Miracles in Manila

Sorting through hundreds of pictures, reading back over dozens of pages in my journal, mentally recapping the images and stories from the week. All this material and yet, I have absolutely no idea how to tell you about the week I just had. When Nick dropped me off at the airport last Saturday I was ready but nervous. I had no idea how our long-anticipated trip to The Philippines would turn out... if everything would go as planned, if there were surprises in store, if (or when) some of our team would get sick (since that seemed inevitable), and my biggest worry of all, whether or not the trip would even be worth it all.

My worries were given a bit of a jolt the moment I showed up at the airport in Guam. Most of our team members were already there and some had already gone to the counter to check bags, only to find out that Continental was suddenly going to charge us $30 each for our second checked bag. I called them back in March specifically to find out what our baggage allotment was and was told two free bags at 50 pounds each. But because of the merger with United, that policy had changed recently and since we had only ticketed our seats two weeks before, we had to abide by the new policy (despite having reserved the seats six months ago). No exceptions. Almost everyone had a second bag full of supplies we had collected to donate or use in our service projects. So with $300 (each way) in baggage fees looming at the first moments of the trip, I was forcing myself to stay calm. Our group name, after all, is Go with the Flow.

We immediately got to work consolidating what we could into fewer bags. Luckily we had one silver and one gold Elite member who could check bags for free. A couple of people have the Continental credit card, which brought a few more free bag spots. It was looking like we were only going to have to pay for 2 or 3 bags when a Continental manager told us that because one of our members was Gold elite, they could put up to 9 people with 3 bags each on his itinerary for free. So in the end, we didn't pay a cent for the checked bags. That was miracle number one, and a small one compared to how the rest of the week went.

Coleman & Cheyenne in jail

After a three-hour nonstop flight to Manila, we landed, went through customs and had our second big glitch. Two of our youth team members were traveling without their parents there and both got stuck at immigration. Apparently you cannot travel to The Philippines as a minor (under 15) without your parents. Who knew? The good news was all we had to do was pay a fee and it was suddenly okay to be a minor traveling without parents (sketchy policy). The bad news was the fee was 3,100 pesos per youth. I ran to the bank to exchange money and returned to bail our helpless teenagers out of "jail." We paid the $150 fee (ouch!), collected our bags, and left the airport to meet up with Sean and Deling, our friends from the Lutheran Church there, who we found relatively easily. Needless to say I was glad to get out of airports after a rocky start to the trip on both ends.

We arrived at our dorms just before midnight, got situated and went to sleep. With our AC on full blast and just a tiny blanket over me, I froze and hardly got any sleep that night. I awoke that Sunday morning dazed, exhausted, and still bewildered at the thought of an entire week of potential glitches, wondering just how costly or inconvenient they would be. And as the group's leader, the weight of the responsibility seemed to be resting on my shoulders.

Thankfully, our first destination in Manila was a church service at Faith Marikina Lutheran Church. It was an absolutely adorable little church. Months ago Sean had asked our group to prepare a skit and a few songs to do in church. We aren't any kind of performing group, so this skit seemed like a bit of a headache to come up with. I wanted the youth to have the stage, but knew we wouldn't have time before the trip to memorize lines or practice anything to perfection. A new friend of mine at church named Heather suggested we do a skit about Creation, where we read the Genesis verses starting with a black canvas and one by one add different pieces of the creation story until the canvas is filled with life. I loved the idea for both its simplicity and universality. We wouldn't have to memorize lines, and I figured Christians from all over of all ages could appreciate the telling of this particular story. So we ran with it. I had my mom send out her large Velcro canvas she used to use in professional presentations. I got a team of trip youth and Guam friends to help make Creation shapes. Our youth practiced the skit a week before we left and did it at our church as a children's sermon. Poof, we had a skit.

All this preparation and the day we were leaving for Manila I saw I had an overlooked Skyped conversation with Sean asking what our skit was about. He eluded that the pastor wasn't sure if we were going to actually do it during the service or not. It would depend on what it was about. So I left for Manila less than thrilled that we had done all of this preparation and possibly wouldn't even do the skit after all that. Imagine my surprise, now, upon talking to the Pastor that morning before the service. He asked what our skit was about and I told him it was the first chapter and some of Genesis. He said that happened to be the Old Testament reading for the morning (?!) so we could just do our skit in lieu of the reading.

This, for me, was the turning point of the trip. Of all the Bible passages in the Old Testament, we showed up that Sunday with a skit that used the exact same verses as the Lutheran Church's chosen verses for the week, completely by coincidence. As I passed on my astonishment to the others, Sean said he wasn't surprised at all, at which point, I had my "aha" moment (at a church named Faith no less). From here on out, I knew God's hand was on our trip and that everything, regardless of glitches, would work out okay. My job was to enjoy having Him on the trip with us and make sure others did too. And just like that, on our first morning of our first day, miracle number two.

It poured down rain that afternoon spoiling our plans to go to Tagaytay City, an outdoorsy area outside of Manila that boasts great views of a volcano. The idea was we would go with some of the young people from Faith Church so we could hang out with them. Instead we did what Filipinos do when it rains. We loaded up and went to a massive shopping mall. We were able to bring about a dozen of the Faith youth with us. This was the first of many Plan B's that happened throughout the week because of the torrential rain that spun off of two separate tropical storms. This week's weather made Guam's rainy season look like San Diego's.

Monday morning we loaded up for our first day at the orphanage Concordia Childrens Services. We spent the morning holding babies, playing with toddlers, and entertaining some of the older kids who live there and weren't in school because of the national holiday for Rizal's birthday. After two hours of getting to know them, they were put down for their naps and the orphanage's dear headmaster, Ate Beth (Auntie Beth), gave us an introduction to CCS. During her talk we found out the three ways children find their way in an orphanage like theirs. They are either surrendered at birth by the mother who chooses to give them up. They are discovered abandoned and brought to a hospital. Or they are rescued from parents who have proven to harm their children.

Cheyenne and miracle Rachel

That morning we had been playing with all three types of cases. Many of the babies had been surrendered. Two of the kids had been taken from their parents after their parents put them in plastic bags to keep them from the rain, nearly suffocating them. One of the boys still has bad asthma as a result. And perhaps the most sad was hearing about the children who had been abandoned. It was then that Ate Beth told us this little three-month-old Rachel had been found in a garbage dump as an infant. A worker happened to walk by and hear something crying. He found her in a plastic bag with the afterbirth, but luckily in time for a hospital to save her. She ended up at CCS where she spent the morning smiling and cooing in Cheyenne's arms. Miracle number three.

Happy baby :)

At that point we realized that every child in that place---all 15 of them are miracles. Not having mothers to love them, there is no reason they should be alive right now. Thanks to CCS, they are not only living but thriving. I didn't see a single runny nose in that orphanage. Not a spot of diaper rash. Those babies were spotless and well fed, nurtured and loved. It was the only thing to lift my spirits once I started thinking about the baby in my arms that has no family. At least he ended up here.

I was talking to Ate Beth when she showed me a card that came in the mail... an update from a little girl who had been adopted from there when she was 3. The 14 year-old girl named Ella now lives in Tennessee and the included Christmas photo showed us a beautiful, confident young lady who was part of a loving family. It gave me hope that these babies do have families out there, they just haven't been paired yet. And perhaps the God who orchestrates small miracles like a skit matching a Bible passage was already working on these bigger ones, creating families who would one day hold these tiny hands, wash these tiny feet, and kiss these tiny faces.

Until then, for the short time we were there, our youth did an incredible job standing in as family. Watching them pass these babies around, feed them, play games with them, even change diapers, I could not have been more proud of their diligence in showing love. In a very real way, they were the hands of Christ this past week. And there was even some evidence that they grew from this experience. One of our eighth grade boys started out the day saying he didn't feel comfortable holding babies. At the end of the day, I found him looking like this:

Arthur and Mia Claire

There were even more miracles this week. We had no transportation issues all week (which if you've ever seen the driving in The Philippines, this is definitely a miracle!). No one got sick from the food (despite trying many adventurous things... pigs ears and meat marinaded in blood, yum). In fact, I have lost count of the miracles thus far, but will add one last reflection from this part of the week. Each evening back at the dorm we had a time for reflection on the day and broke into small discussion groups. Monday's theme was faith, so our talk focused on that. I asked our teenagers a rather tough question towards the end: "How can serving others help your faith to grow?" Cheyenne, who enters high school in the fall, made the comment that got me thinking about all of this. She said something like, "It's because on trips like this you witness miracles, and miracles help our faith to grow because they remind us that God is there." A well stated observation from the girl who spent the day with a miracle in her arms.

All these miracles and I'm only on Monday, our first workday. It was a powerful week and I'm sure you know that more is on the way. I have to soak up these recaps as much as I can because much like our youth, I don't want the trip to end either. Hard to believe it already has which makes me appreciate the opportunity to relive it all here and share all of these stories and miracles with you.