Missionaries

Praying for each of our missionaries today.  The fourth team member left this morning and will arrive in Cebu tomorrow evening.

An update from The Philippines

Jonathan, Michelle and Pam have not had access to the internet in a few weeks.  Thank you for your patience with updates.  Below are bits of info Michelle placed on her blog today.

"The kids are such a blessing. Little Katherine was sad the other night because she misses her family. Being the youngest, it is probably harder for her to adjust than it is for the older ones. Mrs. Pam went with her to her room as she cried. Then when she came back downstairs, I gave her a big hug and told her it would be okay. I held her for a minute and told her I loved her. I could see the tears welling up in her eyes as I spoke. Has she ever been told that someone loves her? I then just held her for a few minutes. Mrs. Pam and I (and I’m sure Jonathan as well) believe she needs lots of love and attention, and she may not be getting that right now. So I will be sure to spend more quality time with her."

"I also upset little John Lloyd that same night. Earlier that day, he brought a huge bug inside the orphanage and showed it to me. I of course screamed, "Dili!" (No!) and told him to take it back outside! I was joking when I said it (I mean, I really did want him to take it outside, but I did not mean to be rude to him). A while later, as several of the kids and I were laughing inside, I saw his little head through the window of the front door. I told him to come inside, but he just bent down and hid. When I went outside to see what was the matter, Jeraluz said he was upset that he had scared me with the bug. He shrank down low on the ground, and as Jeraluz was telling me what was wrong, he ran into a dark corner outside the orphanage and hid. I felt awful! My little, precious John Lloyd was upset that he had scared me! I wish I could go back in time and change my reaction to the bug; I just felt absolutely awful!"

"The kids love Frisbee, especially John Lloyd. We brought two Frisbees with us, and John Lloyd is always asking us to play with him. He also loves to take pictures and for someone to take a picture of him. He has two main poses. One is him smiling and putting two fingers around his face, a common pose in the Philippines. The other main one is him standing as straight as he can, hands by his side, looking as serious as he can. He’s so precious!"

"As for future plans, Saturday we plan to do a feeding at the dumpsites. We think we may give out pre-packed bags of school supplies and snacks, as well as a Cebuano Bible to each family. Please be in prayer for us as we do that. We will also be looking for 2 more kids to live at the orphanage. Arnell has expressed that it is our decision to choose those 2 kids! That's pretty crazy, so please pray that the Spirit leads us in that decision. We also plan to visit the Camodes Islands Thursday, so that should be an adventure! Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we seek the Father's guidance on what His will is for us here. It seems to be a day-by-day thing! But we have had many wonderful opportunities to love on the kids at the orphanage, and Glenn and John Michael have so many questions for Jonathan about the Bible! Please keep him in your prayers, that the Spirit may fill and guide him as he teaches the oldest kids in the orphanage. The younger kids look up to the oldest boy, which is Glenn, so it is wonderful and a super God-thing that he is seeking to lead them in the right direction! He knows that the kids look up to him, and he has expressed that he wants to teach and lead them in the best way possible, which is why he is seeking knowledge about the Bible. It is very encouraging to see his desire."

Thank you for keeping up to date on Wesley Home, the children and the missionaries.  I will do my best to update you as much as possible.

Thankful, Sheryl

Updates....

Jonathan, Michelle and Pam have only been on the ground in The Philippines for a few days, but they have been very busy.  

They had the opportunity to visit each of the Wesley kids' families.  They described Daisy's home as the size of a closet.  While Daisy's father is imprisoned her mother and three children still live in this home.  Jonathan mentioned he is unsure of how they could even find floor space for each of them to sleep at night.  Jonathan stood outside while they chatted because there wasn't enough room.  But she was so happy they came to visit.

Jonathan has enjoyed getting to spend one on one time with Glenn, the oldest of the boys. He loves the story of Lazarus. Glenn has been reading the Bible Dustin gave him in January and is hungry to learn more.

****UPDATE****

Pam is currently in the hospital as of about 24 hrs ago.  She has an infection in her leg and is getting antibiotics.  The doctors expect her to recover quickly.  Please pray for her health and strength.

Satan is fighting this mission to the extreme.  Please lift them up before God.

Thankful, Sheryl

Dreaming

This past weekend, my son and I went to the mall and watched the new Shrek movie.  Though the plot was simple, it was quite interesting.  The movie starts with Shrek doing duties of a father..annoyed that he can't even take a nice mud bath without interruption.  For the first 15 minutes it is about friends, family, those closest to Shrek...annoying him with questions, comments, tasks to do etc. etc.  Finally Shrek has enough and busts out of the house where the whole community had gathered together to celebrate the 1 year birthday of his 3 kids.  Shrek, out of frustration, tells his wife how he wishes life was back to normal where he didn't have so much responsibility and he could just be an ogre where people were afraid of him and thought he was disgusting.  Long movie short; Rumpelstiltskin hears Shrek, get's Shrek alone, and has him sign a deal where Shrek can be an ogre for a day...the problem for Shrek was getting what he wanted for a day, cost him his family, his friends and everything that he worked for the past 3 films of Shrek life.  

Dreams/life is interesting to me.... from pretty much day one...we are working, striving for something...aren't we?  Our first car, our first house, true love...I will be happy if I just have financial freedom...I will be happy when I get married and have kids.  My dreams will come true once I graduate from college...and so we pursue and chase.... AND we have our wedding ceremony, our graduation ceremony, our signing on the lease of our car/mortgage...and then we live with that person for (hopefully) years to come...and we pursue a job that our diploma declares we are ready for...and live in our homes that need repair and lawns to be mowed....as we continue to pursue....a nicer, bigger, better, different...pursue pursue pursue......I wonder when we stop pursuing?  I wonder what is enough?  I wonder when we have the insight of Sheryl Crow who sings; "It's not getting what you want but wanting what you got"  and then Sheryl enjoys the simplicity of soaking up some sun.

I wonder what you pursue?  I sometimes wonder why people even read a blog about kids that are as far away as a person could potentially be from East TN.  Sometimes I wonder why you even care?  I don't know too many people who want to hear sad stories of kids starving, living in shacks (if they have one), being sold into slavery or prostitution...I mean...as you are going about your day; with your own kids running around...what makes you want to know about these kids who don't have fathers?? 

It's father's day today.  Pretty cool... I don't have a clue what it would be like not to have a father.  My dad has been around my whole life, if I don't know how to fix stuff, he fixes it...still to this day.  He took me to church, read the Bible to me, showed me what was important in a man's life and how to prioritize a man's dreams.  That is pretty awesome father stuff... I hope I live long enough to do that with my own son.

So as I am doing all this wondering....I wonder what these street children who live in a dump site dream of?  You know, my son dreams of owning a Monster Truck and going to Disney World and getting a Monster Spectacle on a Nintendo DS game he has.  I can relate to my son...but I can't relate to these street children.  Do they dream of not being raped?  Or, having a big meal, or feeling accepted or loved?  I truly don't know the answer, but for some reason I don't think they do to be honest with you.  I think that what they experience every day is what they have come to know as life.  That their life of living on the street simply includes the horrific things.  I think their dreams are not too different...I think they WANT to be famous basketball players or famous boxers...or even movie stars....you know the unrealistic dreams; but unlike us...the normal things that you pursue and obtain...and then dream is VASTLY different.  The normal way of life is not getting married, having a family, going to college, getting a car, getting a house etc. etc. etc.  That simply doesn't happen.  This is a city of millions of people....with 90% without a house or car...that is just for the rich.  I mean; what are the odds that one day as you are doing your normal routine of picking through the trash for something to sell that someone half way around the world would offer to give you something to eat....that they would say you could live in a HOUSE...and that they would pay for you to go to college.  Those types of things never happen...and if they do they come with a cost of being in slavery or being abused.  I mean, who offers you these things without a hook?  without a catch?  ...that certainly happened to Shrek...he was able to be an ogre for a day...but it cost him everything that he had.

I wonder what you are hoping for out of your life?  Jesus talked about our wants.  He called them treasures.  He said that whereever your treasures are that it is a reflection of your heart.  Because you put your heart into your treasures.  And boy do we.  We put out hearts into our work so that we can get that swimming pool, ..so we can go on that vacation.  We want to get those new clothes so people will accept us and think we look cool.  And then eventually we look at retiring..so we save and we prepare...and then we retire so that we can...uhm..fish, shop, spend time with grand kids etc etc...so that...according to Jesus...moth, rust, the elements of this world will pretty much destroy all of that stuff..and then we will die and erode away...and well...that's the end of the story.  That's a pretty stinky way to think about life if you ask me.  Pursue your dreams...get all of this stuff...and then it erodes.  End of story??  Thankfully Jesus does give us an alternative. 

According to Jesus we can store up treasures in heaven.  At the sake of not sounding sacrilegious but how in the world do you go about storing a treasure in heaven?  Do you pray?  Do you go to church?  Do you give money to some Filipino?  I mean...how do you do this?  If I understand Jesus correctly (and this could be a pretty big IF)...a believer can join God in what He is doing and work to build His Kingdom.  Right before that Jesus was praying what is called the Lord's prayer which talks about Thy Kingdom Come, Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven...that...we can be a part of building the Kingdom of God.

So...how does all that I have been writing about make any kind of sense?  Well... I believe my point is ...that we pursue dreams that mean nothing.  And sometimes when we pursue them...everything that we have that is good...that God has given us...well...we could lose....because we get so wrapped up in pursuing...we forget to live and experience the life that we have been given.  Once we slow down a little bit to live; we might realize that how we are living and what we are pursuing are not the right things.  And if we get that far in our thinking, we might start thinking about the meaning of life and purpose.  Now, if we slow down long enough to think about that..then we might remember our Saviour, our life giver...and that a life of meaning and purpose is probably through God.  Now...I am hoping that we then get to wrestling with ourselves and God to the point that we want to Build His Kingdom.  And as we pursue...we see people at our work who need an ear; we encounter senior citizens who need a ride to the store...we see our children as gifts and not as annoying...and our spouses as partners who God has given us to serve Him alongside...and our eyes are opened to kingdom building...and then a blog about kids being prostituted, harmed and neglected are no longer a sad story, but suddenly their lives give us an opportunity to build His Kingdom.  ...their dreams become important to us...because like us..they were dreaming about the wrong things too....they were dreaming about getting stuff as well...and being actors, and maybe having a meal, or not being harmed...but that isn't what it is about either.  Whether we are being harmed or safe...whether we are rich or poor....regardless of what we are dreaming of....the point is to first encounter our God, our Saviour...and then to build His Kingdom so that it can be filled with His creation.  I hope you join me...that we can dream together, that our treasures can be the same...and those who have not heard of Jesus...or His Kingdom...may hear...so they can walk by our side and join us on our journey...that a street child...can share with other children about a Kingdom..another place....and together.....Jesus' name will be known and our lives here in America and in the Philippines will make sense.  That we won't ask why we have so much or why they have so little...but we will ask where and how God is working...and how we can join Him in order to advance His Kingdom.

In the words of Gump...that is all I gotta say about that.

Peace, Dustin

Jeepney

The Jeepney has arrived!  

A huge THANK YOU to our friend JIM SHIPP for your financial contribution that made it possible for us to have transportation for the kids at Wesley Home for Youth!

Word

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.  Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 12:1-2

Please Pray!

In a few days three team members from The Rescue Ministries will fly into Cebu, Philippines. They will be there for about one month and will be joined in a couple of weeks by another team member.  Please pray for their safety and God's guidance.  Pray that God will use them in unexpected ways to further the good of the Wesley Home and His kingdom.

We make goals, but God has plans which we do not know.  He sees the past, present and the future.  He knows the plans He has for us. (Jer 29:11)

I am sure you would enjoy knowing more about the kids....the info will be posted as soon as I receive it through these folks.  The communication has been slow due to the amount of work being done in The Philippines to get staff in place, taking care of government paperwork and day-to-day teaching and needs of the children.  Thank you for your patience.  God Bless You!

Thankful, Sheryl

Word

In Ephesians, God's word tells us how much he desires us, he knew us before creation and blessed us with a great inheritance.  Yet in the very next chapter of Ephesians, it is made clear that we are not holy or blameless on our own (not of ourselves). 

He chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. 
Ephesians 1:4

By grace you have been saved, through faith -- and this not from yourselves, it is a gift from God -- not by works, so that no one can boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9



Thankful, Sheryl

Jocen!

Jocen has returned to Wesley Home for Youth!  Here is a bit of a reminder on Jocen from an earlier post.....

After the service we were fellowshiping with everyone and there were two boys who were really alot of fun. They were doing flips, hitting each other, playing, jumping, and the team fell in love with them. After a few minutes of interaction we realized that one boy could not hear and he could not speak. He loved to hit the drums and make noises/sounds. The other boy the same age (they both appear to be about the age of my son, 4) interpreted for him; they seemed to have their own language. The pastor shared that the boys were missing for 3 weeks, that they go out playing in the streets, eatting trash, begging, and using drugs. The mute boy's parents will tie a chain around his leg to keep him from leaving the home. The boy had several cigarette burns where people burned him; he had a place under his mouth that was an open sore where he had been huffing glue. The pastor did not have a resource in the community to offer....until there came Sunday and a group of white folks from East TN happened to come to his worship service unannounced and unknown to pastor Nick.


Jocen currently does not have a sponsor.  Please pray about becoming his sponsor today.  I will post more information soon.


Thankful, Sheryl