A typical day in Welfareville...

Today we spent in the large Urban Poor area known as Welfareville.

First, Kathryn and Erica went off to preschool (the BL Child Development Centre), and spent the morning playing with the kids there and learning some more Tagalog words.

Cameron went to the basketball court where he met some of the local youth, heard some amazing testimonies and played some amazingly intense basketball.
Dina, Jenn and Marge went off to visit a Christian lady who cuts hair in her home, while Jono and I performed an experiment so see how many kids we would attract as white young foreigners. We went up to a group of young boys and started playing some games, and before long we had over 30 kids off the streets joining in, playing games like duck duck goose and songs like 'My God is so big"- we made some pretty good friends.

After a lunch break (some of us brave the local food from the stalls on a regular basis, while others stick to sandwiches), Cameron, Marge, Erica, Jono and I spent some time in preschool (some of the kids thinking the transportation we'd use from Australia to the Philippines would be tricycle), while Kathryn, Jenn and Dina went prayer walking.
In contrast, on the way home we went to Mega Mall, a huge shopping centre.
Then, after delicious dinner with some Ube (purple root vegetable) Ice-cream we spent the night preparing dramas and music for the concerts we will be doing this weekend at an urban poor relocation area. (Cameron's going down tomorrow morning, the rest of us following on Saturday)

Thank God for the amazing time we're having meeting with Christians here and seeing how God is at work in Manila. Pray that we will continue in good health and energy, and be able to communicate God's word effectively through our music and dramas.
In Christ,
Sam