Short Term Mission Team 2005

August 4, 2005
On this day we ministered to squatter kids in Tondo, but in the morning while the kids were still in school,  we spent an hour at the American Cemetary in Makati.  It was a very beautiful and peaceful place. .  . such a contrast to the busy,  polluted, noisy overcrowded streets of manila. 

With more than 17,000 soldiers buried here, this cemetary holds the largest number of graves of our military casualties from World War II.  It was also quite moving to see the long list of names inscribed on the limestone walls - 36,282 in all, belonging to the missing soldiers who now rest in unknown graves. 

In the afternoon, we worked with a fellow missionary, Mike Watters, and did a VBS for the kids in the squatter village.  We played music for them and had them sing along.  Patrick was on guitar, Zack on the jembay, and Corey did sign for the lyrics. Then Matt and Sabrina gave the wordless gospel presentation while Pastor Greg of Crossroads Fellowship translated.   The kids seemed to really be listening, and were particularly excited about the beaded bracelets we gave them afterwards.  They also couldn't seem to get enough candy!

While the VBS was going on, others in our team continued to give tracts to the adults, and to try to engage people in conversation so as to share the gospel.  The Lord provided many opportunities and we must have distributed hundreds of tracts that day. 

Pray for a lady Sean and Matt Long shared with, who is a member of the Iglesia ni Cristo cult.  This group denies the deity of Christ.