These past few weeks in the Philippines have been a bit scattered both ministry and location wise, but I am going to try to sum it up and also highlight a few of my favorite moments!

For ministry, just like the first two weeks, my team and I had prayer walks and house visits spread throughout our days. In addition to our weekly Saturday feedings, we helped out with a feeding in Aroma, the slums of Tondo, where we gathered, played with, and served food to the kids. We helped put on two events with the kids international leaders, both youth focused. The first one was Ministry Expo, a youth ministry outreach event, and the second was Youth Lab, a weekly youth group with games, worship, and a message. For our last week in Tondo, we hosted a few dinners for the moms and their kids in our building, had game nights at the boys and girls homes, and we also got the privilege to do prison ministry!

(Aroma feeding^)

(Moms dinner^)

Prison ministry was by far my favorite ministry experience in Tondo. I was asked to do a teaching, and after praying about what message I should give, I landed on the topic of freedom in Christ. At first, I struggled to figure out what to write because I had no idea if these prisoners had heard the Gospel a hundred times or if they have never heard the name of Jesus. I wrote out a message, not feeling too confident about it, but praying that it would reach their hearts regardless… little did I know that I would be walking into a space full of the most joyful men. There were two rooms, the first with about twenty-five men and the second with only one woman, and we stood in this small area outside of the cells. We worshipped and did a dance with them, and their overwhelming excitement brought me to tears. When it was time to give the message, they were so engaging and receptive, and they even clapped and gave an “Amen!” every few moments. I was filled with pure joy and confidence, all worries about my message were gone, as I shared with these men what it means to be free in Christ. Afterwards, the translator asked me to pray over them and for their hearts to receive Christ. We then gave out bowls of porridge to the prisoners and handed out the extra food to the homeless on the streets. This whole morning was so sweet, and I was so grateful to witness the Lord bless people in so many ways.

(prayer and worship^)

As I mentioned in my last blog, my team and I stayed in Tondo, and we traveled to Cainta to see the other girls team for a few days. We got to participate in their Youth Lab event, as they have them in both locations, and help out in a feeding for the kids in a nearby neighborhood. We went back to Tondo for five more days to close out our time there, and then officially moved to Cainta where we will be living for our last two weeks of ministry.

(our Tondo family^ 🫶🏼 see everyone in featured picture)

(send off!^)

Thank you, as always, for reading, and please reach out if you have any questions or want to know more!

Mo 😊