Evan's Blog

visit from an old friend

I received a surprise email from a friend who visited with us in 2001 and was back in the Philippines for a conference. Richard Hayward is a retired RCMP constable from Newmarket Ontario (Crosslands Church) who spent time with us when we were still teaching in our carport and really in the very begining of our ministry. While here he painted a beautiful watercolor of the Gentle Hands building that has hung on the wall since he left and some of his other paintings are scattered about our house.
Richard spent much of the day with us on Saturday and his visit was a chance for us to reflect on how much the ministry has changed and grown in the last six years. Some of the boys who were in that very first class of ours are still with us and have really grown up. It was also a sobering experience to take him down under the bridge where he had spend time during his first visit. No sign of the community that was once there remains.
We all enjoyed visiting with Kuya Richard and my kids took an immediate liking to him. We look forward to his next visit!

Dedication

On Thursday we marked an important first in the history of Gentle Hands and our new little church. We celebrated our first child dedication service in the courtyard right here at Gentle Hands.
Presented for dedication were two of the children at our center. Roger (age 2) and Kimberly (age 3). Both came to us severely neglected and malnourished.
Read Roger's Story
Read Kimberly's Story
In order to get birth certificates for these two children to process their adoptions (many births go unregistered here) the National Statistics Office asked that we provide baptism or dedication certificates for identification purposes.
As we cast about trying to find the fastest way to get them dedicated it dawned on me that I could do it. Three years ago I received my Exhorter's License from the Church of God which allows me to do stuff like baptisms and dedications...
This was to be my first and it wasn't exactly a textbook case. With no parents in the picture to present the children for dedication I had make some major revisions to the dedication program I found in the Minister's Service Manual, but within an hour or so, we had the program worked out.
Music was taken care of by Art (guitar-playing musician types come in very handy) who got a couple of songs organized in the half hour he had to prepare.
After a worship song, Jazz and Moises each read a scripture (Matt 19:13,14 and 1 Sam 1:27,28 respectively). For the part of the service where the parents are supposed to commit to their roles as Godly parents all present were asked to stand in (this included some staff and a few of the boys).
Finally the two children were brought forward and as Charity held Roger and Jazz held Kimberly we lifted them up in prayer and dedicated them to God for the rest of their lives wherever they go. A last song from Art and the job was done! Some video from this is on our youTube channel. The quality isn't great, but see it here.

Singapore Sling

One of the benefits of logging so many travel miles is that I accumulate a fair number of frequent flier miles. So, after my sister visited us in manila in February, we decided to reciprocate and visit her in Singapore where she lives and teaches at the Canadian International School.
I cashed in my miles and booked tickets for me, Noah, Elijah and MerryFaye to fly to Singapore for four days.
The only available flight departed Manila at 8:40pm and put us in to Singapore at midnight. The kids did very well despite the brutal schedule and we arrived at Megan's apartment and were back in bed by 1:30am.
The days that followed were great fun for the kids. Megan's apartment complex has a beautiful swimming pool and the kids swam at least twice a day while we were there.
In addition to swimming we also had a chance to see one of the best zoos in the world! On Friday night we went to the Night Safari which is a totally nocturnal zoo open only after dark. No pictures of that because flash photography is forbidden. Night Safari is awesome.
On Saturday we went to the main zoo. Singapore Zoo is amazing. They do such a good job of displaying the animals with few obvious barriers between the people and animals.  The orangutans and some of the monkeys seemed to be ranging free throughout the trees. Noah loved the otters, but the rest of us were most impressed by the HUGE salt-water crocodile.
Sunday was a day for some shopping and dinner with Megan. Our flight departed Singapore at 1:50am and arrived in Manila at 4:05am. Again a brutal schedule, but the kids held up very well even with all the waiting in line when we got to Manila.
It was great for the kids to get to spend some more time with their Aunty Megan and Singapore was a wonderful holiday!

Communion Sunday

The Courtyard Church of God had its first ever communion service on Sunday!
Our service was also blessed by the arrival of two friends from Longview, Washington earlier in the week. Art played guitar for worship and Amanda helped serve communion. Welcome to the Philippines, guys!
I realized 20 minutes before the start of the service that no one had bought anything to serve for communion, so I had to rush to the local store to get juice, plastic cups and crackers! I arrived back just as worship was starting and managed to get the elements ready in time for everyone to share in the Lord's Supper.
30 adults joined us to hear Moses preach about becoming a new creation and there were 24 kids in Kids Church.
It is exciting to see things moving forward each week as God is faithful to our new little  church!
I have once again posted some video 'highlights' on youTube. Click here to check it out!

Middle of the night... Again

The phone rang at 3:30am and after it became obvious that it wasn't going to stop ringing I forced myself back to consciousness and got up to answer it.
It was our security guard in a panic. Someone was at the door. All I caught from his hundred-mile-an-hour Tagalog was the last name and that it was an emergency. It was a family that we've been involved with from the the time we first arrived in the Philippines. We've had their children in our classes, given them food regularly,taken them to the hospital and cared for them when they were sick or injured and even buried one of their children who died of meningitis in 2001.
I made my way downstairs still shaking the cobwebs out of my head to find an ambulance parked in front of our building with its lights flashing and Linda (the mom) looking scared to death.
They had been driven in from the the provincial locale where they had been relocated after the fire a year ago (a two hour drive). The hospital nearest to them did not have the facilities for the emergency appendectomy they said she needed, so they asked the ambulance to bring them to Gentle Hands for 'help'. They had no money and didn't now where to go or what to do.
I explained to the ambulance person that there was little we could do for Rosie here, but if they would take her to the nearest government hospital I would come and see if I could be any help.
So off they went with lights flashing while I ran upstairs to tell my wife what was happening and grab my phone and some money. I know from experience not to go to the emergency room without money.
When I arrived at the hospital a few minutes later the ambulance was parked to the side of the emergency entrance and Linda ran up to me and said, "They won't accept her... they don't want her here."
Unfortunately this kind of thing is not surprising. The hospital staff were perfectly willing to let her die in the ambulance outside the emergency room.
I went inside to find the doctor on duty and noticed that the ER wasn't nearly as busy as it usually is. It seemed eerily quiet and most of the beds were empty. I found the doctor and asked him what the problem was. He explained matter-of-factly that since the first hospital had not called ahead and warned them they were not going to accept her (the old 'not-my-fault-not-my-problem defense'). I asked him what we were supposed to do and he suggested finding a different hospital (this was a public  government  hospital). Anyway, after a short conversation in which I asked him what he was going to do if she died in the back of an ambulance 20 feet away from where he was standing, he relented and agreed to examine her.
I waited in the emergency room until they had completed the initial examination and taken some blood to repeat the test done at the first hospital, spoke briefly to the doctor and left to in order to get home in time to make breakfast and send two of my own kids off to school.
Rosie was diagnosed with a bladder infection and released from the hospital to recuperate at Gentle Hands. Linda later told our social worker that they never would have gotten her admitted to the hospital if I hadn't been there.
The poor are scorned and shunned. Few people are willing to help them. They know this and hence do not even try to stand up for themselves or fight for what they need or are entitled to. For me (a 'rich' foreigner) all it took was my white face and a few words to get Rosie in to the hospital.
God loves the poor. God feels compassion for the poor. Jesus called them 'blessed' and said they would inherit the Earth and yet they are consistently treated as worthless. I needed to be woken up at 3am for God to remind me where His heart is... and where mine should be.

Our Third Sunday

I didn't intend for this blog to be a weekly play-by-play of a church plant, but it may turn out this way. We held our third Sunday service in the courtyard at Gentle Hands this past Sunday and it continues to get better each week. This week the music was handled by my wife complete with a rehearsal during the week. Our courtyard was again full with people who came to worship and hear the Word of God.
Ephraim led worship again and Moses preached a sermon on allowing God to heal our spiritual blindness. There were 28 kids in kids church this week!
Next Sunday we are having our first ever communion Sunday. Please continue to pray that new unchurched people will come and respond to the Gospel!

I uploaded some video to youTube of this service also. see it here.

I apologize for the poor video quality. I'm using my digital camera and my phone to take the video. I will look into getting a decent video camera so I can keep posting better video

The Rock

Despite having lived in the Philippines for almost seven years now, we rarely do anything remotely tourist-like. People often ask me what there is see and do in Manila and I am always at a loss. My sister came for a weekend visit from Singapore and saw more of historic Old Manila than I have ever even seen. I suppose this reality is a reflection of our reasons for being here.
So, to make up a bit for this I joined some relatives on a tour of Corregidor Island. I had been there on a camping trip with my son's Boy Sout troop in 2005 and was eager to return (with all due respect to General MacArther :))
It's an hour ferry ride from the terminal in Manila to the Island. The ferry dock is located on the beach where the liberating American forces landed in early 1945. Black Beach was its code name then, but now it's a beatiful white sand beach with little clue to violent struggle that took place here.
The tour included stops at several of the artlillery batteries on the fortress island
and a light and sound show in Malinta Tunnel where the the army maintained its HQ until the surrender of the island to the Japanese.
The ruined buildings (no buildings survived the bombings) stand as silent reminders of the both the destructive nature of war and the strength of will of the defenders. War always brings out the best and the worst in people and nations and the battle for possesion of this island shows both.
I recommend any visitors to Manila to take a trip to Corregidor especially those with any interest in military history (like me).