Monday, January 18, 2016

Medical Mission 2015: Feeding Program in Tondo, Manila

The feeding program in Tondo, Manila was by far one of the most heart breaking scenario many of us have seen in our lives. When we arrived, the first few things I noticed were the row of sacks with recyclable trash lined up on the street, the wet unpaved road and the overcrowded houses and the skinny kids running around, who were barefoot and not fully clothed.
We were told to be very protective of each other, be cautious and guard our own belongings carefully. When we finally reached the exact location for the feeding program, it's almost unbelievable how many people were lined up to get some food. Pastor Noel again led the beginning of the program. He told them his story from prison to redemption and told them the gospel of Jesus Christ through his very creative presentation. He also called a few people including my husband, Michael, Pastor Tony, Laura S. and Theresa G. to share their testimonies to the kids and the parents who were present.
After the prayer, they started to give away the food, which we didn't expect to be insufficient for those who were in attendance. The local church we worked with tried to organize the program by listing names and such but because the area doesn't have a wall of some sort, the kids and parents became uncontrollable when we were giving away the food. It was so hard to see some of them cry because we didn't have any more food to give them.

The overcrowded place suddenly have only few people left after all the food were gone. Some of them may have been there only to get some food and may not really be interested to hear the gospel but we are grateful for the opportunity to share it with them. I remember listening to Pastor Noel's wife, Ate Gina, who told me that she used to live in Tondo and that she used to be one of the street vendors somewhere there. We were sharing our little stories of how hard our lives were. We were telling each other how grateful we are for what the Lord has done in our lives and how God brought us out of places where we used to be. She and her husband, often go back to Tondo, not because they still live there but because they choose to love those people who are still in poverty and are lost and doesn't know Jesus Christ. They are doing a lot of outreach and missions work in that area because they know that only God can get them out of the bondage of sin and poverty.

Poverty is sometimes one of the consequence for the sinfulness of man. The book of proverbs contains a lot of things pertaining to poverty, one of them says:
"For the heavy drinker and the glutton will come to poverty, And drowsiness will clothe one with rags." - Proverbs 23:21
The picture of poverty is really hard to look at but it is a reminder to us of God's grace and mercy. We are spiritually starving and malnourished when we were still sinners but God made Himself known to us so that we become rich. It is of no surprise why Jesus told us to care for the poor because He Himself cared us when we were poor spiritually.

The Philippine government attempts to alleviate poverty by providing home and shelter to some people who live in the most impoverished area but some of them kept coming back to places like Tondo. Some of them loves being poor. Aren't we like that when we were still slaves to sin? We kept sinning because we have no power over it but when we became slaves to Christ we can now say no to sin because we are not slaves to it anymore.

I have heard a lot of sad stories and have seen a lot of heart breaking picture of Tondo Manila before but experiencing the place and seeing it with my very own eyes was a life changer.























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