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)