Dear Praying Friends,
The past couple days I've had Brian, a 23 year old from Conneticut shadowing me as we ministered at 2 Fish & Bread feeding sites. Brian is here for possibly 6 months seeking the Lord's will on career missionary service with Filipino street children. Before he arrived in early January, he knew all about ACTION Philippines from our website and through his aunt and uncle who have served as missionaries here for almost 30 years. They referred Brian to me. Yesterday as Brian and I were going home after ministry I asked him, "well, what did you observe the last couple days?" He said, "Mr. Anderson, I have observed overwhelming need." I said "What else?" and as he thought deeply about this, I said "We also saw the church in action." Pray for Brian and me as we continue to walk together over the next several weeks serving among the poor, searching the Lord's will for this young man.
Friends, the first site was like a sunbaked dust bowl, waste construction material dumped from a huge dump truck with hoards of people like ants on honey, digging through this stuff for recyclables. One mother held up her gunny sack with recyclable metal and said "This is enough for one kilo of rice for me and my kids". Then we fed 50 children in cooperation with Agape Christian Fellowship at Floodway.
At the 2nd site the shacks were build side by side within feet of little Christian Challenge Church. People everywhere. Hot. No fresh air. Garbage, mud and the smell of urine. Then we feed approximately 100 children in the church. The church was packed with kids and parents. While the kids were eating, I was scanning the crowd to look for the most weak and vulnerable person and I spotted 16 month old Joseph. He is a severely malnourished and tiny. Joseph is the youngest of 5 kids and his little 4 year old brother was spooning rice into his mouth while their 7 year old brother was watching close by. These children scavenge garbage for a living. Overwhelming? Absolutely! But what great joy when the kids sang songs about Jesus and the pastor gave a message about the love of Christ. The church of Jesus Christ in action--YES! Praise God!
The following are updates for your informed prayer and involvement.
1. Calvary Hills Fish & Bread: Tomorrow we launch a 6 month feeding in another very poor area called Calvary Hills. ACTION and Camp Aguinaldo Evangelical Church have worked in this area for many years. Pastor Lino (a former street boy and associate pastor at CAEC who came to Christ at a camp years ago) and Wendy (a former street girl, now a Bible school student) will lead this work and they are well on the way to planting a church. We thank God for the generosity of His people who have supplied the $2,250 for this 6 month feeding. Brian will be joining us and I will introduce him to Lino and Wendy.
2. Upcoming Camp: February 12-15 we will be having a camp at Camp Jabez for 65 street kids from Dasmariñas Cavite which is located near ACTION's 2nd Mile ministry compound. These kids were involved in our 2 Christmas parties in December there and 7 Dasma churches whom we are training for ministry to street children will be serving. The theme is "Kids like me have hope" along with Jeremiah 29:11. The goal of the churches is to have a drop-in center for these kids and their families as they prepare them for body life in their churches.
3. Post Christmas parties: It's never too late to celebrate the birth of Christ so we had 3 "post" Christmas parties in January. On the 19th we joined the New Testament Baptist Church in Real, Quezon and had a party for 100 families including all the 240 elementary school kids from the barrio. Pastor Arniel and a couple of elders from NTBC also baptized 13 men and women in the Pacific ocean which was a joyful ceremony. NTBC has committed to planting a church in Barangay Capalong and after 1 year of work they are well on the way with weekly Bible studies for children, youth, adults along with Saturday afternoon worship services.
On the 26-27th we had 2 parties for the "invisible" kids that roam the city streets late at night into the wee hours of the morning scavenging recyclable garbage*. At the Saturday party we had 70 kids and Sunday evening's party in another location we had 30.
The 3 churches that participated in these parties are committed to ongoing follow-up.
*These "scavenger kids" on average earn $3 a day working from about 5pm to 3am. From their earnings they pay rent for their "pedi-cab" which costs about $1. When asked what they did Christmas day they said "trabaho" (work). "Did anyone prepare you special food on Christmas day?" They responded, "no, only now." We praise God that He is opening the eyes of His people to see these invisible people and minister to them in the name of Christ.
4. Densest city in the world: Our dear friend and colleague Daren Beck who serves with ACTION Cambodia sent us this link listing the 10 densest cities in the world. Guess what? We win! The City of Manila is the densest according to this study. Somehow I already knew that after living and working here for 22 years. Check it out for yourself.
5. International Council: Mary Ann has been putting in *many* hours organizing and preparing for hosting ACTION's March 10-14 International Council Meetings. We're expecting 26 men and women from around the world. In addition to coordinating and hosting the conference, Mary Ann will assist the Council Secretary in taking the minutes while I will represent the Philippines. The meetings will be held at the new Martin Burnham Ministry Center which is beautiful.
6. Field Conference: Mary Ann and I are also preparing for our team's March 15-18 Field Conference which is always a very rich time for all of us. Wayne MacLeod from ACTION Canada will be our speaker with the theme "Loving God" from Mark 12:28-30.
7. Furlough: Lord willing, Mary Ann and I will leave for our furlough March 20 or 21 and stay in Minnesota through July. We're leaving at this time to coincide with our daughter Micah's redeployment to Iraq so we can be available to assist her as needed. Check our website for our schedule thus far and if you would like to book us for a meeting at your church, feel free to contact us.
While I'm at it, pray for Micah as she is now in military leadership training in Nebraska until the 9th. She is certainly learning what it means to be a responsible leader of men and women. We are also rejoicing with her because she recently led her good friend and fellow soldier Amber to faith in Christ. They served together in Iraq in '03 and Amber is also being redeployed. Pray for these young women of God who are serving us in the military.
Closing: We tend to assume those of us in full-time ministry would have plenty of time to study the Bible regularly. That is not so. We have to *make* the time. With all of the pressures, deadlines and needs pressing in on us every single day, we need to be renewed and refreshed by the Spirit of God through the Word daily. It is something like a man doing physical labor needing physical nourishment to keep up his strength, which I also know personally. Yesterday I meditated on Titus 3:1-7 and my eyes landed upon verse 5 "renewing by the Holy Spirit". I leave you with 2 fundamental prayer requests for Mary Ann and me as well as your pastors, other missionaries you are involved with and others serving in ministry. Pray for divine wisdom and a renewing and refreshing of our inner man.
God bless you my friends, thank you for your prayers and support.
Warmly in Christ,
Jeff
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