Living on a roof, praising God every night, and loving on kids all day long.

I am currently living in a 3 story building in the Philippines. My team and I are staying on the 3rd floor which is a basketball court for Myles our contact's ministry. Everyday we put away our sleeping pads when we wake up to prepare for the children that come over all the time. We have 1 bathroom for 10 people. The best part of where we are staying is that there is a constant breeze and the walls where we are staying are covered in Bible verses. 

The ministry work that we are doing is similar to what we did in Nicaragua; but more involved 24/7. We start our day off with a delicious breakfast which is normally; coffee, fruit, bread, and eggs. After that we walk to the community, which only takes about 10 minutes or so. The first few times going to the community was hard, because the people were extremely shy. But after a few days they started to warm up to us.

The first thing I noticed was the smell, there is a creek that is filled with filthy water. It is polluted because people throw trash in it, pee, poop, etc… And when it rains the creek fills up with water and floods the community. The water actually goes up to their heads sometimes and so they have to evacuate. But they don't always get out in time and the water carries a lot of diseases such as scabies, so many of the people get sick. 

They have a daycare service that is provided by one of the woman in the community and she does it out of the kindness of her heart, she doesn't even get paid. The teacher was telling me about how they don't have any books for the children to read because the flooding ruined all of their books. The devastation in the community is so evident and there is a heaviness over all of the people. They don't look at themselves as special, as important. They look at themselves as poor and as unworthy. They don't think they are beautiful people. But they are the most beautiful people, they live in simplicity. They live not knowing if they are going to be able to eat food everyday. 

I keep asking God to "break my heart for what breaks His." This is what breaks his heart. This is why we are here. We were blessed by God with what we have so that we could bless others. God has given each of us something special that has to be shared with others. How are we going to set the world on fire with God's love if we aren't willing to sacrifice that gift that God has given special to each one of us. 

After the community in the morning we walk back home and eat lunch and then head back to the community for a 2nd time. Then we walk back home again and eat dinner. The children follow us back normally and then some show up after they get back from school. Going to school is a struggle for them because sometimes they can't afford it, they don't want to go because their friends can't go, and sometimes the older children have to stay back to take care of their younger siblings while their parents are at work.

Princess is a 14 year old girl that lives in the community. She is the sweetest girl, she lives with her mom and dad. She has 2 brothers and another sibling on the way. The other day Princess and her brother Lester were not able to go to school because they didn't have 40 pesos; which allows them to get there and back from school on a tricycle and also buy supplies for school projects. 40 pesos is the equivalent to about $1 in American money. 

Later in the evenings we have a devotions which usually consists of us singing a lot of songs with the children. If I've had a bad day at all this is what cheers me up and makes me so happy. I love seeing the children praising the Lord with their voices. They are so encouraging. I love the people here and I already feel so attached. It is going to be weird when I leave for woman's ministry month and we don't live with Myles anymore.