we couldn't really take any more sightseeing. So we piled aboard the minibus to head back.

After we dropped Richard & Tony back at the church the house mothers then took Becci & I to see some model shoes. It may sound bizzare I know but it was a real shoe made of leather for a person 125 ft tall. It is displayed in some of the local shoe shops and can apparently fit 30 people in side and took 1,000 m of thread to make. It could make 250 pairs of normal size shoes. We have the pictures to prove it. There was also another similar sized high heel shoe on display in the river. This was all in memory of one of their First Ladies called Imelda who had a thing about shoes. When her house was raided one time she was found to have 3,000 pairs which she claimed she had in order to promote the Filipino shoe industry abroad. She was a bit of a mad spender. A very amusing story.

Whilst we were on the river bank another interesting incident happened with a rat. A man had caught a rat (probably disease ridden) in a cage and decided to drown it in front of us. And when that apparently didn't completely work he then squashed it. A bit inhumane I thought! Sounds very familiar though! Anyway once we were done there we were taken to a cafe to try a traditional Philippine desert called halo-halo. Its hard to describe so i'll use the rough guides definition "sweet concoction made from ice cream, shaved ice, jelly, beans and tinned milk. The name literally means mix-mix". You had to pulverise it into a mush and then eat it. After that we headed back home, and were treated to another traditional Filipino dish called adobo which is chicken summered in soy sauce and vinegar with pepper and garlice. It was yum! In the evening Heather did a devotion for the children which we sat in on (she had a translator). And then afterwards all the girls sang us a welcome song which was really sweet. We just wished we had our cameras to capture it but we are told there will be another occasion.

We were then given our schedule for the next few days. We have been asked to lead a number of devotions for the different groups of children, both on Tuesday, Friday and the tuesday after. We have decided to give our testimonies on the first occasion, then Richard may lead the Friday devotion and I will then probably do the next one. This hasn't really been discussed between us. However please pray for us as we speak to the children as quite a few of them aren't christians (and they openly admit it to us when they ask us when we became Christians). However they attend a good church and know the truth from the preaching of God's word. Pray that God will break into their lives and save them from their sins. They listen very attentively but its hard to know how much they take in or whether they just switch off. Obviously a lot of them have had hard backgrounds with being abandoned by parents or abused or living on the streets. We will update the blog again to let you know how the first devotion goes. As well as devotions we are going to spend most Mondays and Tuesdays at the homes and the other days at Cubao which is CCM headquarters. Wednesday night is the prayer meeting and Thursday we will help with the drop in centre for homeless people. They also hopefully will take us to see a squatter settlement sometime this week. Lots of things to keep us busy and it all sounds really interesting.

So we headed to bed for a second night of hot murky weather as there was no rain. But we had an extra fan so all is well. And at least we don't have to get up as early as the children who went back to school today. The children have to leave by 6 so some of them are up as early as 4 to start the cooking. We get up around 6 for breakfast at 7.

I promise we will get Richard to write the next thing on the blog. He is here and well I assure you, he just hasn't been around when we've had the opportunity to work on the blog.

Take care and God Bless
Sarah

Day 3: Sunday 4th June

Today being the Lord's day we got up much earlier in order to get ready for church. All of the children go to church and most of the housemothers are members of Cubao Reformed Baptist Church (CRBC), which is the church that founded the homes about ten years ago. The church is about 20 minutes away from where we are staying in Mecena, which meant another bumpy ride in the minibus! As you can probably tell this has made quite an impression on us, but trust me if you experienced it you'd know why!!
Here we run on Filipino time, which seems to mean that if someone says we are leaving at 7:30 you can be fairly sure that you won't leave until 8! Even as we sit here we are meant to have left half an hour ago to meet Richard at the church and then go and see some of the sights of Manila!
Everyone is very relaxed and there is no particular timetable (which Sarah is trying to get used to!)
Once at the church the sunday school was due to start at 9 (so of course didn't begin until 9:30!). That lasts half an hour and is followed by the main morning service. The children have a separate class to the adults and then join us for the service. We were able to understand most of what was said during the sunday school as the Pastor used a mixture of English and Tagalog (Tag-ah-loh) and wrote on the whiteboard in English. The theme of the sunday school was church doctrine and we were particularly looking at church membership. The main service, taken by Pastor Ellis, was in Tagalog (although you can still pick out the odd English word), so we understood less of that. However Pastor Ellis realised that we couldn't understand and so gave us notes in English. With those and the few English words we were able to keep up with the service pretty well. The service was about the sending out of the 70.
After the service everyone stayed for lunch, having brought food from home. We were invited to eat with some of the members of the church and both the food, (chicken and vegetables, with rice of course!), and the fellowship with some of the people in the church was good. I am having some difficulty trying to explain where Shrewsbury is, I think most people think I live in Wales! We have also had some interesting conversations while we have been here trying to explain about the U.K. being four countries in one, and about our royal family! (Someone asked us if Diana was welsh (Princess of Wales)!! We were also asked if the royal family wore their crowns all the time! Although we aren't sure if she was serious or not!) I never realised our country set-up was so hard to understand!
After lunch the children, and some of the adults went upstairs to sleep, whilst we went into the library (it's got air-condtioning!) to read and continue talking with people. During the afternoon Richard went with some of the church members to an open air meeting, led by one of the pastors of the church, which was elsewhere in Manila. However as Sarah and I didn't go and Richard isn't here (I am writing this from the office which is on the site of the homes and at the moment Richard is still at the church) I will have to leave him to tell you about that!
After they came back we were given a snack of some sort of sweet bread which you are supposed to dip in your coffee, however I only had coke so I didn't dip it in anything, I don't think the result would have been very nice!
The evening service was at 4pm and again was in Tagalot, but this time with English hymns, so we could join in the singing but still didn't understand a lot of the service, even though there were a few more English words than the previous service!
We had to go dowstairs, (the main church hall that they use for services is upstairs with other rooms downstairs and apartments that are owned by the church at the back), for a short while while the members of the church discussed some business. The children were eating their tea when we got down there and they told us that it was squid! (with rice!) and they gave us some to try. It was Ok, sort of rubbery! I liked it but I don't know that I would eat it on a regular basis! We joined the members upstairs again for the Lord's Supper, which we only observed as, being a reformed baptist church, it is in the church's consitution that you have to have been fully immersed to take part in communion and none of us have been. Then it was time for Sarah and I to head back to Mecena, have something to eat (more rice!), and head off to bed.
We have not had any rain this evening so the air is a lot hotter than the previous evenings, making it harder to sleep!
Ttfn Becci x

Day Two, Saturday 3rd June, Settling In

Carrying on from Becci's post, I thought I'd update you all on our next day in the Philippines. In terms of activities we didn't do that much as we were still adjusting to the heat, unpacking and generally getting orientated. We had a good nights rest and then they prepared breakfast for us. Very sweetly they are trying to cater for "western" tastes by providing cereal and toast for breakfast and things such as fried chicken and hash browns for dinner. Apparently the english people that have come before us have set a reputation of british people not liking to try Filipino food. We hope to disprove this. So far we have tried a variety of new things such as squid, a small fried fish with the head/tail still on (very tasty) and squash flowers. And of course there is rice with every meal, including breakfast. Hopefully by the end of the holiday we'll be eating completly with them and they won't be cooking a special meal just for us.

We had a tour of the rest of the houses and then went to the church to meet Richard. He had been taken out to lunch at that point so Becci and I were told to go shopping until he got back. Walking along the main road to the mall was indeed an experience what with all the pollution from the traffic, dusty pavements and roads with pedestrian crossings that no one observes. But we got there and we got back!

Manila in some parts is very western. As soon as we got off the plane we saw the good old familiar signs of Pepsi, MacDonalds, Dairy milk,Burger King, Pizza Hut and the like. In the mall we came across good old shops such as Marks & Spencers. Most of the signs are in english, which is quite surprising given that most peoples english is not that good as they mainly speak in their own tongue called Tagalog. Walking down the street there was also a lot of people staring at us , although I think the others picked up on it more than me. We haven't really seen any white people although that is probably because we are in a poorer area of the city where not many tourists go. However the children and the homes seem very used to having many visitors from the UK. However they often mistake us for Americans because of the strong US influence dating back to when the Americans actually had the Philippines as a colony (their only one I believe). This is reinforced by seeing streets such as Time Square, New York street, Harvard Street and lots of Boulevards and Hersheys chocolate.

Manila as a city is not much in and of itself. Its a bustling city of 10 million in a very small space, hence the manic traffic Becci was telling you about. There are a lot of concrete buildings , only a few tall towers to act as landmarks and a lot of small shabby huts selling different things along the road. In fact it very much reminds me of Kenya. The people are mainly of Malay origin with lovely chocolate coloured skin. However amusingly they all want white skin and lighter hair like us. They certainly do not look the ages they are. They are very petite and youthful and I would never have imagined that some of them were reaching 18. Apparently in the Philippines you have to add 5 years onto whatever you think a persons age is (when they are under 20) and then you will get their proper age.

Oh and Becci wants me to mention about the lizards! They crawl, no they whizz, up the wall but are apparently friendly. They hide behind the pictures mostly but we always look out for them. Apart from that we haven't really seen much wildlife. The mosquito's haven't really paid us a visit, fortunately, and there are no visible snakes (for my peace of mind). We got another waterfall (because thats how it sounds) in the evening at dusk and this time it went on for more than an hour which then counts as a flash flood. From our rooftop view its very impressive with the thunder although we dare not venture outside as probably even our umbrellas won't cope. The amazing thing is with the heat, the roads are bone dry again the next morning and its as if it never happened.

Take care everyone. Luv Sarah xx

Day One: Friday 2nd June- Safe Arrival

We arrived safely in the Philippines 19 hours after starting our long journey! For those of you who don't know we flew with Malaysian Airlines from Heathrow to Kuala Lumpa and after a three hour wait from there to Manila- the capital of the Philippines. Apart from the length everything else was good, from the in-flight entertainment to the food!
One of the first things we noticed on arriving in Manila was the heat, which was apparently around the 35 degrees C mark! We had no trouble getting through immigration, baggage claim and customs (they didn't even check what Sarah declared!!!) We waited outside (in the heat!) for the people who were meeting us for about half an hour and were met by two of the housemothers and two of the children from the homes. The journey to our respective lodgings was long because of the busy traffic and interesting driving techniques that people here seem to have!!! Richard is staying in an apartment on the church site and Sarah and I are in a room on the roof of the girls homes. We are thankful that most of the rooms have fans or air-conditioning as we are not used to the heat yet!
The main homes are on the same site and are divided into four houses holding roughly ten girls each, although it varies from house to house. The houses are called Galilee, Hebron, Bethany and Emmaus. We are mainly involved with the Emmaus house. On arrival we were intoduced to the housemothers in Emmaus and all of the children, although with so many names to remember and us being tired from the journey we had some difficulty rembering names! We were also introduced to Heather who is also staying here. She is from Kentucky in America and has been helping us to understand what is going on, as she has been here eight days already and has a little more knowledge of the things that go on.
Richard joined us for a meal that the children had cooked for us. All the children are involved with helping out with the various chores around the house and the older ones prepare all of the meals. This is to encourage and teach the children to be independent, so that they are able to look after themselves when, eventually, they have to leave the homes.
During the evening we had our first experience of rain in the Philippines and when it rains here it pours!!! However we didn't mind the thunderstorm too much as it didn't last that long and makes the air cooler which is nice!
Everyone here is very friendly and the girls very affectionate and call us Ate Sarah and Ate Becci, (pronounced ah-tae) which means older sister and is a term of respect. You use this term to address any female that is older than you, so we also use the term when adressing the housemothers.
Take Care
Becci x