A group of us, 10 ladies, embarked on our journey to the Philippines on Friday morning from Singapore. We arrived safely and was meet by Pastor Neil who was acting as our security guard and driver for the weekend... little did I know how hand selected he was for this mission... he soon became our encourager, our angel, our devotion leader, our prayer warrior and a light for Christ to so many.
Here is Pastor Neil loading all our suitcases on his car...
We soon were taken to the Baptist Convention Hostile where we stayed in Manila, Philippines. On our way I was able to capture the pic below of the world globe that sits outside the "mall of Asia"... the largest mall in Asia.
Shortly after we unloaded our bags and grabbed a bite to eat we headed to the "International Baptist Church Manila" to check out the place for the conference the following Day.
Our conference was called "Becoming a D'vine Woman based on John 19:5.
The next day was 'conference day'... oh what a blessing. There is just one pic below of some of the 300+ filipina woman that came to the conference.... so traveled over 2 hours to be at this conference... it cost $0.80 USD to come to the conference. Like most conferences there were several break out classes. I was teaching "Children and Discipline"... the first session I had 45 woman and the second session I had 40 woman.... God was so good... I learned so much about the filipina woman... I learned that grandparents raise the children, I learned that they did not know what time-out was, I learned that alot of them did not understand that discipline is scriptural, and more... but most of all I learned that these ladies love the Lord and long to be a better woman, mom, sister, wife and child of God... they were on-fire for the Lord.
Never in my life have I been called "beautiful" as much, had people wanting my signature, wanting to take pictures of me, wanting to shake my hand... never in my life had I felt more adored... and at the same time felt so uncomfortable and overwhelmed... there were many times that I had to find a quiet place to pray... longing for these woman and children to see God and not me... and it was not long before I realized that they did see HIM... some filipina woman and men made it very clear that some of these people had never seen "white and black people" before and it was a blessing from God to know that people from other countries would want to come and love on them... they did see HIM and not me.
Sunday we headed to an "inner-city" church in Pasi City. What a wonderful worship we had that morning.... the church was rockin with praise... and the faces will be in my memory forever.
After the service we headed downstairs for lunch and Sunday school with the "street kids"... children that live on the streets some have families some do not.
We sand songs, we had a Sunday school lesson and then they put on a show for us...
After the fun festivities... we got to give... we gave all the children a pair of new "croc" shoes... they were so happy... and some children did not get shoes immediately (we will have to ship the appropriate size) but they all were smiling and gracious regardless.
After the fun festivities... we got to give... we gave all the children a pair of new "croc" shoes... they were so happy... and some children did not get shoes immediately (we will have to ship the appropriate size) but they all were smiling and gracious regardless.
Here is Saundra fitting one of the children.
Afterwards they all wanted to take a picture with their shoes.... can you believe that all these children sat still for everyone to take at least 10 pictures each... God is in all the details.
We soon left the church and headed to one of the streets that the children live on... some of the images will break your heart but some of the smiles that I came across made my soul rejoice.
I have alot more pics of walk so check out the slide show and I will post more pics later.
We soon had to say good-bye to the children.. look at these faces.... 
After an emotional good-bye we headed out to see Old Manila...During the Manila War with America they built a wall around Manila (now called the "old manila") to keep it safe... we took a tour inside "old manila".
If you want to see all the pics check out the slide show below or go here to see my Picasa Web Album.
9 comments:
Sounds amazing!
Wonderful! I love the pictures -- especially those precious children. It's an incredible thing to share the Lord with people of other cultures, isn't it?
what an amazing trip! It reminds me of India in some ways...I'm so glad you got to experience that, God is so awesome!
Those pics look so familiar! Love it! I remember singing Karaoke (it's big over there) and drawing a crowd...I think they really thought I was some sort of celebrity. I'm SO proud of you! You were salt and light to those people. Praise God!
thanks for sharing so many details (and sweet pictures). i love that God used you to share His blessings with those women and children. i am praising Him tonight!
What an amazing trip! I'm thankful that you have experienced such blessings and spiritual movement in your home away from home!
thank you for sharing this precious time you spent with the people of the Philippines.... reminded me of the Indonesian people in some of the Kampongs.
You truly are a very special person. xx
Wow, what an amazing time! Hey, you do next year, I'm coming :-)
For those that had never seen a white woman before, thanks for setting the high expectations! I sure hope they don't expect all white women to be as BEAUTIFUL as the one they met!
I know you and I don't have the same religious beliefs, but I have to tell you with all my heart, that if we did, you'd definitely be the one I'd turn to for guidance. You are such an amazing person and I truly respect what a strong Christian you are. It flows through you in all that you do. You're FABULOUS, Camille and I love you dearly.
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