We'll soon be on our way

Great news… Shiela now has her passport and visa, so we’re on our way to the UK for a holiday – and for Shiela to meet the British side of our family!

We will arrive on May 18 and have over six weeks to meet all our friends and family before leaving on July 1. If you’d like to get together, just send me an email at samdowding@googlemail.com and we’ll arrange it nearer the time.

One of the best bits

These wild monkeys are usually hanging around on our way to the City Refuge centre for our weekly visit to the kids there. And seeing as photography is now prohibited in the centre, you can have this one of the monkeys instead!

When we arrive, we are immediately greeted by smiling faces and shouts of “Kuya Sam, Ate Shiela” as the kids run towards us. All of them are there, taken by social services from their families or living on the streets for their own protection. They have very little to do and visitors are rare, so they love it when we go and spend time specifically with them.

They know their favourite worship songs and sing at the top of their voices. I then tell them a bible story, sometimes with a drama that the kids enjoy acting out. Then games or some basic education; many of them are grateful for the opportunity to learn.

I can see the difference it makes and the happiness it gives them as we visit them weekly – having a fun time and trying to show them God’s love that they so desperately need in their otherwise unloved lives. It is one of my favourite things to do; I love going there.

Our goats

Shiela and I have two friendly little goats at our house. They are fun to care for, we love watching them – and they help control the fast-growing grass and undergrowth.

Much of our time is spent at the safe home or the other KNA ministries we’re involved in, so it’s handy that we have enough space for the goats to roam around freely grazing in their large pens. When we are at home we let them out to graze the rest of our land around the house.

Video summary of our work on Palawan

If you’d like a good overview and update of the work we do here in Palawan, here’s an 8-minute video Shiela and I made for the Lighthouse Family Church in the UK – my old church which generously helps support me here.

Please ignore the words that appear over the first seconds of the video, they soon disappear!

A Safe Home

Wisma was the first Badjao Duncan and Sara met when they arrived on Palawan – begging, borrowing (and who knows what else) with her group of street urchins.

Nearly ten years on, she has been married twice, abandoned and divorced and most recently widowed. All by the tender age of 22. So being able to provide a good home within the new housing block to Wisma and her two small children is awesome.

You might be interested in this extract from Duncan’s old diary about that first meeting...

SEPT 14 2008: It was very moving. I’d read the phrase “I was naked and you clothed me” but never seen it happen before. In town today Sara had stopped to give a beggar some fruit, when she became surrounded by street children, encircling her like cats around a fish bowl. One of them was the tough looking girl we’d noticed begging a couple of weeks back. Rather than a quick dole out and rushing on, we sat on a low wall and started to engage the girl in conversation, finding out she is a ten year old called Wisma and has four siblings.

As Sara gave her time, Wisma’s face softened like a fruit ripening in the warmth of the sun... then looking up, Sara whispered “Dunc, that boy is naked!” sure enough a lad of maybe seven years had sat before us on the street, a tatty T-shirt riding up to reveal... well you know... the poor little chap’s all and sundry. Without missing a beat, Sara squatted beside him asking Wisma, who seems to lead the little street pack, to help. They explained that Sara wanted to buy the little fellah some shorts. So off strode Sara like a Mother Goose followed by a motley train of bemused but intrigued goslings. Soon the lad trotted away to show off his new combat shorts and Wisma herself was rewarded for helping with a bright new pair of her own.

It was one of those moments, when God did something deep in our hearts, and I believe, gave us another “first” – for now we think no longer of “Street Children”, but of a little girl with a name, an ability to help us bless others and, we pray, a different future to that looming towards her. For when street girls reach puberty the slip from begging to falling into an abusive relationship or worse might be just one false step away.

Handing over the keys

The block of innovative new housing we designed for the Badjao – and built alongside some of their men (see Model Homes below) – is now finished at the new Badjao village. We have just had a dedication (house blessing) and invited the whole community.

Most excited of all were the 18 young families that now each live in a brand new home. Part of the dedication included officially handing over the keys to these families, who were carefully chosen as those most in need. They are predominantly young families with young children who are unable to build there own homes.

After the prayer blessing and a short time of sharing, everyone enjoyed some special party food. It was a joyful time for the whole community, most of all for those who had no hope of building their own houses, but are now enjoying a new home!