anascomissions.org

Recently we visited the city of Davao on the island of Mindanao. There Go To Nations missionaries Ken and Cris Sandberg run (along with Bible schools, a church, and several other projects) the Living Stones Orphanage . There I met Baby B (pictured) a foundling, that is his mother left him at the door step of the orphanage.   Being a father of four, I cannot even imagine the heart-wrenching decision it must have been to simply leave your child at an orphanage, with the hope that he would have a better life. Looking at him I saw the faces of my own children, he even looks like he could be a relative! Baby B is doing much better. He is healthy, strong, and active, and he will probably be adopted by a North American family or European family within the year. Testing your teeth can be painful. This is painted on the front wall of the orphanage: Even if my father and mother abandon me  the Lord will hold me close.  Psalm 27:10

Medical missions, is there a more concrete way to bless someone? Of course the answer is YES. However, blessing some of the poorest of the poor with medical missions is a pretty amazing way to be a blessing. Today we ministered to over 200 (240 to be exact) children and families through our yearly medical outreach at the Sonshine Center. It was an amazing day.

On Sunday the interns completed Children's Ministry week by helping Go To Nations missionaries Nate and Abegail Shuck with their Kids Club at Calajunan. These kids live on or near the city trash dump. The interns planned and executed the entire children's ministry program. They did an excellent job, they were like pros.

This is a repost of an amazing story from a few years ago: What is poverty? The gentleman in the picture (wearing the blue tank top) lives in Calajunan, the city trash dump area. In the picture behind him you can see the mountains of trash. He works in the trash collecting things like pieces of metal and plastics in order to sell to recyclers. He lives in one of the most awful places I have ever been. Even though I have been to Calajunan many times, I always nearly toss my cookies whenever I go. On the surface he would be considered among the very poor--that he is living in extreme poverty. Actually he is a very good father with a blessed family. Through his work at the trash dump he has been able to send his kids to college. His oldest son graduates this year while another son is just starting. He walks to work, it probably takes him about five minutes. He probably thinks that anyone who commutes ninety minutes to work each way is living in poverty. Through the satisfaction he has ...

a repost of something I wrote about five years ago: "On the way to church there was a funeral procession. The person who passed away was not very rich since there was no car or hearse carrying the coffin. The simple wooden coffin was being carried by the mourners, being followed by some carrying flowers. What is striking about this is that the coffin was very small. A child had passed away. The most striking thing about this funeral procession, however, was that children were carrying the coffin. Children were carrying the flowers. The mourners were all children, no adults. No mother or father to grieve this child's passing. Not even an uncle or auntie to assist in the burial. Just children. In a country were over half of the population is under the age of 18, there are so many who are fatherless and motherless. One such child was buried last Sunday."

This is a repost of something I posted nearly five years ago when I first started this blog. The other day I saw a little girl sleeping. She was curled up in a ball, sucking her thumb, fast asleep. She looked so calm and peaceful, the way kids do when they are sleeping, in spite of the fact that she was sleeping on the ground on a sidewalk on a corner of a busy intersection. What appeared to be her family was a few feet away. They were filthy and looked desperately poor. They had a younger child with them, happily playing in the dirt. he was naked as the day he was born. My heart is broken for such as these. A part of me wanted to jump off the jeepney I was riding and offer some kind of help. A part of me still wants to scoop up the little girl and take her home. The image of her still haunts my thoughts. I can still picture her family sitting on the sidewalk. I can still see her sleeping, her face like an angel. This motivates me to strive and work even harder for the kids at the Son...

A few days ago the interns conducted a survey of the San Isidro relocation village, a place of extreme poverty. The main purpose of the survey was for a future church plant in that village. We are working with Full Gospel Church, laying the ground work for what will hopefully one day be a daughter church planted in that village. I spent the two days taking pictures and being a human jungle gym for these girls. It is hard to describe how my heart was broken by this precious children. Usually I don't get so involved, I am content to just facilitate ministry experiences for others and stay behind the camera and just take pictures. These girls were starved for any kind of adult affection. They would sit in my lap and wrap my arms around them, and just soak up whatever love I could give them. We played silly games, talked and told jokes, sang songs, snacked on crackers and soda, etc. I did not ask about their fathers, if they were around or even living. I could tell they were starved fo...

We visited the city dump site area in Iloilo, Calajunan. It is one of the most awful places in the world. While I have visited here many times, it still overwhelms me when I visit. At the same time those families and children need to experience the love of Christ, so we have been trying to regularly minister at the dump site. Hopefully soon, working through Calvary missionaries Nate and Abegail Shuck, Camp Sonshine can establish a more permanent ministry presence in the city dump site. Keep that in your prayers.

This precious little girl is five years old and weighs only twenty four pounds. She lives in the Calajunan city dump area. My youngest son, Danny, is two years younger than her, and yet he weighs more. The fact of the matter is, most pets in the United States are better fed and have better health care than most of the children we work with. We are trying to change that. Working with a local church near the city dump site, the Sonshine Center is expanding its ministry presence in the Calajunan area. We still bring the kids to Saturday Kids Club, but it has been on our hearts to do more for the poorest of the poor. Calvary missionaries Nate and Abegail Shuck and Mike and Jude Kelly, along with Rodney McDonald have started a major community development project in this area. A survey of the families and the homes has been conducted, the kids were weighed, needs were assessed, and goals were set. A regular feeding program has also been started. Abegail told me how the kids were so excited a...

Dave and I see miracles often--lives being radically changed, broken families coming together; but sometimes we see lives being broken with pain. We usually share about the positive and encouraging stories, preferring to focus on the blessings and the amazing ways that God is moving here in Asia. Sometimes there are pains that touch so deeply, we can’t help but reflect upon them. Two of the street kids that we work with recently decided to “go back to Egypt.” They were given a place to live, food everyday, discipleship, education, love, and a place to be at peace. They were given abundance, but they were also given boundaries for their protection. They had come from a dark place of sin, pain, hunger, homelessness, anger and rejection; but it was a place with no rules, seemingly free. We have all known that place--sometimes we frequent it still. For these boys the temptation for “freedom” was too great, the pain was familiar and so welcome; the abundance and acceptance too good to be tr...

What is poverty? The gentleman in the picture (wearing the blue tank top) lives in Calajunan, the city trash dump area. In the picture behind him you can see the mountains of trash. He works in the trash collecting things like pieces of metal and plastics in order to sell to recyclers. He lives in one of the most awful places I have ever been. Even though I have been to Calajunan many times, I always nearly toss my cookies whenever I go. On the surface he would be considered among the very poor--that he is living in extreme poverty. Actually he is a very good father with a blessed family. Through his work at the trash dump he has been able to send his kids to college. His oldest son graduates this year while another son is just starting. He walks to work, it probably takes him about five minutes. He probably thinks that anyone who commutes ninety minutes to work each way is living in poverty. Through the satisfaction he has gained from his hard work, being able to put his sons throug...

The past few months I have been so concerned about the youth in the Scholarship Program. It seems that so many students are eager to enter preschool and go to grade school; but, when they get to high school, so few of them are able, or willing, to finish. I worried and wondered if there was something more that we could do here at Sonshine Center to help them make it. Then I read an article which had these staggering statistics: Philippine Department of Education records show that in every 100 pupils that enter first grade, only sixty-six will finish elementary school. Of that sixty-six, only fifty-eight will enroll in high school, and then only forty-three will graduate, and out of this, only fourteen will finish college. I wanted to compare these statistics with the dropout rates in the United States. According to the statistics website of the U.S. Department of Education, 10.9% of 16-24 year olds were high school dropouts in the year 2000. So, in the U.S. about 10% of children dro...

On Friday I, Chris, was riding on a Jeepney near our home and saw a woman with her baby. Dark-skinned with curly hair, she stood out as one of the Ati people. The Ati’s are a nomadic people that come into the city on occasion to look for work or beg. According to some of our friends here, the Ati people are even more discriminated against than the “normal” street beggars, so I knew as I looked at her that her life was not an easy one. As the jeepney drove past her, I felt a profound sadness, not totally for her though; more so for me, because I realized as the jeepney rolled along that I would go on with my day and probably not even remember her. And so I did. Thankfully though, I was forced to go in the same direction later that same day and when I did, I remembered her, but she was gone. In her place, I saw 3 Ati children and I figured they were probably part of the same family. This time I was determined not to just go about my day and forget them. The jeep...

I wrote about Nek Nek a few weeks ago. Sadly he will not be returning to school. Even more sad he will probably not be coming back to Sonshine Center for afterschool program and Saturday Kids Club Church. His guardian, his grandmother, does not care about him at all so she has farmed him off to other relatives who live far away from the Center. These family members have no interest in sending him to any kind of school, even one that is already paid for through the scholarship program of the Sonshine Learning Center, because he now lives so far away. It is so sad because this youngster came to the Center every week. The whole staff knew about Nek Nek, mostly because he was such a discipline problem. For over half of his young life he came to the Center to receive love and acceptance. Then he really matured and thrived in his first year at the preschool. Now his future is not so bright. His family can't afford to send him to school so he will probably spend his days on the s...

The other day I saw a little girl sleeping. She was curled up in a ball, sucking her thumb, fast asleep. She looked so calm and peaceful, the way kids do when they are sleeping, in spite of the fact that she was sleeping on the ground on a sidewalk on a corner of a busy intersection. What appeared to be her family was a few feet away. They were filthy and looked desperately poor. They had a younger child with them, happily playing in the dirt. he was as naked as the day he was born. My heart is broken for such as these. A part of me wanted to jump off the jeepney I was riding and offer some kind of help. A part of me still wants to scoop up the little girl and take her home. The image of her still haunts my thoughts. I can still picture her family sitting on the sidewalk. I can still see her sleeping, her face like an angel. This motivates me to strive and work even harder for the kids at the Sonshine Center. I may not be able to help every street kid in Iloilo, but at leas...

The young girl who engages in prostitution has been coming to Center. I look at how young she is, she cannot be more than thirteen years old. She especially looks childlike when she is playing games or doing other activities at the Center. When I think about the men who take advantage of her, a part of me wants to find them and beat the living 5h!t out of them. Chris reminded me that we do not war against flesh and blood. Indeed in this and with many other situations, we war against principalities and powers, and strongholds of darkness. Also, our weapons are not earthly, or man made, they are mighty for the pulling down of these strongholds.

This week we found out that some of the Sonshine Center girls are no longer coming to Center, the reason being they have sold themselves into prostitution. Their family situation has become so desperate, their needs so great, they have sold their bodies to make money for their families. These girls are just kids, barely twelve or thirteen. I am filled with a righteous rage that men would take advantage of young girls in this way. My heart is broken that their families, often with their parent's consent, have taken this very desperate measure to make money. What can be done for the poor? Are we really accomplishing anything? My faith is encouraged by the story of Nomil. Nomil is currently studying in the States at Christ for the Nations Institute (CFNI). He came to Camp Sonshine Philippines many years ago, first as a camper, then volunteering as an assistant counselor. As he got older he was offered a job to work at the Sonshine Center as a paid employee. He is now studyi...

On the way to church there was a funeral procession. The person who passed away was not very rich since there was no car or hearse carrying the coffin. The simple wooden coffin was being carried by the mourners, being followed by some carrying flowers. What is striking about this is that the coffin was very small. A child had passed away. The most striking thing about this funeral procession, however, was that children were carrying the coffin. Children were carrying the flowers. The mourners were all children, no adults. No mother or father to grieve this child's passing. Not even an uncle or Auntie to assist in the burial. Just children. In a country were over half of the population is under the age of 18, there are so many who are fatherless and motherless. One such child was buried last Sunday.