Malaybalay

On Friday, January 25 we drove about 6 hours north of Davao to the small city of Malaybalay, up in the mountains about 3,000ft above sea level. Joe drove his jeepney and we all piled in with bags tied down on top. The kids did great despite the long drive...I think the adults had a harder time with cramped quarters and the uncomfortable seats for such a long drive!

We thought we were going to be "roughing-it" for our week in Malaybalay, but we were in for a big surprise when we drove up to a large beautiful house that looked far from roughing-it! Three sisters built this house, two of which live in the US and come back to stay here for vacations. They let visiting missionaries stay in their house for a very small price of 500p a day (or $12). The house is fully furnished and had plenty of room for all of us. It was like staying in our own personal mansion for a week!

Saturday morning we headed out to find a little breakfast of bread and bananas and then went to the Children's Home. New Faith Family Children's Home is located outside of Malaybalay down a small dirt road, but within a neighborhood. They have 11 children at the home ranging in age from 2 to 11 who are there for various reasons. Larry and Belen are the wonderful house parents and the children love them dearly. Larry is a trained pastor, but felt the Lord was calling him to help the children. They do an amazing job of loving and caring for the kids! There is also several other staff members that do the cooking, cleaning, and a social worker as well as two people from Australia that run the Children's home and the construction site.

After visiting the Children's Home we then went to see the work on the camp and new housing for the children. The property is off the road and set it back amongst the hills. Work is progressing daily on the camp building that will be able to house 40 children for camps. The next building to be constructed will be the Children's home. The land has been donated by a very generous Filipino couple, Glenn and Grace, who are huge supporters of the Children's Home in Malaybalay. Please pray for Glenn as he is in the hospital with possibly a brain aneurism. Steve and Joe got the opportunity to visit him in the hospital and pray for him.

We spent the rest of the day just hanging out at the Children's home playing with the kids at the home as well as the neighbor kids who come to play too. Our kids made lots of new friends and had so much fun!

We arranged to eat our lunches at the Children's Home and have our helper Ate Elsa help with the cooking. We doubled the amount of food they needed to cook, except we can't even come close to eating the pile of rice that those kids can consume! Ate Belen told me that we eat 3 tablespoons of rice while they will eat 2 cups of rice...that is probably rather true! For dinner we went back to our "mansion" and Elsa cooked us a wonderful meal before we all headed off to bed...a bunch of very tired people.

Sunday we went to church...
Larry pastors a small church out of the city. He wants to reach the mountain village people and they will not come all the way out, so he brings church to them. Here is a little from Steve's journal...
The hill people are poor and are embarrassed about coming to a church in the city. Even though the people only live 5-10km from town, it is a world of difference. Those who live deep(only a few kilometers) in the mountains(jungles) only come so far to the nearest villages, those villagers then take the produce and supplies to the people who live along the road. The road people then go to the city to sell the wares and bring back the supplies. Medicine and the Gospel never make it past the road peoples. There are small churches along the road side, but those off the road will never make the trip to the road. First because of the subsistence life, it is a good day or two journey to make it to the road. It is often not affordable! Also the mountain people are too embarrassed to come out that far.

Rarely do the city people or even the road people ever venture out to the villages and mountains. The church we went to is off the road about a quarter mile. Those who come from the hills walk in 30-90 minutes by foot.

We really enjoyed listening to Larry preach, sitting outside on bamboo benches with excerpts from John Piper's book! It's a small world! The kids listened to Ate Belen for Sunday School out in the shade.

We spent the afternoon playing with the kids and getting to know everyone.

Our timing to go to Malaybalay seemed to be God directed...the Children's Home vehicle needed to be worked on, but that left them without a way to get around, so Joe became the driver for the week. Our days began at 5:45 so that Joe could take Steve and the older boys to the work site by 7am, then to the children's home to pick up kids for school, back to the house to pick up the younger kids, Joleigh, Elsa and I so that we could go to spend the day with the kids. He then got water filled and took it to the job site, back to pick up kids from school at 11 so they could come home for lunch, then pick up Steve and the boys from the job site, and then kids back to school at 1pm. We would have a restful afternoon while the younger kids napped and we would prepare for our afternoon VBS with the street kids.

Steve, Ethan, Tyler, Joziah, Samking, and Brian spent each day at the job site doing various jobs of painting, shoveling, pounding holes in the concrete for pipes, removing nails from wood, and hauling water. It was hard work in the hot sun, but the boys had alot of fun! They often came back for lunch covered in red paint that was used to prevent rusting...not sure if they got more paint on themselves or on the metal?!

The girls and I played with the younger kids at the home, did a little preschool with them and just helped out wherever we could. We all ate lunch at the home and then put the younger kids down for naps every afternoon. In the afternoon from about 3-4 we did a small VBS with the younger kids as well as 5-6 street kids from Malaybalay.

It was a good opportunity to learn a little about how to do a VBS here...what works, what doesn't, what the kids understand, and how to use a translator. The kids loved the songs with the hand motions, the Bible stories, the snacks, and the games we played out in the field. By far, Duck, duck, goose was the favorite!!

One day we went to a Bible Seminary up in the mountains to help and watch them pour a concrete basketball floor, or at least a section of it. We did more watching than helping, but we also did an impromptu singing time! All the students gathered in the chapel and we sang for them, then shared a box of oranges and bread with everyone. Didn't know we were a traveling singing group?! Gotta be ready for whatever!!

We had such a great time meeting new people and learning so much from everyone! We have thoroughly enjoyed the opportunities we get to talk to people and see what they are involved in. Being here in the Philippines has really given us a first-hand, on-the-field view of what God is doing here and the many opportunities there are to serve Him!