Thank you

Friday 18th...
Firstly I would like to express my thanks to everyone who has prayed for us, supported us and read and commented on the blog. It has made such a difference to us all to know that people have been praying for us.
I would like to take the opportunity to thank the team that came out to the Philippines with me. I know it takes a huge commitment to undertake this kind of journey, not just individually but also from the families left behind, and I wish to pay tribute to everyone for their servant-heartedness, non-judgemental attitude, their grace and the love they shared with both the children, street families and staff of Kanlungan. You were all a huge support to myself, and a wonderful blessing to Kanlungan. Thank you.
Ian H

We're back!

Just to say, we've returned safely after a gruelling 30+ hour journey! We've had a wonderful time; our heartfelt thanks go to Sol and her staff for looking after us and providing us with the opportunities to see so many things.
Two days later, I am finding it hard to process all that we have seen, but I am full of admiration for the work that Sol and the staff do. So many young lives are being changed, thanks to them. The staff and children are so grateful for the support of Streetlight and without the funding, very little of what we saw could be possible.
Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers. Kath xx

Our last night in Manila

Monday 14th April
We've had visits to the Child Protection Unit, and two detention centres. If a child is found to be 'at risk' they are referred to this protection unit. The same thing exists in England, except 30 million children here are 'at risk'. Very few actually go through the correct process. We also were shown where families are detained after street clean-ups. Once in the centre, they are segregated. Another centre housed youths awaiting trial. All very sad places.
We did however, have a fun time on our last evening. We took the Malate Centre staff to a Chinese meal then saw a dance show at a nearby Filipino restaurant. The dancing girls spotted the talent in the restaurant and Ian, Simon, Tim Bustin, Chris, Katy and Becca all wiggled their hips on stage. We even had Ian and Simon doing the hula dance in grass skirts and bikini tops. Photo not provided....for obvious reasons!!! (Its' far too funny for a blog like this!)
Tomorrow we will buy some musical instruments for the Malate centre and also look for a birthday present for one of the boys who will turn 17 tomorrow. We fly at 11.15 tomorrow night.
See you soon
love from Mrs K , Miss AK and Miss B x

Sunday and a bit of Monday

Hey all, Tim B here! Just to keep you up to date with our movements: we went to Cathedral of Praise church yesterday, a very big pentecostal church. The pastor was Ian's long lost brother, with a funky shirt, and you know, was a man of 'substance'. Great worship, but Ian's brother started to wind us up a bit, by asking us to repeat everything he said, to the person sat next to us. Can't see it catching on at St Mary's!
We then went out for lunch, and then to a handicrafts shop. The team swarmed all over it like locusts, buying presents for lots of you lovely people! A few of us went out walking with Ruel the street educator, and some went to visit BMS, a school run by Sol's Sister. This morning we had 'devotions' with the staff at the Malate centre, with a word from Pastor Flipflop. We loved worshipping together, and had a really precious time. On a quick lunch break now, before we head off to the court, and detention centre. (Its OK, just a visit, not a permanent stay.) Love to all, Pastor Flipflop

TIM'S UPDATE

Hi everyone

Its Tim May, just giving you my perspective on the trip so far. Well, this has got to have been the most moving experience in my life to date !! The Kanlungan team are are the most dedicated and servant-hearted people I have ever met. What they give to these children is basically their whole life and more, and it shows in the kids.

The children are amazing, so loving and thankful to everyone they meet. Each one of them melts your heart and makes you feel so proud to have met and interacted with them, even if only for a short time. Its so easy to get tied up in the emotions of whats going on, yet very hard not to.

Today was so uplifting, to see all the kids come together and have loads of fun and a great day out. Near the end of the day we had some great worship time, during a couple of the songs I just stood and watched the kids worshiping. Boy do they know how to lose themselves in worship !! Looking around at them and watching the expressions on their faces as they lost themselves in worshiping god was so moving.

This day has been one of the most heart warming days so far. Not to mention head warming as I got sunburn on my head after spending about 4 hours in the pool without a hat on. I might regret that tomorrow lol.

Anyway will bring plenty more stories back along with some amazing pics !

Bye for now

Tim

Graduation and swimming

Hi everyone
I'll fill you in on the last couple of days. Yesterday we had a visit to a beautiful training centre to art camp graduation. 15 boys from the centres attended an art camp and received certificates and displayed their art work. We had a tedious journey (nearly 2 hours there and 2 hours back) in a jeepney and the pollution was very bad.
Today over 100 children from all the centres and those literally living on the street had their annual trip to the swimming 'park'. It was very special. Over 30 inflatables were purchased at a nearby shop and the kids had a fab time using these and having water fights with some water guns we also bought. If you look closely at the picture you can see Lito, the driver, fixing the lilos on the roof of the vehicle owned by the Malate centre. Can you see Malcolm through the back window? Pastor Tim is now known as Pastor Flipflop. Ask him why when you next see him!
Hope you are all well.
Kath and the gang

The Farm/Jungle/Plantation...

Hi beautiful people! It's Katy here. Yesterday we visited the plantation owned by Kanlungan (2 hours away from Manila). There was much debate amongst the group as to whether it is a farm or a jungle. When you see the photos you can decide for yourself! It's run by the teenage boys too old to stay in the Malate centre. It's the most amazing place! They harvest coconuts, pineapples, pepper, coffee, bananas, mangoes and Jack fruit. The boys used to have to stay in tents but now have a small building to sleep in. Simon was brave enough to spend the night there with them. I'm happy to say he survived his night in the wilderness and rejoined the rest of us today in one piece. When we'd finished sampling the farm's fruit we found a waterfall deep in the 'jungle' and some of us jumped in for a dip! Nigel wound me and Becca up for ages by telling us that we'll probably get dissentry from the water...we seem okay today though!

I am proud to take full credit for inventing a successful Jeepney time-passing game on the way home. It involves a mexian wave of our hands grabbing the handrail then being released in sequence - hours of fun!! Chris also created Banana Man and two talking Mafia Pineapples to keep us all entertained. I'll try and get some photos so you can experience the fruit people too! ;)

If you want to know more about Angeles City:

I've just found an interesting artice about a British bloke who is one of the bar owners in Angeles city. It makes pretty grim reading...
Click on this:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20040628/ai_n12793921/pg_1

Trip to Angeles City

Dear all, Tim B here! I thought I'd write as bit to tell you about the trip that myself, Ian and Sol took to Angeles City a couple of days ago. We went to Angeles City, (1 and a 1/2 hours north of Manila) to visit the Renew Foundation. It was set up by 2 English guys, including a friend of mine from theological college. The foundation works with women in the sex industry. The R of Renew stands for ' recover', the E, for 'empower', the N for 'network', and the EW stands for 'employment for women'. There was a massive US airforce base in the city until a few years ago, meaning a thriving prostitution industry. Renew told us that there are at least 12, 000 registered sex workers in the city and many more who are unregistered. There is a 3 KM strip of bars and clubs, called Fields avenue which is just a horrific place. I mean absolutely horrible. The whole city is based upon the industry. There were lots of middle aged white men walking round the city either on their own, or looking for sex. It was SO overt... In the picture we see Paulo, one of the founders, talking with Sol from Kanlungan.

There were boys walking the streets selling viagra. The police and local mayor are in on the act, even though they deny anything is wrong. The chief of police has been seen frequenting brothels.

Many of the girls are trafficked from villages in the south of the Philippines. Renew have done research, asking the prostitutes here they came from: A very large number came from only 3 small villages, many trafficked by the police, at a very young age. Some girls are 'bonded' and have to pay off debts, sometimes their own, sometimes their families. Renew have recently bought one girl who was attending the foundation out from her debt, which was only 35 pounds. Incredible.

They had a great new centre staffed by social workers and health workers. Classes are given there to offer the women a skill, that they make some money, on coming out of prostitution. There are dormitaries for the women and their children (they are often single Mums). The social workers walk the streets at night making contact with the sex workers.

To finish: In the context of a huge, deceitful and exploitative industry, this quote I saw in the centre speaks very powerfully:
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."

It was a really helpful day for all. Renew and Kanlungan are networking, and discussing the possibility of referal's between centres.

If you want to know more, let me know. Love to you all!

They saw us coming!

Can you spot the tourists? Lovely hats, don't you think? - only 50 pounds, no sorry 50 pesos each - worth every penny. And do you know what? We will bring them home for you!
We were on the way to the Kanlungan farm which was about 2 hours away from the middle of Manila.
We all send our love.
Bye for now
Kath and everyone xx

10th April 2008

Hi everyone its Marie. Missing you all back home . After a heartbreaking few days of seeing children living in extreme poverty either alone or with their families, we are now being shown some of the positive results of the great work being done to improve the quality of lives of some of the children out here. It has been fantastic to witness the children enjoying time at the various centres . The staff here are extremely hardworking and determined to make a difference for these children. Thank you to all those who sponsored me before I came out. It has been great to see for myself who we are going to be helping and to know that funds will be an enormous help to them.
Today we were fortunate enough to have a coffee on a terrace overlooking a volcano. It was on the way to the older boys home and the farm, which is located in a remote area resembling a jungle(although this was a hot subject of debate amongst the team!) 8 boys stay at the farm growing various crops including coconuts, coffee and bananas. A very adventurous Simon has agreed to stay overnight at the farm with 4 boys and a member of staff. An incredible experience I am sure and made more interesting by the remoteness of the farm and the language difficulties as none of the speak much english! Anyway bye for now. Marie

Spam Comments

Dear All

Please be aware that we are picking up some 'spam' comments on the Blog that invite you to click on a link to somewhere else.
I have deleted the ones we have had so far and will continue to do so, but please just ignore them if you see anymore!

Great to hear what's going on and please continue to pray!

Thanks

Mark

Today we have had Ian and Tim frightening the children with their disco dancing. Beccy and Kaye, when you were courting, you must have thought at those discos, 'I've never set eyes on this man before'. I would have done.
We were at the Tunasan centre. The children come in daily for education and care, many living along the railway track. We were invited into one two roomed house there, where 20 people lived. These have not been the worst conditions we have seen by any means.
It's Tim's birthday today and we have had a karaoke evening at the Claypot. Tim is definitel Karaoke King.
Tomorrow we go to the farm. Hope you are all well back home. We are fine, except Tim Bustin's sinuses are playing up. Bye for now, Kath and co.

Two pictures for you

First full day in Manila

Hi, Kath here. I'll do a few lines. We've had a day of contrasts. We started with some moving presentations from the children and staff at the Malate Centre, and then unfortunately it was our turn. So we attempted to wow them with our 'Who's the King of the Jungle' !! In the afternoon we visited the much talked about 'Smokey Mountain' seeing desperately poor but happy children wherever we went. To end the day we went to the biggest shopping Mall in Asia. They've even got an M&S! Over to Nigel...

Struggling to concentrate at the moment as I am one of three brave souls who tried the chilli challenge at a Thai restaurant tonight. Chris, Simon and myself were all stupid enough to eat the sinister black looking delicacy. Chris's comment that it was 'brain numbingly hot' is about right and I think we all regret it a little bit now. Also, probably not a good idea as me and Simon are sharing a room with poor Tim May. Sorry Tim!!!

Arrival in one piece!

Hurrah, we've arrived in Manila, all in one piece, and felling a bit on the tired side. Our journey from Bletchley to Manila lasted 30 hours, flying via Chipping Sodbury, The North Pole, Kuwait, with a 5 hour layover, then Bangkok, and then onto Manila.
OK, maybe not Chipping Sodbury and the North Pole, but it certainly felt like it. Kuwait Airways excelled in the 'service with a scowl' approach to customer service. Most of the TV screens were not working, leaving us with Arabic Pop to listen to. However, we did enjoy a nice lamb biriyani at Kuwait Aiport, closely followed by near arrest for practising Who's the King of the Jungle (J-E-S-U-S is!) in public. Doing our bit for inter faith relations we like to think... Love to all, Tim B
Coming next: Lady Kath Barton reports from manila!!
How do I follow on from that? Tim did mention that we had a brief stopover at Bangkok. But they wouldn't let us off the plane (I think they've heard our rendition of 'Who's the King of the Jungle?' - it was getting to be a security issue at Kuwait Airport. We also managed to hit a cleaner with Tim's rugby ball ). Anyway, all is going well and we are ready to crash out now at The Shalom Hotel. Goodbye from us all.

We're off! (nearly)

Well, we're off! 

The team from St Mary's Bletchley, are zooming off into the sunset ably flown (we hope) by the highly luxurious and exclusive Kuwait Airways. Kuwait Airways are famous for many things, most of which involve hijackings in the 1980's. 

We're off at 4am tomorrow morning in the church mini bus, which hasn't recently been involved in any hijackings. (The last one  in 1979 involved some gun waving fundamentalist mothers union members from the local methodist church.)

Mixed feelings as we prepare to leave: Sad to leave family, happy to finally go. Excited to see Kanlungan, not excited to sit in a plane for hours on end..

Over coming days we'll try to keep you updated with what we're doing, how we're feeling and what God is doing amongst us in Manila. Please feel free to comment, it will be great to hear from people... Cheers, Tim (Bustin)