Wednesday-Thursday, June 6-7, 2018—Bethesda Independent Baptist Church: Lupang Pangako Elementary School, SM City Fairview Mall
Luke 18:16, “But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.”
From last week’s ministry at the Subic Bay Children’s Home, we’ve been reminded how important it is to minister to children. Throughout our daily and hectic schedules of trying to accomplish something “for” God, sometimes we neglect the opportunity to “be” with God by spending time with the people whom He loves–children. For the last couple of days, we truly have had wonderful opportunities to be a blessing to the children.
It all started on Wednesday morning as we headed over to the church around 8:00 am for breakfast. The Lord allowed a brand new dormitory/hotel to be built right next to the church which has been our living quarters (please pray for the owners Ramon and Chynne that they would begin attending Pastor Arvin’s church and come toknow the Lord as their Savior). 
Therefore, as we meet at the church each morning, it is a one minute walk from our rooms over to the church which is a blessing. This morning (along with Thursday morning), we were greeted with an wonderful breakfast of eggs, sausage, bread/butter/jam, coffee, and juice. While we waited for breakfast to be served, we began to meet the children from their Children’s Home including Roger—a spunky little 2-3 year old that the Tulabots have adopted as their own.A common world-wide language to win over the hearts of children that you’ve never met is with animal balloons; therefore, we began to give out animal balloons to the children which seemed to instantly provide a bond of friendship. [Warning #1: Giving out animal balloons to children too early in the morning might not be the best idea as it does get them riled up a little!] Nonetheless, it was a great way to welcome them into our lives and show them that we loved them. After breakfast, we spent time playing with them which they (and we) really enjoyed! [Warning #2: When there are toys around, keep an eye out for Coty as we found out he does have soft spot for playtime!]
Our time would be spent today going to the Lupang Pangako Elementary School to do a program for the children. One of cool things throughout the trip were the Jeepneys–these World War II jeeps have been converted into elongated taxis. Today, we would get to ride in one as we headed off to the school which was near the Payatas Landfill area.
As a side note: Driving anywhere in the Philippines (particularly in the metro-Manila area of 24 million people) was quite the sight as every road was a conglomerated mixture of chaos that reminded one of an ant hill or a beehive after you’ve thrown a rock at it. 
Throw in construction, a lack of intersection traffic lights, beeping horns, buses, trucks, cars, jeepneys, motorcycle trikes, and pedestrians and you’ve got people all converging into everyone’s lanes and crossing major intersections ALL without any accidents! One thing that was interesting as we drove all throughout the Philippines was the eerie presence of the Iglesia Ni Christo churches in every major section of the city. This church, where each one is identical to the other, is the fastest growing “religion” in the Philippines.
As we drove down the road closer to the school, we just couldn’t figure out how our jeepney was going to get through the crowd of people, but eventually we did. Upon arriving to the school, the children were brought out to the Assembly area until there were around 200. Just like back at church, the universal language of animal balloons got the kids intrigued and excited about who these “white” people were that were visiting their school. The Principal of the School welcomed us and seemed really appreciative that we would take the time to visit his school. Miss Rachel began our program by introducing our team and led the children in a couple of songs. Sam then gave the wordless book Bible story clearly explaining the plan of salvation after which Pastor Arvin reiterated the story in Tagalog just to make sure they understood. Upon the conclusion of our time, each student was brought up on stage and given a present from Pastor Tulabot’s church consisting of school supplies (pencils, crayons, book, tract, etc.). Although we weren’t sure how much the children understood what they heard, we do know from God’s Word that we have the promise in Isaiah 55:11 that God’s Word won’t return void! So already today, we’ve had a couple of “little” ministries to the “little” ones.
For Thursday, we would have another unique opportunity to minister to the “little” ones. Due to the approaching typhoon and the rain that it was bringing, when it is raining and there is nothing to do, what is a person to do? …what else but go out shopping at the Mall! What was unique about this opportunity is that both our group and several children from the Children’s Home would be going to the Mall to spend some quality time together. 
As we arrived at the SM City Fairview Mall, our team and the children split up into about 4-5 groups and spent the next 3-4 hours spending time together and just having some fun! Although going to the local mall might not seem like an important ministry, this was probably one of the highlights of our trip to Quezon City as it was such a joy to see how happy the children were as we loved on them treating them to various mall amusements, lunch, and dessert. As Pastor Arvin told us after the fact, the children would remember this special occasion for a very long time!
Over the last couple of days, we’ve learned an important truth of ministering toothers and particularly children: God is not interested in the quantity of activities that takes place; rather, He is interested in the quality of time and interaction that takes place. Ministering to these “little” ones was such a blessing to us as children are so near and dear to the heartbeat of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ; therefore, they became near and dear to us.
PS: If you’ve been reading these last few “regressive” updates, this brings us to the end of our trip and the end of our 2018 Team Philippines Updates. What a blessed trip we’ve had as God has worked in our hearts and used our team to work in the lives of others. When Pastor JR is finished with our trip video, we will let you know as you DEFINITELY want to see that. God bless to all our friends in the Philippines as well as to all of you who have been praying and have given financially. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you!
With Much Love and Appreciation,
Team Philippines
