When
the sun goes down in Cebu the sidewalks turn into something that looks
more like a homeless shelter than a walk way. People collect whatever
they can find for bedding and go to sleep while dozens of “rich” folks
pass by as if the homeless don’t even exist.
Many times, I would find myself doing the same thing the upper class
Filipinos did. “Just keep walking and try not to look,” I would tell
myself as I tried to come up with some excuse for not stopping to offer
a few pesos, a snack or even just a hug. One night on our way back home
from ministry we passed by a young boy, no more than 10 years old,
lying on the curb having reactions to some drug he had taken earlier
that day. The moment I saw him my heart broke but of course I just
walked on by.
After taking about five steps past the boy my leader stopped and said,
“I have to do something for that boy. I can’t just leave him there.” He
went back and carried the passed out boy to a building nearby and laid
him underneath the overhang so he wouldn’t get stepped on or ran over
by a car. Sadly, hundreds if not thousands of Filipino children live
this life every day. They spend their days begging for money and food,
there evenings finding drugs to ease the pain and there nights sleeping
on the streets. No, we probably can’t help every child on the streets
of Cebu but we can make a difference to a few. These children need a
savior.
The Basak Teens
which literally means mud hole. During our time there I felt God
leading me to minister to the teens guys of Basak. We had quite a bit
of free time thanks to the rain cancelling a few plans so I was able to
get really close to these guys. When I first started talking to them
all they wanted to do was tell me about their gang and brag about the
bad things they had done. I prayed for these boys every day, built
relationships with them and tried to share the gospel as much as I
could.
One day as they were teaching me some of their language and showing me
what plants were safe to eat one of them called over our host
missionary to translate something. The boys started talking to her and
I had no idea what they were saying but I knew it was good because she
had a giant smile on her face. Soon she turned to me and said, “The
boys have become really interested in God these past few days and asked
us to start a bible study with them.” I could hardly contain my joy!
Our initial goal was to start a bible study there but by the end of the
week there was VBS daily, bible studies for all ages and a church
service on Sunday. Obviously God had much bigger plans than us.
