Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Buloc

If anything in this world help reality smack me in the face like a brick..... it was the trip to Buloc.

After driving about 15 minutes down a long bumpy road deep into this jungle of tropical plants and banana trees there is a Oder that informs us that we have come closer to our destination. I look out of the window of the van to see the most beautiful mountain towering over this desolate area. Its called the "Holy Mountain" is what I have heard...... it reaches, what seems like, miles into the sky and you cannot see the top because it has a blanket of clouds draped over it.

We turn one last corner as I take my attention off of the mountain and all of a sudden we are surrounded by a small city of garbage. Buloc is a dump site for all the surrounding cities of the Philippines. The smell is more than I expected. It had rained a few days before we arrived and the Oder was in the form of fumes going through our nostrils. And all I could think of was, "people live here?"


We get out of the van one by one, and the look that is on the faces of the team is something that is indescribable. No one is talking for the fear of what they are going to see that is dwelling deep in their stomachs. There is the sound of loud buzzing that is so loud that you can almost not even hear your own thoughts......... flies.

We walk down a rocky path and there is a strip that is cleared out.

People start appearing before us, children start walking up to us...... this is the community that lives in Buloc.

Dirty little faces and precious little eyes looking up at us.




Everyone is excited to see Noreal and Reena return. They are the married couple that lead this Life Group. A ministry to the almost forgotten.




We separate the parents and the children. Reena and Danielle take the children to a circle and Danielle teaches them the song "Jesus Loves Me" in sign language. They loved that.


There was this little boy that set back from the group watching, he was shy. I walked up to him and gave him the sign that means "handsome" with my finger and thumb, he gave it back to me with a big bright smile.





Not too far from the children sat the adults. Pastor Dave spoke to them about the depth of God’s love for them, the value God has for them. That God delights in His creation and does not see them as the world sees them. He told them of the change he saw from when he was there two years ago and that he knows God has plans (Jer 29:11) for them that are excellent. Their eyes were starring deep into his soul. The Holy Spirit was ministering. There was a peace that fell over the crowd.







We handed the children juice, snacks and a small cloth teddy bear that a lady made them. They took the teddy bear and buried their little noses into it and took a big inhale..... "smells so clean" they all said.

I really understood why America is so blessed while I was here. The American dollar stretches so far in this country. OH- the things you can offer to ministries such as this, with even the smallest offering. PFM is a faith based ministry. God is doing some amazing things through them.




There are 3 choices we have when it comes to missions.... God's command.

~GO
~Send or
~Disobey

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was captivated for over an hour reading this blog.

thank you

Anonymous said...

Go, Send or disobey?

I will send.

Anonymous said...

Hey..wow, this was so amazing. And still have lots to read! I found the website from your photos. Could not find it under the message you sent on myspace a while ago. And then i forgot about it, and i went and checked out your profile and seen the pic's...so here i am. You did an amazing job on this page alone!! Wow, you are so awesome and Jesus is smiling on you! Thank you for sharing, and for touching our hearts!! love ya girly :)
Nadine H