Manila Update 12/7/2024

Friday, 12/06/2024, is not a day that I will easily forget. For one, it’s Melissa’s birthday.

We got the Access Center around 10:30 am, prayed, had a staff/team meeting and devotional and then started setting up for the Children’s Christmas event at 3:00 ( we will do the Christmas event for the youth next Friday). We decorated, cleaned, rearranged furniture, set up games and got the kids backpacks ready for distribution. As always, the kids started ringing the doorbell way before time to open the gate. They truly love being at the Access Center.

Go time. Everything is set and ready, the staff and team are almost as excited as the kids. They open the gate and kids and parents start coming in. Many of the parents took time off of work, which is a big deal to them, to come. Many of the kids and parents have dressed up for this. The staff said that a lot more parents showed than they expected and that they were shocked that some of the dads came.

Alex T. Had prepared a Christmas story teaching( he did an excellent job) and one of the staff members had translated it to Tagalog (the language spoken here) and printed out copies that were placed in the parent’s chairs before hand along with the ABC’s for salvation. As the parents sat down to wait for the teaching to begin, they immediately started ready the printed version m. And I mean they were really digging into it. As Alex T. was teaching, through a translator, these people were all following along on their printout. They were receptive and engaged. It was a blessing to watch.

After the teaching the kids came in to do their Christmas performance which the parents enjoyed greatly.

Next, the parents joined the kids in the gym for games. (btw, I dominated the cookie face game where you have to get an Oreo from your forehead to your mouth without dropping it or using your hands, lol. The kids loved it) Everyone, kids, parents, staff and team were all having so much fun. Many kids and parents told us that they were happy, an emotion that a lot of them get to enjoy on a regular basis.

During the games, one mother asked for prayer about some medical issues. Melissa was asked to pray for her, using a translator. Through the process of praying for healing, the mother asked to receive salvation and Melissa was able to lead her in accepting Jesus as her Lord and Savior. Talk about a great birthday present, thank you Jesus.

After the games, it was time to hand out the backpacks. Melissa and I were asked to start this project 8 months ago and it was such a blessing to get to see the fruit of our efforts in person. Again, thank you Jesus. We handed out the bags in groups of 5, Daniel H. taking pictures of each group. (Checkout this YouTube page to see what Daniel and his wife, Ariana do. @mountainandvalleytestimonies1 ) We made the kids wait until everyone had their backpack before opening them. Then we had them spread out across the gym, counted to 3 and they all opened them at once.

I haven’t the words to describe this part. The expressions of joy, happiness, shock, disbelief, awe, all merging together. Not just on the kids faces, but the parents as well. A lot of laughter and a lot of tears. Kids running around showing the first things they pulled out of their bags to their parents, the staff and us, only to go back and realize that there was a lot more in the bag.

And when the kids and parents didn’t think that there could possibly be more, they were told that not only did we have a meal for them to enjoy that evening, each child was given a bag of groceries to take home. Food is something that most of them don’t have enough of and I think that many of them, child and parent alike, were overwhelmed at this point.

After everyone left, the staff and team sat down for dinner together. We each took turns talking about the day. Again, a lot of laughter and quite a few tears. We all pitched in to clean up and get the center set back up for next weeks regular schedule before we do it again this coming Friday.

The team’s Airbnb is in the same building as Jaydon and Maddie’s apartment and it’s only a few miles drive from the Access Center. Maddie took Melissa, Michelle, Alex and Daniel in the mini van and because of limited space in the van, I rode with Jaydon on his scooter. On the way back, Maddie got a flat tire on the van completely shredding the tire and Jaydon and wrecked on the scooter. (I think someone may have been angry with the kingdom work that had been done that day)

Jaydon and I are ok. He hurt his left knee and ankle a little bit. My left leg ended up pinned under the scooter. Jaydon and the security guard at their building got it off of me pretty quickly. Nothing broken or in need of stitches, a couple cuts and scrapes and a sore ( and very swollen for a while) calve and shin. Well worth all of the good things that happened.

We still have another week here and a Christmas event for the Youth on Friday.

We can’t wait to see what God will do next.

Thank you and God bless you.

Derek and Melissa

Buchanans in the Wild