We left our hotel early this morning and headed to the third and final day of the ICM pastors’ conference. Everything has gone extremely well there, and it has been a joy and priviledge to learn and worship alongside 1,000+ national pastors.
After taking in a few hours of the conference, we ducked out to head to the slums. We began by touring some houses. Above, you see a baby sleeping on the floor. In this one room house live her parents and five older siblings. They have no kitchen and no toilet, just this one simple room.
Early on, we visited one of ICM’s “special medical cases.” They find and fund the medical care of poor Filipinos would not otherwise be treated. The woman pictured above is married and has four sons. She also has stage four cancer. ICM has helped her have two surgeries and will help her receive radiation treatment. We encouraged her family and prayed for her healing. Why don’t you take a moment and pray for her healing and for her family to know Jesus as well?
Harvesting and selling mussells provides a small livelihood for some families.
Unfortunately, eating mussells is unhealthy because of the contaminated water they come from.
Click here to see a video of these mussells (still alive in the bowl):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yW-XwsS-dZ0
If you watch closely, you will see them spitting water in the air!
As we walked through the slums, we visited people, praying for them and encouraging them. Most are participants in ICM’s feeding program. They come weekly for six months for Bible study and hygiene training. In return, they receive 4 kilograms of rice, which equals one meal per day for a family. Local churches do all the training and have seen most of their congregations grow from and average of 15 members to 50 members as a result of feeding programs.
Many families live in houses on stilts above the water.
The little tiny building at the end of the bamboo bridge is the toilet–the only one in the village!
These kids live in the house pictured above (the one with the toilet).
To see a video of our drive away from the slums and through a Filipino village,
click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r18q0AWKu6M
FYI, it’s not edited or anything, just raw footage through our van window.
After our time in the slums, we visited ICM’s Tuberculosis clinic. Every six months, they admit 48 patients. These patients have been found by ICM staff all over the Philippines. During their 6 month stay, they are nursed back to health, fed three meals a day, taught the Bible and taught livelihood skills. Many adults enter the clinic weighing only 70 pounds and just days away from death. Most leave the clinic weighing more than 100 pounds, knowing Jesus as their Savior and with skill that prepare them to begin a new life.
This girl shared a testimony of how she was saved from TB and came to know Jesus.
She and the patients you see behind her are all 4 months into their treatment program.
After several testimonies, they also sang us a song. To hear it, click here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bYki4UFZQA
I spent my afternoon with these three TB patients.
You would hardly believe it, but they are ages twenty-five, thirty-four and twenty-two.
After the TB clinic, we returned to the pastor’s conference and sat in on the last two sessions. Then I had time for a quick nap before myself and two others took a bunch of ICM staff kids out to dinner. ICM staff are almost entirely Filipino. Most of the families lived in the slums or on the street before ICM took them in. Somewhere along the lines, they came on staff as well. These are their children. What a joy to spend the evening with them!
ICM Youth Dinner
Tomorrow morning, we head to the mountains for a staff retreat with the ICM pastors. Pray that we will be able to encourage them and also that the Lord would make any connections He desires between them and us. It is entirely possible that we will eventually bring in AIM teams to work with some of their churches. Thank you very much!!
