Sharing my story at work

At work we have a daily standup, and I hosted it on Friday 3rd May. As part of this I had 3-4 mins to chat about my trip... I think I took a bit longer than anticipated 😂

Since sharing my story I have been able to chat to several people about all sorts of things I would not have done before. Some examples are:

I had a chat with one co-worker about Tearfund, they were interested to understand how much of the money gets to the children. I didn't have explicit answers to these questions, but I was able to re-assure that indeed I believe the money does make it to the kids, and based on what I've seen and heard it makes a huge difference

Several different people on different occasions were interested to know if Tearfund paid for me to go on this trip... I guess they wanted to know if money donated was being used to host people on trips like this. I explained that the trip was funded by each individual, and that we did do a fundraiser etc.

Below is a copy of what I wrote to share at work about my Philippines trip. What I actually shared is a little different because I went off script, but hopefully I managed to get most of it across.

As some of you know I went off to the Philippines last month.  The primary reason for going was to go see what Tearfund is doing with child sponsorship in poverty stricken areas via their partner Compassion international, and to meet out sponsored kids.  The Tearfund part of the trip was done with a group of 6 of us from Windsor Park Baptist Church – people at our church sponsor over 50 kids in the general Cebu area.

I went to the Philippines a couple of days before the Tearfund part of the trip began.  I stayed at an Air BnB in Cebu IT Park, an area that looked and felt relatively modern and ‘normal’.

This was an area where I felt safe walking around at night – although almost every shop had a security guard with at least a pistol – some had bigger guns!

IDK if that was supposed to make me feel safer or not!

This helped me to somewhat become acclimatized to the environment (it noisy and hot - 30 degrees plus) This was my first trip to a non-western country so there was lots to take in - Just look at the powerlines.

During this part of the trip, I did normal things like visiting malls, and a tour of Cebu City.

One thing I found particularly difficult but also uplifting was visiting the homes of those affected by poverty. 

The homes we visited were of people that go to the churches that are working with Compassion and have children who are part of the program, but are not sponsored.

In this photo you can see one of the homes we visited.  This mother lives in this small single roomed shack with her 4 children, one of which is a teenager who was quite cramped in the space.  The room was so small that we were not able to stand up straight.  At night they put a thin mattress on the floor, and they all sleep on that.
The mother has recently found employment at a salon - the pay isn’t very much, maybe the equivalent of $25 NZD per day.
The other homes we visited had similar stories - one had no income at all at, and the parents are having to forego food in favour of feeding their children.

When thinking about the home visits we did...

• I think about how positive and friendly they are, even though their circumstances are challenging.
• I think about how they put their hope and faith in a God (cos they have almost nothing)
• When we sat down for dinner, I think about the amount of food we had in front of us, when we were earlier in a house where they barely had the basic necessities of life. – I found that difficult to wrap my head around.
• I am thankful that we live in NZ where we have support structures in place to help those in need, even if they are flawed!

One of the highlights of the trip was meeting Cassandra (our sponsored child) and her mother. Initially at the aquarium that we went to with all of the groups sponsored children, and then again the next day at the church that they go to.  We were able to take some gifts for our sponsored child and her family…

I took things like clothes, craft items, stationery etc.  And some personal things like a mini photo album with photos from of our family, and the aquarium trip, and this bag Christine crocheted for her.

Being able to chat with Cassandra and her mother about their lives and learn more about them was a real privilege.  I learned simple things like…

• Purple is her favourite colour
• Her Fathers line of work is a motorbike driver where he takes passengers where they need to go, kinda like Uber but on a motorbike
• Cassandra likes to study, maths is her favourite subject. – Even while we were at the aquarium, she wanted to use her mother’s phone to look at her lessons for the day.  She’s one of the top two students of her class

Having met Cassandra and her mother I can now write more meaningful letters, and hope that the relationship can be continue to be built through the letter writing.

This trip had many fun times playing with the kids, hearing from adults who used to be sponsored children, and also many challenging parts… It’s the most I have cried in a while.

I am still very much processing what I have seen and learnt on this trip, and hope that it will continue to shape me as a person.

• I am reminded to be thankful for what we have and the circumstances we live in.
• I think about how these kids are born in their situation – Its not their choice, and how I was born in my situation – again it wasn’t my choice… How is that fair (it’s not)

I can’t finish my little presentation without pitching child sponsorship - if you want to sponsor a child feel free to scan the QR code below.