What happened on our adventure into the interior...

A-team report

Our team: Katharina Reikoff (TL), Jonathan Chereau (ATL), Solomon Tang, Keith Mallon, Dawn Mallon, Ruth Mallon (14), Tessa Mallon (12), Isabel Mallon (10)

Location:

Near Lucena, Philippines, while the Doulos was in Batangas

We were in a rural area with paddy fields surrounding us. Their housing was wooden or concrete structures with corrugated iron roofs, and had usually one or two rooms. There was no running water and few had toilets. Drinking water needed to be bought but was not purified. The irrigation channel for the paddy fields was used for washing clothes, crockery, and for sewage.

Hosts:

Our hosts were Sonia Beraňa, the Director of EHMI, and Susan Sanchez, who works alongside her. EHMI is a holistic ministry. As well as running the church which was planted 3 years ago they provide counselling and spiritual direction, and run retreats for groups and individuals. They reach out to the community using a sponsorship programme for school children and students, micro lending livelihood projects.


The team and our hosts

Accommodation:

 We stayed in the church, which was comfortable with good facilities. The garden surrounding the church was a real haven, as it was designed for hosting retreats.

Tessa relaxing

Izzy in character

Food:

Food was cooked in the adjacent house, and we were very well fed. We were all very humbled to realise that people from the area were bringing food contributions of rice, vegetables, eggs and fish for us, despite having so little themselves.

Local makeshift transport on the redundant railway line

Rice harvest in front of the church

Some of the team tried Balut, a cooked egg containing a chick, a favourite food in the Philippines.

Language:

The language spoken in the area is Tagalot. A few people spoke good English. Some people spoke a little English but were very self conscious about using it until later in the week. We tried to learn some Tagalot phrases, which the Filipinos really seemed to appreciate.

Ruth taking it easy

 Ministry:

Adults: We made some visits to homes to encourage and pray for people, and attended and lead Bible studies in homes. We were touched by the way that we were welcomed to their homes and that they were willing to share deeply about themselves, though an interpreter!. The theme for the church in March is mission and the leaders are hoping to help their congregation to recognise other needs in the world.  We were able to help them in this by using the weekly prayer meetings to focus on our own countries and by using mission, in the context of God thinking we are all special and wanting to use us, as a theme in the Sunday.

Time for mime

Children and youth: We introduced some songs and games to the children in Sunday school and kids club, told them stories and showed dramas. The children were very eager and excited, and loved it when we showed an interest in them. One evening we lead the youth meeting, challenging them to seek God for His call on their lives. There were 2 opportunities for us to teach some of our skills; in a Bible study group at the University, and at the weekend when we ran a seminar for the youth, teaching drama, mime,  ballooning and how to share a testimony. The day was challenging to many of them as they were very shy, and for one of them it was the first time she had been willing to join in anything like that, but several of them expressed their appreciation. Some of them performed the mime in church on Sunday. The children on our team were able to participate in these programmes.

Retreat:

The team at the church encouraged us to spend a morning in silent retreat. We all really appreciated that time, and their focus on ministry being a result of our relationship with God.

Our contribution:

We had a time of feedback with the congregation at the end of our time. The overriding feeling seemed to be that they felt valued by us. We think this may have been our most important contribution as many of them had such low self esteem. They also commented on how good it was to have a family amongst the group; few men attend the church and many families have broken and strained relationships. The youth felt that they had some new skills as a result of the workshops. We all felt that we had made some worthwhile relationships, and had mixed feelings about leaving.