A note from Snook Debbie Deb Deb.

The plan for Sunday morning was to attend the service at the Expats church but unfortunately our dress style was sport casual and Church was semi formal. So Sol wisely then decided to take us to the Cathedral of Praise which was an interesting experience and not what we were expecting. More of which we can share when we return. We did get one or two new ideas for St. Mary’s and we were especially impressed with the security team looking welcoming armed with loaded rifles at the gate. Anyway, after seeing the offering being carried out in a Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man’s Chest type box we understand why there is a slight contrast between the Cathedral of Praise and SMB.

Lunch with Sol and staff was at the Business Area and it was interesting to see a completely different lifestyle of Manila. After lunch, it was on to the Handicraft shop for some souvenirs, complete with Sol’s 60% discount and free gifts.

Lucky for us and you that they do overseas delivery!

Then it was back to Benitez Street to spend some time with the children and the young people, which was fun and very rewarding. Anna, Ashleigh and Deb made bracelets and beady men which the younger children really enjoyed. Simon, Chris and the boys had fun with a drum workshop with an added street dance performance, where Shrimpo gained some cool new moves

Meanwhile, Rachel and Bosco spent time with the young street preachers who are a great bunch of young people and very inspiring. Dr. Chris and Andrew (Dad) sorted out the medical mission for Tuesday and we ask you all for prayer to make the whole organisation of the afternoon to be successful.

Deb

Medical Mission #1

The medical mission. What can I say? Only that if we’d been on the Apprentice, Lord Sugar would have had us in the boardroom for a severe talking to. Who was the project manager – actually that wasn’t very obvious, as we thought the Kanlungan team were leading! Our supposed leader (Andrew –aka Dad) was dispatched to find additional medicines which meant hopping on various Jeepneys and visiting what seemed like most of the generic pharmacies in the area, mostly to no avail. To be honest our team seemed to have bought up every pack of multi vitamins going.

Back at the Day Centre, things weren’t working out quite as planned. The team thought that we’d got through most of the patients. Except that at least 30 of them were sitting in the room where Dr Chris was trying to hold the surgery. Suffice it to say it’s hard to hear a dodgy chest when there’s loads of children crying and chatting in the background. Eventually, Brown Owl (aka Debbie) took on the role of the fierce receptionist, shooing out most of the patients downstairs so that Dr Chris could get on with her work.

By mid afternoon, there was nothing for most of us to do so we left Dr Chris and Debbie to it, only to discover that they were still hard at it hours later. So what happened? Seems like word had got around about Dr Chris’ excellent clinic. So various other people who hadn’t been scheduled to turn up did so and they just got let in. Eventually, after 7pm, the clinic finished. By which time the rest of the team had returned from visiting various street people in the surrounding area. Some of them we’d seen at the medical mission earlier in the day so it was nice to stop and chat to them, with translation provided by the wonderful Kanlungan staff. We met a lady with several children that Dr Chris had seen earlier on. All of her worldly possessions were in a cart, and the children slept in there at night. A real eye opener for us. Life there seemed unimaginable as we returned to the comfort of the Shalom hotel.

God bless, Andrew.

We have arrived!

Hello from hot and humid Manila. Apologies there has been no blog sooner – IT issues beyond our control!

A team of us from St Marys Bletchley set off on Tuesday and arrived late on Wednesday at Manila airport. We were delayed by about three hours in Doha due to a rain storm – crazy!

For those that don’t know us we are a team of nine people…..

• Andrew – Streetlight Trustee – we have christened him “Dad” as he has all the dosh and if we want anything he pays for it. Awesome.

• Bosco – he actually is a dad to Ashleigh and Rachel – again it seems that if you ask him for anything he gives it. Nice bloke and thank you Bosco for loaning your laptop to the team.

• Rachel – Bit too good at card games for my liking – obviously too many hours misspent in lower sixth where she is studying hard (allegedly)

• Ashleigh – …her claim to fame is being taller than her Dad. I’m sure she has several other claims to fame that will be blogged about later. She is currently training to be Simon’s glamorous assistant while he performs his infamous magic tricks…..

• Simon – drummer…magician….bongo basher extraordinaire…. His drumming skills seem popular with the kids who are taking great delight bashing his bongos to bits….

• Anna – arty farty and fashion chick – her yellow sun glasses have gone down a storm….

• Deb – Brown Owl and our secret weapon – the kids have not been exposed to her Brownie Songs yet…..I wonder how Oki Toki Unga will go down?

• Christine (Chris H) – Chris is a GP and will be using her skills during the trip. More importantly she is a hardcore Man United supporter and was delighted that the airplane had football highlights showing during the flight.

• Chris S – also known as “Shrimpo”. Will be doing his best to spread the word of harmonica to all he meets.

On to our first few days…………

We arrived safely on Wednesday. Our flight was delayed leaving Doha by three hours because of heavy rain! We were met at the airport by staff from Kanlungan and shared a meal with them before crashing for the night.

Thursday was our first full day. A day of contrasts. I’ll let the pictures tell the story.

Our first visit was to the Malate Centre. This is a temporary home for street children that for whatever reason have found to be in vulnerable situations. They may have been abandoned and left to live on the streets or found to be in an abusive family relationship. The staff at Kanlungan offer temporary shelter and a refuge while the children’s needs are assessed. Ideally they look to repatriate children back in to their families but this is not always possible. Those that are allowed by the authorities to live permanently in the Centre are then offered long term care and a home within Kanlungan. More of that another day.

The second picture is a Drop in Centre where kids literally visit for the day. They are offered food, somewhere to wash, and basic education. These children will not end up in a regular school as we know it. The teaching they receive at the Day Centre is likely to be their only education. At the end of each day they return home. A shocking statistic is that 50% do not have a father/mother or adult figure and therefore home for these children is literally the street with other children as “support”. The other 50% live in a shanty town nearby; we visited their “home” it was challenging to say the least – very dark dense shanty town. There were times when the atmosphere of the place became oppressive. None the less kids were delighted we visited and mothers wanted to show us their “home”.

Next picture is of a coffee shop. No ordinary coffee shop. It is staffed by young adults that have come “through” Kanlungan from often as young as five. The coffee shop gives an opportunity of employment and earning a wage. Remember these “kids” you see came from the Street. Parents often have never been traced. They have no birth certificate and this stops them getting employment. The coffee shop is an amazing opportunity to give them employment, feeling of worth and a chance to give back to Kanlungan. The coffee shop opened in February. It was a dream come true. A significant part of the start up costs were met by Streetlight Trust and Sol and the staff were so keen to say “Thank you” and express their gratitude for the support of Streetlight trust.

I’ll leave you with a final picture of Simon and his growing fan club!

Just a quick blog to give you a flavour of the day. So much to say and so hard to know where to start. We have all been struck by the warm welcome we have received, the faithfulness of staff and children alike and the signs of hope we have seen amidst some difficult situations. God is good and we thank Him for what he is doing through this place.

Only complaint – no toast for breakfast – still there was corned beef and fried egg which Simon bravely tried and survived (we think).

I’ll leave you with a question….who are Kuya Ian and Lolo Malcolm – people keep asking for them….??

Tomorrow Chris H will lead a medical surgery together with another doctor and other health workers. The rest of us will be supporting the day and working with Kanlungan staff as they “welcome” over 100 children….it should be another full-on day.

Night Night

Chris S

Final Blog

Hi everyone,

Our final blog. Who would have believed it?! Our two months in Manila is over already! I still can't believe it! It has gone so fast.

Sorry it has taken so long to write this final blog. Leaving Manila last Monday kind of 'took it out of us', so it has taken a while to get round to doing the practical things, and finishing off loose ends.

Speaking of loose ends, that is sort of how we spent our last week in Manila -finishing them off I mean. We had lots of different painting 'projects' that we needed to do, starting with painting a wall in the soon-to-be counseling room in ODC. We painted a rainbow and the verse on the back of the Kanlungan T-shirts; Mark 10:14 (I think). We really did enjoy doing that and the kids very much wanted to get involved and give their ideas:) it was a very nice, relaxing activity.

After finishing the wall, a group of Japanese students arrived at ODC, and we found ourselves accompanying them and the children to the community where the children live. It was one of the best experiences of the whole time. Although we knew of this community, it was the first time that we had seen it. The kids were so excited to show us their homes and where they play. It really felt like a 'community'. It was really strange walking round and having children calling our names, both children that we know very well but also others that we didn't! It was quite surreal. This went on till quite late in the evening.

Our next little project was with the kids at Benitez. We did some finger painting on the wall! Now, I do realize that in theory, children + hands in paint (usually) = disaster! But actually it was really good, we laughed a lot with the children and had a lot of fun with Teacher Joan and Ate Michelle too.

The other thing that Ate Sol had asked us to do was to make a plaque for the farm building. It was something that we had been thinking about for quite a while. We had a photograph, taken outside the Mall of Asia, of a sunset over the sea. It was beautiful, so we went and had it printed on canvas (which is easier said than done I might say) and then painted over it in order to edit it; and Sol had a quote to put on it. We were very proud of it, we make a great team!

On saturday, we had to say goodbye to the children at ODC in only half an hour, as we were leaving to go to tunasan for their 9th year anniversary. At the time we weren't happy that the goodbye had to be so quick as it was not how we planned it, but it actually turned out to be a blessing. From the moment we walked in we were holding back the tears and when we actually said goodbye to the kids, they all burst into tears and there was no way we could hold them back any longer. We just about managed to sing 'let the children come' with them, which was the song we taught them a few weeks ago. Eventually we had to leave a whole room of kids crying their eyes out, we really had to make ourselves keep walking and tried not to look back as it was too hard.

The tunasan celebration was fantastic. They don't do celebrations by half! It was at the local church and all the kids from the dumpsite, that tunasan do so much work with, were there. They had performances from kids that go to tunasan, from the girls at pacita and testimonies from a few of the older boys that have grown up in Kanlungan. There was also praise and worship and a sermon. It was really inspiring and heart warming. We are really glad to have been able to be a part of it.

Our goodbyes on Monday were also really hard. The children at Benitez had prepared a presentation for us and then presented us with a card and some gifts. They also gave us individual messages too. We sobbed through the entire thing. We love all the kids so much that it was heartbreaking to leave.

We managed to say our final fair-wells to everyone at the coffee shop and the staff at Benitez and ODC before making our way to the airport. :'-(
We are so sad to have left, but the children and staff will always be in our hearts. We hope so much that one day we will be able to return!!!!

Thank you so much to both Kanlungan and Streetlight for allowing us to have this wonderful experience! It is something that we will never forget, and it has taught us both so much. We can't wait to come home and share more of our experiences with you all, and photos of course!

Thank you so much for all your support and prayers. It has meant the world to know that you have been behind us 100%.

Lots of love
Sarah and Heidi
Xxxxxxxx

Latest News ...

Hi again:)

Well we had another very eventful week last week. You can never predict what the days will bring here! Ever!

I've had an amazing week though!

Monday we had a valentines party with the children at the open day centre which was so much fun. The kids had a talent competition/beauty pageant to see who would be mr and mrs valentine; and we got to judge. The kids loved it! Heidi preached as well which was really good.

Tuesday we just had a nice day playing games n singing with the kids (that was after getting 'lost-ish' on our way there; just got on the wrong jeepney, but managed to find our way - we're becoming more n more pro by the day haha).

Wednesday, a medically mission team called operation blessing came to odc for the day. They were a team of doctors, dentists, nurses, pharmacists, pastors and lots more. We had bout 120 children come for a complete health check up. It was so busy! I was able to work on the pharmacy desk which was a challenge to say the least!!! Everything was in Tagalog and I was having to try n read the doctors atrocious handwriting and shorthand, and fill in forms, and give out the correct medicine! Don't actually know how I managed to do it to be honest. But it was an amazing day. Can't wait till I can be one of those doctors.
Heidi was on the counseling team and was able to pray with the children and speak to them openly about Jesus.

Thursday and Friday we spent time out on the streets! I was able to take the medical kit and do first aid while we were out! It was amazing! It was so needed because there was one girl who had wounds all over her legs and she had knocked a lot of them while we were there and was in a lot of pain. I was able to clean and dress the wounds but bless her, she was distraught! Thankfully Heidi cradled and calmed her while I did what I could. We felt everything with her! I'm so glad that I was able to do it though.
We also taught the kids a song and Heidi came up with a sermon on the spot. She's amazing at doing that!:)
It was one girls birthday and her sponsor had come from abroad to throw her a birthday party. There were games, songs, food, balloons:) it was lovely. She was so happy. She was 12 and had never had a birthday party before. I just wanted to cry when I heard that. It's amazing what we take for granted.
In the evening we went out on the streets again with Wilma and we were still out at 10pm. I was doing first aid in the dark! Was just an amazing experience!! That day has got to be one of the best days we've had.
I have finally become a victim of the dreaded head lice! Haha:) well maybe not so dreaded. I haven't had nits since I was at primary school! I have to say I'm surprised we haven't had them earlier. Went to get some treatment and a nit comb the other day - my hair has never been so soft in its life!!! Haha

Staying in the shalom has been very nice, but it's lovely to be back at Benitez now. Feels like we've moved back home.
Really don't want to leave this place. Can't believe that 28th february is approaching so fast. Please pray that we can enjoy our last week and not have the 'end date' hanging over us. We've got a lot more painting lined up for this week so please also pray that we will have enough time to finish it all.

Please also pray for the secondhand shop as it has just opened. (Heidi n I went to see it today and it looks very impressive.) Particularly for the boys working there, the next container shipment and for Sol as she continues to make important decisions.

Lots of love as always
Sarah xxxx

Congratulations K SEM's Kafe

Hi again:)

I can't actually believe how it seems to be getting hotter by the day here! We are definitely entering summer now and thinking back, it makes the first few weeks in January feel really cool (shame we were still getting used to the heat then). But God is good; as for the next week we have air conditioning!!!:D This morning we moved back into the Shalom, which actually feels like we have taken a step back in time and are missing Mary, Mela, Jess and Alec very much, it doesn't quite feel right not having them around in the Shalom! We will be staying here for the next week before moving back to Benitez for our last week (I am trying not to think that far ahead though)! It will be very nice to have hot showers (well, luke warm ones anyway...don't think we'll ever need hot ones here), air con, a tv, cereal for breakfast and a few little home comforts for a week:)

I can't believe that it has been a week since I wrote the last blog! Time is going so quickly and so much seems to happen. Monday was the official opening of the coffee shop. K SEM's Kafe:)
We drove down early with Ate Jane and three of the girls from Pacita, as they were performing a few dances and songs. We stopped off at the Malate Centre for lunch; all the staff were there as they had just finished staff devotion. It was so nice to see them all, and be greeted by all the children. I don't think the children had understood that we would be coming back as they were so surprised to see us, it really felt like we had just popped home for an hour. After only a week we were missing them all so much! It was so special! We also got to meet two Danish volunteers who had flown in the day before. They seem lovely. It was nice to impart some 'wisdom' (if you can call it that haha) to them.
For the opening, K SEM's was packed. There were so many people there, you could hardly move. The place looked beautiful! Everyone had worked so hard on it. Outside they had two huge bouquets of flowers and they officially cut a red ribbon to open it:) we have so many pictures;) The presentation was then started with thanking everyone who has been involved with the coffee shop and at the top of that list was The Streetlight Trust. Heidi and I felt very honoured to be able to represent Streetlight! Everything went so smoothly and we had some fantastic performances from the Girls home and the Boys home (which also included Heidi and I performing Shackles with the girls from Pacita) and some lovely speeches and prayers. I just want to say a massive congratulations to everyone who has been involved in making K SEM's Kafe become a reality and pass on a big thank you to everyone for giving your support in prayer and financially.
It is absolutely amazing to see what God is doing here, seeing Kanlungan grow before our very eyes. I am so happy that I am able to be a part of it.
Next step is the secondhand shop, so please keep praying for that too.

It was hard saying goodbye to the girls at Pacita this morning as we have had a wonderful time with them! On Friday night we accompanied some of the older girls to their youth fellowship evening at church. It was such a good evening!! They were all so welcoming! They had some worship, games and a Bible study. All the girls seem to be in their element; hosting games and leading groups, they all get stuck in! Heidi was able to play a song which they loved:) and the band there were able to jam along, which she loved. The atmosphere was awesome! It was also nice to spend time in small groups for the Bible study and hear how passionate they are about God and see how eager they are to learn more and more. It was a great evening.

As the girls have such long days at school, and then have chores when they get home, we have only actually seen them in the evenings in the week, so when it got to Saturday again we were really excited to spend the whole day with them. We did some more singing with them in the morning. Heidi is in her element and has been putting together different medleys for them. I think she would have liked to start a 'Pacita Choir':) it was just nice to spend time with the girls and (not forgetting) the little boys there.
We did spend the rest of the afternoon washing clothes; but I have to say that the girls couldn't seem to believe that we wash our own clothes, which I wasn't sure how to take haha. In actual fact we both quite enjoy it, it's quite therapeutic and definitely the way to go when we go to uni haha:)
Our last evening there was such fun. We bought sweets for them and watched a film together. We had such a laugh and it really felt like we were part of their family. I really am going to miss them all so much!

I am sorry to say that my Tagalog is not coming on as I would have liked it to haha. The girls are very good teachers (and can be quite harsh I might say) but even the basics I am struggling with:( Heidi on the other hand is picking it up really well:) Thankfully the little that I do know comes in very helpful with using Jeepneys. We have managed to commute to and from Tunasan everyday. By ourselves!!!:) Praise God that it has all worked out fine. We even spent an hour on one the other day after taking some of the children to buy new shoes.
We did have one day that we had to return to Pacita early as both Heidi and I were ill, it turned out to be food poisoning and some of the girls and staff had it too, so must have been something we'd eaten the night before. We did think that it was quite an achievement to get this far into the trip before being ill!:)
Heidi has now come down with a cold so please do pray for her, that she will recover from it quickly.

We are so grateful for your prayers and for your lovely messages! We love to read them.
Thank you
Love
Sarah x

News from Sarah ...

Hey :)

Just to update you on what's happening here.
So we are settled in laguna and loving it. The girls and staff have really welcomed us.
We have had to get used to not having showers here, instead it's a bucket:) but we are embracing the experiences. We haven't had internet for a few days as the bill wasn't able to be paid on time; but it's up and running again so we are once again in contact with the rest of the world haha.

Before moving to laguna on Tuesday evening we accompanied ODC and tunasan to Trinity University for a talent competition. It was a really good day out on all parts. Tunasan were entering the cultural category. They all wore beautiful outfits and danced a traditional Filipino dance. We have it all recorded!:) I am very pleased to report that they took, a very well deserved, first place!:D congratulations to them!

We went back to the Malate centre to pick up our bags and say a quick 'see you soon' to the children and the staff there. I am so pleased that we didn't have to say our goodbyes to them then because I don't think I could have done it! I'm so please that we still have another three weeks left. We are missing the children in Manila already. It will be nice to go back next Monday and have another two weeks with them:)

In the daytime, we have spent our time at tunasan. The first day we were able to help the children with their homework, and I was able to use my maths skills (which came back to me quite quickly - I was quite impressed) to help an older girl. It was really nice to see when she actually understood something I had taught her; it was difficult stuff!
We did paper folding with the kids on thursday, which can be more difficult than you would expect; but we had a lot of fun and laughed a lot.
Friday we went to the dumpsite where we had been in the week that Mary, Mela, Alec and Jess were with us. We helped prepare food for the feeding program and then took it to them. It started raining so we gave the food out quickly and returned to the Jeepney. However, the brakes on the Jeepney had broken so we were stuck there for over two hours while they tired to fix them. The children came and played with us while we waited. They absolutely love having their pictures taken. It's really funny:)
Thankfully the driver was able to fix everything and we were able to get home in the dark.

Yesterday we had a lovely day with the girls. In the morning we did some singing and hair braiding with them - which they loved!
Heidi and I decided in the afternoon to be brave and walk to the supermarket/mall on our own. God really gave us peace about it, we have found being on our own quite a daunting experience as we get payed far too much attention for our liking. But God is good and we had a very nice relaxing time.
The rest of the day we just relaxed with the girls and got to know them. It was lovely to chat and sing with them:)

We performed 'Shackles' (the song we taught them yesterday) with some of the girls in church this morning. It was a lovely church service - mostly in Tagalog, but some English, so I was able to understand quite a lot of it.
I have also really enjoyed joining in with the devotions in an evening. It's amazing to see the passion that they have for God. They are definitely an inspiring bunch and we are very privileged to be welcomed into this family.

Just a quick prayer request. Heidi and I have got to make our own way to and from tunasan this coming week and at the moment we are quite nervous about it so please pray that the journeys will be smooth and we'll feel confident enough to do it.
Also for Heidi's insect bites as they are driving her mad.
And for the coffee shop opening on monday.

Thank you for your support and prayers as always.

Love Sarah xx