Tuesday 29th KIM Smokey Mountain Morning Feeding
Today was going to be a very long day. A visit to Smokey Mountain and Happy Valley
We started out at 07.15 after breakfast at 05.45, travelling by Vans to the Train station, we would take the train to Tondo. The train station was very busy and the train which went to Tondo (Terminus) was very warm, the temperature even at that early hour was in the high 30’s. As we travelled by train it became clear that as we got further and further the area became poorer and poorer. Exiting the station the air was thick with a strange smell, and we proceeded by Jeepney to the Christ Power and Grace Church and we were greeted by Pastor Romello He explained to us what to expect (some of our group had been here before) and not to be too disheartened, but to think about what we were doing there and the joy that the children received from us being there.
We would be having lunch after the visit to Smokey Mountain so leaving the small converted mission church we wove our way through the slums and the people who live there. This is much different from the visit we made yesterday. Where we were going to climb up onto the landfill site there was a man and daughter producing charcoal, dirty black work. There used to be a charcoal factory but this closed down some years ago. The street slum children seemed to be everywhere, and some of the mountain kids came to see us climb up. We carried up containers of Hot Rice and also Luncheon Meat, this we were going to feed the children. Also taken up were containers of water, soap and towels. Before we fed the it was our duty to wash the children, faces and hands and trim their nails. You will see from the photos just how dirty these children were, but they were all full of smiles….. just like all the street kids we have seen, every one smiling!!
It was quite amazing to see their faces as they queued to have their faces washed with soap and water, smiling as they dried off and then then went to have their nails trimmed.
I was lucky to be asked to be drying their faces after being washed, and their smiles could just melt your heart, wiping the water from their smiling faces, it was a very special moment. Following this we then fed them, such a satisfying thing to do, it was an incredible couple of hours ……The children were expecting us and we didn’t let them down. Blowing balloons and making shapes for them, it was like they were receiving so much happiness from us with just a simple balloon…….. These families have no means of accessing any help from the Government because there is no help. We look at their plight from the view of our lives not theirs, is it really a struggle for them or is US that would struggle? Their lives have been like this for years, generations, and it does not look like anything will ever change but they are only looking at the day in hand, knowing that tomorrow and every day after will be the same.
What KIM do here in Manila is amazing and even though it is big gestures, they are making a difference :-) The children are at least being fed. The children are again filthy and dogs and cats multiplying at the same speed as the young mothers giving birth. There seem to be no laws on sex, and if a young girl can become pregnant then she will and for the next 20 years she will be a baby machine. As sad as that sounds, it is a way of life. These people have been living here for generations and indeed they will for generations to come. They are not sad, this simply is, their life, and from Dawn to Dusk they just spend every day trying to survive. The great work that the local Pastors do, allow them to go into these slums and preach the gospel, I feel that hearing it from complete strangers, in for a week, and then leave, could be a little condescending…. Right or Wrong food for thought
Although we may think that these people are very unhappy and it is an obvious observation, they actually aren’t, this is their life. I was asked by Jeff Long, the founder and main man at Kids International Ministries said to me after the feeding trip to Tent City “You need to prepare yourself for tomorrow, Smokey Mountain is very hard and Happy Valley is very very much worse, some people who go there find it very difficult” I pondered this during the evening and was mentally prepared. This helped a lot because when we arrived at Smokey Mountain I was able to concentrate more on what we were doing than look at the situation and problems from the perspective of someone who lives a million miles away from this lifestyle. I actually found Smokey Mountain and Happy Valley, although extremely disturbing, to be very rewarding and my thoughts were very much more positive than the day before. I received warmth and felt encouraged for them. Some may say that God has overlooked these people in Manila and also other similar situations throughout the world, but remember Mathew 5:5 “The meek shall inherit the earth” These people know and need God in their lives and they will be welcomed into Heaven, and they will be the “wealthiest The “Wealthiest” now, who perhaps feel they don’t need God may indeed feel the lives of the poorest people here on earth now….. it is a powerful thought
Mathew 5 :3 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven…………….
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