Ignite A Movement

May 18th-May 23rd was Ignite A Movement. It was an amazing youth event that took place every night from 6-9. We had games, break-dancing, worship, messages and prayer. God was really moving in us and through us. I was so honored to be able to be a part of the event. The thing that I enjoyed the most was praying for the youth. The cool thing was that I knew most of the kids that I was praying for. It was very powerful and God's presence was in that place. We placed hands on the sick and they were healed. We held those who needed love as they cried in our arms. God is doing big things here in the Philippines.


The first night they talked about "I Am." I don't think we will ever understand how omnipresent God is. But on this night we tried to give an idea about how big God is and how great He is,
how He spoke and created all things.

The second night, the theme was "I am here." It focused on how God is longing to be reunited with His creation. How he wants a personal relationship with you and
how you can come as you are. It was definitely powerful.

The third night was "I am healing." People came up to get prayed for if they had a physical need. By faith, people were healed. Personally, I prayed for a woman (my friend, Jane's mom) who had bad arthritis in her neck and knees. She could barely walk. God knocked her to the ground and completely and totally healed her. It was awesome.


The third night was "I am love." We learned about what true love is. These youth had a chance to come up and be healed from emotional hurt. At one point in the night I was just holding one of our Sonshine Center girls as she cried and cried. My shirt was drenched with her tears, but God healed her that night from all of the pain and hurt that she had experienced.




The last night was "I am with you." This night focused on how even after these nights are over that God is still here with you. He wants to be a part of your life and he empowers you by his spirit. These youth signed a "World Changer" banner,
making a declaration that they will live for God.


Here I am with some of the kids that attended the event. I really loved how God could just use this event to continue building relationships with the youth here in the Philippines. I'm just praying that God continues to work in their heart so that they can make a change for this community, city, country and world.

Leia Mais…

answered prayer

I just love how God answers prayers...and how He is in control and just orchestrates everything. SO with this excitement of course comes a story...

Meet the most wonderful children in the world....Joylyn, Kaday and Charlie. These kids are often found right outside of my place digging through trash, looking for food and recyclables. My friend Linda first found them and gave them food. She started the tradition and so every time I saw them outside of my place I would run upstairs look for any sort of food and gave it to these kids. They were very shy. Nevertheless, each time I saw them I would invite them to our program at the Sonshine Center (which takes place on Saturday mornings), not really knowing if they understood anything that I said.

So last week something different happened. The boy was not with the 2 girls. Now I'm not sure how much English these kids understand, but I still asked where their brother was. The oldest sister said he was dead (come to find out later he was not thank God, but maybe he was sick or something and she just didn't know how to say it). She teared up and even though I didn't know if that was true I was just overwhelmed. I looked at their feet and they were not wearing shoes and their clothes were very dirty. I asked if they were hungry and they said yes.
So that was enough for me.

I took them to BlueJays (a coffee shop) and they ordered a huge double decker U.S cheeseburger. It was precious to see them there trying to eat it, a burger that was bigger than their face. They of course didn't even come close to finishing it. Afterwards, we walked back to find their Lola (Grandmother) and Kaday asked her if I could take them to get slippers (aka flip flops). She said yes and we were off. We went to the mall and I was able to get them new shirts, pants, underwear and flip flops. The people at the mall were so helpful and changed the youngest (Joylyn) right there in the mall.

In this picture Joylyn is wearing her new outfit. I don't think they ever got to pick out their own clothes but it was clear that they liked pink! Every shirt and pants were all pink. It was precious. I felt so blessed to be able to meet some of their physical needs. I walked them back to their Lola and invited them to our program on Saturday morning. Again, there is the language barrier so I wasn't even sure they were understanding anything that I was saying. But I prayed that they would come and we could get them some more help. There would be people that could speak their language and they could be fed (both spiritually and physically).

Well, here they are! They came to the center for our program. I found out that they lived very far away and they walked that entire way just so that they could come! In this picture their entire outfits are the new clothes that they got!

Their Lola also came and I learned a lot about them. Their father passed away when the youngest was 8 months old and their mother abandoned them. The grandparents are left to take care of them. Valerie and I decided that it would be nice to go to their house to see where they lived so after Kids club on Saturday that is what we did.

This is their house. It is on stilts in water and it is basically all things that they have from the trash. It was beyond heartbreaking to know that they lived there.

Valerie talked to the Lola and the boys. She invited them to the huge youth event that is to be held May 18th-23rd (Ignite A Movement). She also just listened and loved them.
She is so awesome!

While Valerie did the talking, I played with the girls. Mostly just taking pictures...

And being silly.

God has really opened some doors to getting them some more help, which is awesome! I am so excited to be able to be a part of it. Also, last night was the first night for the youth event and the Kaday, her Lola and three other boys came!!!! It is so awesome to know that God is moving. I am so excited to see what He is going to do next!

Leia Mais…

Last but not least

Balabago!! Just try to say it....it is really fun, it just rolls off the tongue! Well anyways our last camp was in Balabago. It was actually the first time that we had ever done camp there and what a success it was! The kids were so excited and participated in everything that we did, which is really encouraging and makes camp a lot easier for us as counselors. Needless to say, it was a great way to end a great summer!


We definitly had some fun playing games with these kids.
They enjoyed every second of it!


This is Mary...she was shy at first but she came out of her shell real fast.


Business up front...party in the back!!


During our lunch break the counselors had some dance parties!!
haha...clearly I was very into it, you just can't stop me
when a High School Musical song comes on!

The kids also challenged me to a flexibility contest...clearly Angelie there is winning.
I have to keep working on my yoga skills.


Here we are dancing to cotton eyed joe....yeeehaw!


My roomies (Aimee and Sarah) and I jus being goofy with the kids.


Angelie loved to hang out with us during our breaks, so I got to know her really well.


Praying for the kids on the last day is by far one of the best moments in all of the camps.
The kids are so real and have such a passion to know God more.
It is so truly beautiful.

Camp #7: Success!

Leia Mais…

Another day, another island...

What a privilege it is to be used by God in the lives of this children. I feel like he takes what I am already good at and expands it. The children were absolutely amazing in Bacolod. We had to take a boat ride to get there (a little over an hour) but it was so worth it. I really felt a connection with these kids. This may be because I was not really involved in the last camp because of my ankle. So for this camp I did not want to take one moment for granted. During all of the freetimes I just craved spending time with these kids.

There were mixed audiences in Bacolod. There were many missionary’s kids there, adopted kids into a missionary families, street kids and children from an orphanage. I just love getting to know these children since a lot of them could speak more English than the children in the other camps. This kids blessed me so much.

There were three kids that I really grew close to from the orphanage. Marvy and I had the same birthday so we became best friends! Jacqulyn was cuter than ever and loved to jump rope and to take pictures. Benjamin is Marvy's brother. You can really tell that he takes a leadership role in the family even though he is younger. He was always looking out for Marvy and the other kids from the orphanage. They were the sweetest kids ever.

I had a little following of kids that always wanted to dance with me. We would all get into a line and one person would be across from us. They would call each person to come show their dance moves and then pick out the best one. The last day two of the girls, Sheenlee and Jenelyn came up to be bawling because they were leaving. We just sat there and hugged each other.
It was very hard to say goodbye to them.

That is Jenelyn to my left and Sheenlee to my right.
Rodrimar also hung out with those girls and he is the one sitting in my lap.

I got a text from Jenelyn that night it said
"Happy Thrf Thank U for Bast Frest for me super very much mesu ate anna"
Translation: Happy ? thank you for being best friends with me super very much,
I miss you Aunt Anna

And then another one that said
"I.ma carayign 2 ningt becoh u back 2 iloilo"
Translation: I'm crying tonight because you are back in Iloilo


I still had so much fun leading assemblies (singing and dancing) and being crazy with the kids. You may notice that my ankle is nice and wrapped up. It held up well, still not 100% but it is doing alot better. Thank you so much for all of the thoughts, concerns and prayers!


We also had a dance off to pup the kids up! They had some skills, Filipinos are great dancers!


One of the nights we were in Bacolod, the team got to go to Starbucks (it is the only one around)! Now, if you know me, you know I do not even like Starbucks, but I cannot describe how amazing that toffee brownie and decaf soy mocha latte was.


The last day we took the kids to the pool. It was so much fun, but very tiring. There were about 30 kids in the "baby" pool which was at least 5 feet deep. I felt like I was on permanent life guard duty. Most of the time I played with Mark and Jacqulyn. Mark showed off his English skills to me and I threw him water...over and over and over again.


The last day we pray for the kids. It is always a very powerful time. I just feel so blessed to be able to pray over this generation that God will rise them up to change their nation.

Camp #6, Bacolod: SUCCESS!

Leia Mais…