Day 8. No toe trucks today.

The day began in a quite unusual manner. At 7:15am, the song "Live my Life" began blaring through our windows as the Friday morning Zumba class began just  outside the ministry centre. On a day when we were hoping to have a bit of a sleep in, the music was not a welcome wake up call.
We all began the day with construction, but as a number of the gloves have been misplaced, some of the girls went into the Children's home to play with the young children and make them balloon animals. The group split and half of us went to do feeding in a place called Angon. After all the food was gone and we had made balloon animals for the kids, we wandered around the community for a while. In our walks we met many people and chatted to them, including a lady with  a baby of the age of 1 month. One of the most challenging things we have had to deal with during this trip is seeing children at such a young age suffering and knowing that our help for them is limited. When you talk to the people and get to know them, your heart goes out to them as you see them as individuals rather than just a group of people suffering and in need of help. This is the point in which you come to the realisation that our arms are only so big and we can only reach so many people in the time we are here. While it is devastating knowing we can't help everyone, the smile that lights up on a child's face after giving them a balloon animal or a pipe cleaner toy makes it a worth it. Even though we feel what we are doing is inadequate, these acts is what provides the people with hope because they see that we care.

After lunch we proceeded with the final stage of deconstruction in preparation for construction tomorrow. Knowing that this building is going to bless so many people provides an incentive for us to keep going even when we are tired, hot and dipping in sweat. God it definitely looking after us, as three of the boys at different times have trodden on nails, with the nails going through their shoe, but managing to miss their foot and instead going in between their toes. The great thing was that all of the boys acknowledged God's protection rather than luck.

As usual in the Philippines plans change rather frequently, so you couldn't expect any less when it came to our basketball game this afternoon. Rehoboth joined with the children's home while Cuatro Christian School joined with the community team to play a game of four 10 minute quarters. Overall it was a great game to watch but Cuatro and the community maintained their lead from the first half to take the win, with a score of 56.



After dinner, the devotion at the children's home was about creation and the yellow team used balloons and pipe cleaners to represent the seven days of creation. The team made the link between creation and that God makes each of us unique. We then read and/or played with the children before returning to the ministry centre.
Back at the ministry centre, we had a debrief and devotion, where Mr Price challenge us to consider whether we are struggling with temptation or giving in. This comes down to what we idolise in our life, but we have seen in the Philippines, how the people main propriety is life, not money or possessions.
A trip to Starbucks for a coffee was a fun way to end the day by spending time with the one another and enjoying the simple act of laughing.

Sorry for not writing a message for you guys sooner. I have been having a great time and miss you all a lot. - Luke

Parentals from my sincerest heart I sorrow for not saying that this trip is absolutely amazing and truly inspirational, but now it is done and I probs won't do it again. Ciao and love, Jesse.

Bought to you by the sweet taste of the green princess.