(Boys from top left to bottom right: Joseph, Jude, Rene, Benjie, Alvin, Jomel. Front: Fritz)
These are my boys. I spend a significant part of each day with them and am playing an interim father role during my month here in the Philippines. There are no males that work at the orphanage, so the other male racers and I are some of the only contact they have with Godly men.
Alvin: (12) Alvin's story is one of the saddest. Somehow, he did not have any parental figures growing up. He, and his younger brother Emannuel (7), were living alone on the streets. One day, when Alvin was cooking them a meal, Eman touched the cooking device and the whole structure caught on fire. Alvin ran in to save his brother and suffered some burns on his arm. Eman's hand is disfigured as a result of the fire. Left with nowhere to go, someone from the community (other squatters) brought them to the orphanage and they have been living here the last few years. Alvin has been described as "12 going on 20." He is the smallest, yet he always tries to act the oldest. Although it takes all his strength and his entire body to propel the basketball up into the basket, he has found a way and is surprisingly effective. He also likes to be a leader in the group and show he is competent. When he grows up, he wants to be a Zookeeper.
Benjie: (12) Benjie is the emotional one of the group. He is always smiling (or frowning very strongly). He wears his heart on his sleeve and loves physical touch. There is scarcely a moment when he is not holding your hand or climbing on your back. He also loves to tell practical jokes and has made a habit of going up to random white girls and telling them I think they are very cute. During our sleepover with the boys, Benjie spent most of the night playing practical jokes. At one point, I awoke to a mattress being thrown on me and Benjie bodyslamming me. (Don't worry, I proceeded to roll his mattress into a taco and let just his head and feet stick out for a few minutes : ) Benjie wants to be a missionary when he grows up.
Fritz: (10) Fritz seems in many ways to be the youngest, although his comprehension is one of the best. He loves to dance and wants to be an artist when he grows up. He has actually spent a week in California with a prospective adoption family. Ultimately, all the kids hope to one day be adopted by an American family. (If anyone is interested, let me know). Fritz dad poisoned his mom and she died.
Joemel: (12) Jermol is one of the quiet ones. He recently broke his arm and so he is unable to play sports with us. He smiles the most though, so he and Benjie are definitely one my favorites. I wish I knew more of what he was thinking and maybe within time I will have a better idea. He wants to be a policeman when he grows up.
Joseph: (13) Joseph tries to be the leader of the group. He is very competent and confident in his abilities. At the same time, he sometimes gets carried away and shows off a bit. In his better moments, he can be very sweet and looks out for the other boys and the other younger boys at the home. There was a point where I bribed the kids to share their histories and because I intentionally brought a limited number of prizes to encourage a few of them to speak, he divided his prize amongst the others and didn't take anything for himself. He knows what he should do and often tries to be that good person who encourages the little kids and uses his skills to help others. He wants to be a pastor and I suspect that his experiences can make him very effective. Before coming here, he had a history of doing drugs and alcohol and stealing to surive.
Jude: (14) Jude is the quietest. Part of this might be his lack of confidence in his English speaking and part of it might be just his general demeanor. He is one of the more trustworthy and doesn't ever really play practical jokes (unless all the rest of them). He is the most fatherly to the younger kids and voluntarily spends much of his time in the nursery. He wants to be a policeman. His silence means that he never really gets into trouble, but it also makes his past the most mysterious and I don't really know anything about him. He definitely has a great heart though.
Rene: (15) Rene is the oldest and commands respect. He is very obedient to adults and tries to get the younger kids under control and respect the adults. His past is pretty tragic. His parents died and he went to live with his uncle, a gang leader. His uncle had Rene join the family business and had him help with his drug business. His uncle tried to have Rene kill someone, but Rene said he couldn't do it. Thanks to his time with his uncle, Rene used to use drugs and specifically would sniff glue to qualm his hunger pangs. He is definitely a good kid and I am very thankful he is one of the group.
(left) Here is a picture of our basketball team. We placed 3rd in the tournament!
(Right) At the same tournament, they had the coaches duke it out in a 4 quarter ref'ed game. The victors are on the right (woot!)
(Left) Me learning how to ref basketball--trial through fire. (Right) We bring food to the homeless.
There are so many precious kids here. Each one has his own tragic story--most of them involving parental abuse or abandonment. The kids essentially roam the streets and generally sleep with 8-9 people in little one room boxes at night. The orphanage, my primary ministry, has taken in about 35 of the hardest cases. I could write an entire blog on any one of the kids here. There are way too many stories of sexual abuse, and other hardships that no person should ever have to experience, let alone these little children. My primary ministry is to get to know the 7 oldest boys at the orphanage and basically be a father figure. I will devote my next blog exclusively to them and their stories. I also am helping out with various tasks on different days of the week: prison ministry, spending time with the street gang youth, taking food to some families that live under a bridge, preparing a huge 3 day sports camp, and a special ministry I have been invited to help in a pastor's private ministry that will take place in the Philipine countryside for a week at the end of the month.
Here is a picture someone took of me playing with Sandalo, a poor child from the community who has one of the cutest smiles you will ever see. In the left picture, he just made a basketball shot in the hoop above our head.
I promise to post more later. I will make a point to take some pictures of my own now that I am getting a feel for our ministries.
Just to leave you with something upbeat, here is my own teammate's version of her favorite moments in Australia (There is a little overlap with the other Australia video)
We arrived safely in the Philipines and are staying at an orphanage outside of Manila. There are literally hundreds of kids running around in the streets! I will try to get some video of the surrounding area up as soon as I can get some good internet. I am really excited about this month and suspect that God is going to break my heart for the people here.
I will leave you with some pictures and a video that one of my squad-mates made of some of her favorite moments in Darwin. Enjoy.
[The following is a true story about a man who I have spent a great deal of time with this past week. For "Z's" protection, I will avoid using his real picture or easily identifiable details]
Meet Z. Less than 3 months ago, Z was in charge of the Northwest Territory's largest crime organization. To put things into perspective, Z lead a branch of the world's largest gang in a geographical area that comprises about 1/5 of Australia. Although Z was the grandson of a renowned Christian pastor, his desire for power and wealth took him down a path he never intended. What started out as a few small scale drug deals escalated into him murdering his predecessors and usurping control for himself.
By worldly standards, Z had it all.The gang business was lucrative and brought in millions of dollars a year.Z also had immense power and literally held the lives of hundreds of foot soldiers in the palm of his hand.He also had access to all the drugs and sex he could ever want.Yet in one unexpected evening,Z had an experience that shattered his existing way of life...
Saul was basically a stud. He was smart, persuasive, driven, and most importantly, he understood how to get things done. Saul's skills enabled him to rise quickly up the ranks of the Judaic hierarchy and soon he wielded substantial authority. A loyal and revered Jewish scholar, Saul did his best to keep the existing power structure in place by suppressing uprisings by religious sects. Most notably, Saul sought to prevent the spread of a movement prompted by the death of a man known by the locals as Jesus Christ.
As a spiritual leader in Jerusalem during the Roman Empire, Paul had it made. The Jewish management held essentially all of the power, and his membership carried great prestige.Although he wasn't supposed to have all the sex and drugs he wanted, he definitely could have. But God had bigger plans for Saul and although he didn't know it, his life as Saul was about to end.
Sitting in a public restroom with$400,000 worth of cocaine in a backpack, Z waited for the drop to occur.Although he had made drug deals like this dozens of times before, this time he had more apprehension than usual.He knew the plan, wait for the buyers, allow them to inspect the merchandise, then make the swap for the money.The buyer knew of Z's reputation; he knew what would happen to anyone who dared to cross Z.
Suddenly, Z felt an overwhelming desire to flee.From somewhere deep within him, he heard a voice warning him, "leave the money, leave your life of sin and run." To obey the voice would mean surrendering all of his wealth and status, and more importantly, inevitable death.Disloyalty to the gang would mean a ransom on his head and it would only be a matter of time before they hunted him down.Despite all his fears, Z recognized the voice--a voice he hadn't heard since he was a child.Overwhelmed with emotion, Z abandoned the drugs and left through the back door, never to return again...
Saul set out for Damascus, carrying warrants for the arrest of suspected Christian leaders. Like Stephen, Saul would torture and execute these Jewish traitors to set an example for others who dared to challenge the temple hierarchy. Unbenknownst to Saul, God had other plans for him.
"As he was approaching Damascus on this mission, a light from heaven suddenly shone down around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying, 'Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?' NLT Acts 9:4. After heeding the Lord's voice, Saul was given a new task: "...Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles...And I will show him how much he must suffer for my name's sake." Acts 9:15.
Ultimately, God took Saul's life of sin and utilized it to serve a greater purpose. It is difficult to accept that the man who had just facilitated the murdering of countless innocent men and women would eventually become one of the greatest Christian examples of all time (he changes his name to Paul). But God moves in mysterious ways and uses all things to serve his purposes.
It was a setup! As Z exited the scene, the police cars converged on the premises and began loading people into the squad cars. Broken, Z was speechless. Why, after all that Z had done, would God still show him mercy and rescue him from what would have been a life sentence behind bars. Paul explains why in Romans 3, even though we turn away from God, God will always remain faithful to us. It doesn't matter how many people we hurt, or how many rules we break, God wants the best for us and is always there with open arms, awaiting our return. Sometimes, we get so caught up in our pride and assume that God can't possibly forgive us, but God is greater than we can ever imagine and is not confined to our own worldly thinking. At any time, we can go to God and with a humble heart, acknowledge our sinfulness and ask for him to wipe our sins clean.
For those of us raised in the church, I know it seems so cliche but honestly, right now God is eagerly awaiting you to come to him. Be humble, acknowledge the ways in which you have acted selfishly before God and others and repent. Although, like myself, you will inevitably sin again, you can still experience God's love and peace this very moment.
Epilogue: When Z defected, his son succeeded him as leader of the gang and vowed to kill him. Desiring to make amends, Z went to his son and was met with a gun to his head. By God's mercy, the son decided not to pull the trigger and called off the bounty for Z's life (in return for Z forfeiting all power and monetary interests in the gang). Z will still need to make amends for what he has done and will be going to jail for 15-20 years as soon as his trial finishes. He really wants to begin a prison ministry and ultimately travel around the world's major cities to speak against gang life. Having made numerous enemies, he knows that at any time, his life can be cut short. Despite this, he has placed his trust in God and is hoping to use whatever time he has left on earth to serve His Glory.
NIV Acts 19:1-7 "while Paul was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples and asked them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" They answered, "No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit."..."on hearing this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them..."
As I have mentioned in previous posts, my conservative Baptist upbringing has left me very ignorant on matters of the Holy Spirit. I will give a quick recap of what I have learned the past few months. First, the Holy Spirit is pretty much always there and he constantly implants ideas into our heads. Often we can tell the difference between the Spirit and our own voices based on whether or not it coincides with what we naturally want to do. For instance, if the voice is asking us to do something sacrificial or something that we wouldn't normally want to do, its more likely to be Spirit driven. On the other hand, if its something that blatantly conflicts with the Bible, or if its something that would benefit me primarily, then its probably of my own mind. A useful illustration might be that the Holy Spirit is pretty much always there whispering things into my ear, but I often drown them out with my own thoughts (which tend to be driven by selfish motives). Although I still don't always hear the Holy Spirit, I am slowly getting better at discerning his will.
[Enter Pastor Merv] at Sunday Service
"Good on ya Mate, I wanted you to know that ‘M' is visiting and he just became a Christian a few days ago but hasn't been baptized with the Holy Spirit. Be a good bloke and have a chat with him, he's had a rough past." Although my mind was filled with mostly questions, I obliged and made a point of striking up a conversation with M right after the service ended. [Recall my previous blog about wanting to gain Merv's trust]. I soon discovered that he was a 31 year old bookie who was on his second week of kicking a drug addiction. About that time, a teammate approached me and warned me that we were all leaving in 5-10 minutes on a trip into town. A few more dialogue exchanges between M and I somehow resulted in him mentioning that he just became a Christian and had heard something about being baptized with the Holy Spirit but didn't know anything about it...
Timeout...What in the world am I doing? I don't even know what I believe about baptism of the Holy Spirit. Sure there is some biblical precedent for it, but I don't even know if its still works that way in the present time. Maybe there was something special about Paul and the fact that those disciples were completely ignorant on matters of the Spirit. More importantly, I have never seen anyone baptized in the Holy Spirit, and I myself never underwent any formalized procedure. How did I get myself into a situation where I am going to start giving others advice on something I know so little about?
Well, who was I to disregard the sentence that forced its way into my brain. I vocalized it, "Are you free right now? We should go pray about it in the back room." I quickly grabbed another racer from a different team who had more experience on charismatic topics. The conversation went something like this. "Hey Nate, can you help me baptize someone with the Holy Spirit...right now?" He chuckled a little at the sheer absurdity of the question and after thinking for a couple seconds, he smiled and agreed. So Nate, M and I walked out the room in search of a secluded area to pray. Here we were, two guys who knew practically nothing about the Holy Spirit, and a third who I later found out, didn't have much experience with Holy Spirit baptism either. But what we lacked in knowledge, we made up for in faith and obedience.
For the most part, Nate led the prayer and I just stood there praying silently to God that something would happen. At one point, I felt like I was supposed to place my hands on him so after overcoming an initial internal struggle, I put a hand on his shoulder. The hair on the back of my neck stood up. Then, without warning, Nate stopped talking and said, "I think Brian has a word for you."
Horrified, a hundred thoughts raced through my mind. I kept thinking, God what am I supposed to say. Then suddenly, my nerves calmed and I began to speak. I went on for a couple minutes and am not completely sure what I said, but from what I could tell, it was good things that M was supposed to hear. God didn't fail me in my act of obedience but gave me the assistance I needed and the words to say when the time came. Although M didn't start speaking in tongues or radiate any weird glows, he did seem genuinely touched by our prayers for him and has since come to visit us and speak to us more. He has a new direction in his life and is trying to make amends for some of his prior wrongs.
While I still probably have more questions than answers when it comes to most theological issues, I am learning to trust that God will give me discernment in his time as long as I follow after him. I just have to learn to be more patient and not always expect the answers immediately and in my preferred form of manifestation.
Please feel free to post your questions and comments, while I still have a way to access the internet I will do my best to respond asap.
Hey guys, I just wanted to give you a quick update that my teammate's headaches have stopped. Also, Merv, our contact has been giving us increasing responsibility as his trust in us grows. We have been going out to aboriginal centers to pray with people and have been having a lot of meaningful conversations with lots of people. So thank you all so much for your prayers! God has really been good to us.
Here are some random fun facts about Australia
1. Cantalopes are called "rock mellons" and bell peppers are called "capsicums"
2. Trunks are called "Boots" and Chickens are called "Chooks"
3. There are saltwater crocodiles in the ocean so we can't play on the beaches
4. The real threat, however, is the box jellyfish that will paralyze you instantly
5. There is a 10:30am meal called morning tea and an 830pm meal called supper (in addition to breakfast, lunch and dinner).
6. Australians love to shorten words (e.g. breaky = breakfast, aircon = air conditioning)
7. Cockatoos and transparent geckos are all over the place
8. There are random warm flash rain storms and almost daily lightning in the sky
I guess now is as good a place as any to let you all know that sadly, we will no longer be going to Malaysia. Apparently there weren't sufficient contacts for all of us to have something meaningful to do and rather than dillute the ministry of several of the groups, AIM decided to send us elsewhere. So I will now be spending the month of March in the Philipines instead.
Here is a fixed version of Charity's Video About New Zealand
Merv, our new local contact, has been a missionary his whole life. He is blunt and knows how to get things done. He runs a large aboriginal hospital hostel called the Christian Outreach Centre, and has numerous small businesses designed to obtain additional funding for mission projects. When asked what his plan for us this month was, he told us he wanted to wait and see how much he can trust us before deciding how much responsibility to bestow upon us. This lead me to the following predicament; how do you make a complete stranger trust you?
At most churches I have seen in America, anyone willing to volunteer their time is generally given immediate responsibility (Gracepoint being a rare exception). At all other churches, however, my willingness to serve and lack of a criminal record were generally sufficient qualifications for service. So when Merv told us to find random stuff do do around the complex until he had a better impression of our character, I was a bit surprised.
Whats the first step to winning a person's respect? We can't really list out all of our accomplishments or hand someone a resume of our heart. Even basic conversations only tell part of the story of what is really going on within. So God basically told me to get over myself and whatever preconceived ideas of what I was capable of and just dive in head first into whatever work I could find. Little did I know what would happen when I decided to get my hands dirty.
Digging holes for plumbing, moving gigantic mounds of dirt, kitchen duty, tearing down a building infested with rats, termites, giant toads...easy stuff. Then came the rotting veggies. We routinely have to dig through trash dumpsters full of rotting vegetables in search of plastic and other inedible things before we mulch the stuff and feed it to the pigs. Guess what! Even piglets won't eat onions (I feel so validated). So I spend some afternoons bending over a trash can sorting through rotting onions. Not exactly what I expected to do with my law degree! But wait, it gets better! A few days ago, I got to help slaughter a cow and some pigs! Although I didn't pull the trigger, I did have the opportunity to pick up all the entrails and guts that had been left out in the hot sun the whole day...with my bare hands. The biggest problem were the thousands of swarming flies, but fear not, only a few of them got into my mouth. (Don't worry, the picture below isn't of the cute piggies, we only slaughtered the old ugly ones).
We also have had the opportunity to meet and have conversations with a lot of people here. Just today, three of us went to a hospital and prayed over some of the aboriginees there. There is a crisis at the moment among the aboriginal people, as practically nobody under the age of about 50 is walking with the Lord. As we build more rapport with Merv, I suspect he will start sending us out more directly to interact with the young people.
I want to take the opportunity to apologize to all my friends and family back home for not having a servant's heart. I generally tried to do just enough to meet whatever the standard was, but my inward motivations were pretty much always lacking. I also want to send a shout out to all my C3 homies back in Clayton: This week, get your hands dirty for the benefit of someone else. Shoot me an email and tell me what you do and I will be sure to read it (even if it takes awhile to respond).
I have tons of great pictures and videos but haven't been able to get my laptop connected to internet. At some point, I will do a massive picture/movie dump, I promise! Until next time, get your hands a little dirty.
(The video didn't upload properly from Charity's site, I will repost it when it gets fixed). In the meantime, enjoy this video of our Maori friends doing the Haka!)
Hello everyone! I am so sorry I haven't been able to update or get back to you guys any sooner but internet is scarce here in the outback. We are currently working for the Christian Outreach Center (COC) here in Darwin Australia. The COC works with aboriginal families and is comprised of a hospital and dormitory complex. So far we have been doing all sorts of things, from kitchen duty, demolishing buildings, planting orchards, digging through trash dumpsters and sorting out fermenting veggies that will make good pig food (Yum)!
There is so much I would love to say but I will have to do it later. In the meantime, here is a backlog of some of the blogs I have written but haven't gotten a chance to post. I love you guys and miss you very much!
Farewell New Zealand. Although we only spent a short while together, I am very sad to see you go. You showed me what it means to "walk slowly through the crowd," and take the time to "love on" people. Just being a good listener and being willing to spend time with people can open so many doors to a person's soul. Throw in some generosity asking nothing in return and you can transform an anti-Christian with "heaps" of negative notions about what it means to be a Christian to a person genuinely seeking to learn more about Christ.
We met a Maori family with around 8 kids and a predisposition against Christianity. What began as an offer to scrub their house and wash windows, turned into window games with some of the children, which eventually lead to them coming out and starting conversations with us. Ultimately, we were invited in for tea and the family came to our last big movie night event. Through seemingly small, not particularly evangelistic steps, an anti-religion family came out to a church event.
Thus, the entire family has formed a new disposition towards Christianity based simply on a few acts of demonstrating God's love.
<--Random Photo of Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings
I was really blessed this past month. I am so thankful to Brenden and all the wonderful people we met. It was truly heart-wrenching at our goodbye celebration, but I know its just one of many similar circumstances. I am already sitting in an Airport in Brisbane, Australia waiting an entire day in the airport after my first flight was cancelled. I once again saw the gracious hospitality of a young couple, Jamie and Fran, who took in 30 backpackers for the past two nights. It still amazes me how people can be so selfless. I am continuously challenged to be a more sacrificial person and stop putting my own interests or "what's fair" ahead of what the most Christ-like response would be.
I leave for Darwin Australia tonight, where I will spend the next month working with Aboriginees via a church-sponsored hospital. I don't know much, aside from that the weather will consistently be well into the 100's with humidity in the 100's as well. I will post as soon as I know more. In the meantime, you guys should be happy to know that I got to play with some Kangaroos!
I encountered my first major failure of the trip this past
week. One of my teammates has been
having unbearable headaches and after days of praying throughout the day, her
condition wasn't improving. Having
recently read verses 17:20-21 and 18:19-20 and in Matthew, we decided we should
begin a fast in addition to continued prayer.
NIV 17:20-21 "...I tell you the truth, if you have faith as
small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘move from here to
there' and it will move. Nothing
will be impossible for you...But this kind does not go out except by prayer and
fasting."
NIV 18:19-20 "I tell you that if two of you on earth
agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in
heaven. For where two or three
come together in my name, there I am with them."
After 48 hours and no noticeable improvement, doubt sprouted
throughout the group. Why wasn't she
being healed? Is it because we
don't have enough faith? Is it
because are not "agreeing" about what we are asking for? Are we not coming together "in his
name?" Or maybe we just don't
understand the verses in context?To be honest, even after discussing the issue with numerous people and
hearing numerous different perspectives, I still am not really sure what I
believe.
At the very least, I have learned that I can't try to put
God into some sort of formula. Prayer + Fasting ≠ Result I Expect. Although our faith would certainly have
been further strengthened if God had healed our team member, for some reason,
He chose not to. I must remember
that, despite my desire to plan ahead and always be in control, I can never
fathom God's ways. Like a fish
trying to understand the human mind, incapable of appreciating all that goes on
above the surface, so to do I flounder in futility trying to conceive the
thoughts of God. Both David (his
dying son) and Paul (his thorn) were mighty men of God who had fervent prayers
go unanswered. Yet despite God's
decision not to answer their prayers, they went on unhindered seeking after
God.
No, God did not give the result that we hoped for and expected. No, I wouldn't feel confident expecting God to act exactly according to my time preferences in the future. And No, I do not grasp the real meaning behind the above verses. But Yes, I know God still loves me. Yes, He wants what is best for me and allows me to face trials and hardships in order to grow me. And yes, I will continue to pray to the Lord in Obedience and with hope that His will shall be done.
Also, Merv, our contact has been giving us increasing responsibility as his trust in us grows. We have been going out to aboriginal centers to pray with people and have been having a lot of meaningful conversations with lots of people. So thank you all so much for your prayers! God has really been good to us. 
<--Random Photo of Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings
