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Stair Songs
7/12/09
We are almost done with mid-project retreat in Baguio.
Worship, manuscript Bible studies, quiet space, and laughter together have filled this long weekend. We left Manila Wednesday night on a public bus. Earlier that evening, we all sadly said goodbye to our teammate Mike, who had to stay behind at the hospital with pneumonia.
What does it mean to try to identify with the urban poor in Manila? This is the question that we are wrestling with. Tuesday the Onesimo guys on our team (Aaron, Aaron, Chris and A.J.) got to visit the homes of the new boys in their centers. ‘Home visits’ are intense; they found themselves walking along rickety bamboo pathways over sewage water.
Homes were tiny, and they had no running water. Garbage was everywhere, along with mud from the recent rains. It is hard to imagine living in neighborhoods like these; and the stark poverty of the boys’ homes makes the Onesimo centers seem like mansions!
What would it be like to live in a squatter’s shack over the sludge waters of Manila? Living at Onesimo changes these youth’s lives. What would it be like get three meals a day, knowing your family is still homeless, your siblings scavenging the streets?
One of the girls at my Onesimo center told me about her dad showing up drunk last weekend, asking for money. She had tears in her eyes, “It made me remember life before.” Her brother had arrived with her father as well, and she said, “I am so sad – so sad because my brother is very dirty. And he tells me that they are all very hungry. No money for food and no home.”
She reminded me of the poor widow in Scriptures who gave her last coins to God. She gave her father the only money she had (fifty cents) and her merienda for the day. She teaches me about the meaning of generosity.
We continue to form relationships with the people at our ministry sites. Jenn told us about the highlight of her week: chore time with the women at Samaritana.
The woman that Jenn was assigned to work with is quieter than the others. They proceeded to wash floors together. As they came to stairs that were too narrow to wash side by side, the woman asked Jenn to sing for her while she washed. So there Jenn sat, singing song after song as the stairs were cleaned.
Jenn smiles as she tells this story, pointing out that she was even sick at the time so her voice did not sound very good.
However, each time Jenn finished a song, the woman asked her to sing another! This simple act of singing for forty-five minutes built a friendship between them. The woman came to trust Jenn, and started talking to her about her life.
Everyone on our team has stories of deepening relationships, and we are grateful for how God is teaching us through our new friends.
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