Preparation and Follow-Up

January 12 2015 / ShareHim in Philippines - Manila, May. 2 - May. 17 '14 #649
by Heinz A. Volk


Campaign Site Narrative from Bagong Silang Sda Church, Muntinlupa City in Philippines - Manila. The speaker assigned to this site was Heinz A. Volk.

Whenever I go on a ShareHim trip, I like to get information ahead of time about the place where I will be going. Muntinlupa City, I was told, was the heart of Manila’s slum. It was also the home of three state prisons. But more importantly, it was the site of a newly fledged congregation, Bagong Silang SDA, which had received church status only 2 weeks earlier.

Poverty and malnutrition go hand in hand. As I was allowed 2 suitcases, I filled one with shelled walnuts and dehydrated apples from our orchard, as well as several boxes of ziplock bags for easy distribution.

The “church” where the members met was an upstairs room in the head elders’ home. Since it was not big enough for visitors, we moved into a fenced-in school yard. This meant setting up and taking things down again every evening. After the preliminaries and Jesus video, the children had to leave so that the adults could sit down. The children could still see though, peering between the metal bars of the fence. And with loudspeakers, everyone on the street could hear.

The screen on which the video and graphics were projected was small and torn, but it was all they had. A friend had given me some money to use at my discretion, so I bought another screen, larger and more stable. Then the church projector used to show the Jesus video quit working. We used my projector for the remainder of the series.

In talking with the head elder, I found out that he had a dream of starting a street ministry when the series was finished. I discussed it with my wife, who was speaking at another site, and we agreed to leave my projector there to help with the street ministry. We also left some puppets and scripts that could be used for a children’s program.

Since coming home, I was delighted to see pictures on Facebook that show the projector and screen being used. Though I am no longer there, I am glad that I was able to have a little part in the follow-up that is going on.
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