screaming something genuine

Forgive me if my w o r d s become j u m b l e d, but today was an exhausting day in the best way possible.

I’ll admit it… even though I know that God is moving and will do great things with this trip, at times I can’t help but doubt that. What could God possibly do with someone like me? With this attitude at hand, my feelings of the day were summed up by the word skeptical. It’s officially our first day – what could happen? I mean, we have a whole three months left… God can take his time if he wants to. Today will be our throw away day, a day to get our feet soaked.

And so, we prayed: “May Your will be done”. Moments before prayer, I strangely felt led to Luke 14. In my own writing, the margins read “Jesus’ challenge: ALL or NOTHING”. We read on. The passage was titled “The Cost of Being a Disciple”. Reading this made me feel the heavy significance of what it means to fully follow God, to either completely commit yourself, or to not do it at all. The more I read, the more it felt fitting...

Then the day began. We took a taxi to a local mall called Trinoma. It’s refreshing being with Rebecca because she has such an unmarked perspective of Manila. She re-iterates the things I’ve grown up seeing and have gotten a bit accustomed to. She pointed out an area of slum – corrugated tin roofs, walls collapsing in on itself, children running around. Merely two minutes later and we’re at the mall. The disparity is so real. Entering the air-conditioned mall is like entering a portal where only the wealthy exist. Out of sight, out of mind. After eating, we left the mall in search for the slum we had driven by. No matter how hard we looked, we couldn’t seem to find it.

We decided to ride the MRT (Manila’s version of a skytrain or c-train). We felt prompted to get off at Guadalupe station. It’s funny how things happen when you’re not looking for it. Right in front of us was one of the many slums found in Manila. Again, the disparity rings true as skyscrapers and shiny buildings serve as background to such an impoverished area. We began to walk and pray. As we filmed children bathing in the street, a mother breastfeeding her child, shirtless men walking the streets, we were stopped by a bunch of children skateboarding down a hill chasing one another. The joy that emanated from these kids was enough to stop us in our tracks. We filmed these kids being… kids. Despite the economic situations they’re in, none of that mattered. The video camera became our icebreaker as these kids surrounded us.

We wanted to buy them timbits from a local donut stand. It was utter chaos. As hard as I tried to say ‘wait your turn’ and ‘form a line’ in my broken Filipino, hand after hand grabbed at me, at each other - kids stealing donuts from one another and lying that they had more than one. It strangely hit me hard that a lot of these kids will do anything it takes to grab food, and that structure and discipline is far from their upbringing. An image of how these kids grew up flashed in my head – a lack of direction perhaps due to a disinterest of parents, or lack of attention as their caretakers struggled to make ends meet.

We left that area with a lesson learned – of how to approach the next similar situation, how to compose ourselves and what things we need to equip ourselves with. We took rest at a nearby mall sipping on green mango fruit shakes when a lady, who appeared to be in her 40's, came up to us with papers in hand. In Filipino, she described to me her situation: her 3-year-old daughter is in the hospital with a hole in her heart. She needs an examination and some drugs to improve her situation. She cannot afford the medication and is going around to different people asking for money. Usually, I can’t help but take the skeptic’s position, but there was something about her that screamed something genuine. Perhaps it was her kind eyes or God’s distinct call, or maybe even both. We asked her if we could visit her daughter at the hospital and she agreed. As we walked to the local drug store, she told me more about herself. She sells toys at a market place, but can barely make a decent living. Her husband also works selling toys, but even that is not enough.

Two of her children are in need – one with a hole in her heart and the other with medical problems as well. Because the Philippines’ health care system is privatized, it becomes incredibly expensive for people like Rosalyn to afford medical fees. Compared to North America, these fees are considerably inexpensive. The hundred dollars it costs for us is no big deal, but for her – it’s life or death. While the doctor in charge of her daughter's case is free, it is still far too expensive to afford the medication and examination fees. Often, many people die at the hospital due to their inability to pay these fees.

At the moment, we are waiting for her daughter to get this examination done. Hopefully the medication will work so that she will not need more medication they cannot afford, and moreover, that she won’t need surgery. We plan on visiting her and her child as soon as possible. Rosalyn kept saying how lucky she was to meet us, when in fact, we felt so blessed to meet her. I truly hope that she sees this as an act of God, not an act by Rebecca and I.

That was a huge mouthful, but it’s been so overwhelming how much God has been moving in only one day. We’ve been filming a lot so watch out for the new video! And we’ll keep the updates coming too.

Thanks for reading, supporting and loving us.