Short Term Mission Team 2005

Thursday, August 11th

We don't have a lot of pictures for this day, but it was one of the best days.  In the morning we went to the MYRC (Manila Youth Reception Center), which is a dentention center for kids age 10-20 who have been arrested for various crimes but are awaiting their trial and sentences.  Many of them will actually go on to the main youth prison in Tay Tay at some point.  We split up so that our ladies went to visit the female dorms while the our men went to see the boys.  Out of the 180+ kids detained here, only 20 or so were girls.  It was good for us women because we were able to sit down in a small,. more personal setting with the girls.  Some of the girls had been here a year or more.  We were allowed to only take 1 photo with the girls during an activity  plus any photos where their backs are turned to the camera (we were not allowed to take a group photo where everyone's faces are shown clearly).  I dont' know yet if we have any photos from the male dorms.

Afterwards went to do prayer ministry at Philippine General Hospital, the pediatrics ward.  I just couldn't really take my camera out for this. We were there to pray for the children, all of whom were seriously ill.  This was so heartbreaking for me, a mother of four. We prayed over prescious children with their moms sitting at their bedsides.  There were children with liver problems (many awaiting a donor for a transplant) kids with cancer, and children with hyper encephalitis (where their heads are swollen to an unusual size).  Some of the children were so frail and thin, they looked like they would break if you touched them the wrong way.  There were klids 2 years old who looked younger and smaller than my 1 year old Tyler. The only pictures we managed to take are a couple of our team singing some soft worship songs in the ward just before we headed back out.  The other photos of the group were taken in front of the hospital.