A Week Without Walls

For the second year, we've enjoyed the presence of teachers and students from Singapore International Community School. Last year they came and impacted a nearby community by building a home for one of our long-time workers, Laling. This year, their service was equally important to the community around us. Not only did they have a chance to revisit the community they impacted last year, but they were involved in many projects that reached young and old alike.

Basketball is huge in the Philippines, making it a great way to reach kids for Christ. Aware of this, the team helped host a basketball tournament at the JCCV next door. With the help of Myles D'Ocampo, a ministry partner of KIM, six teams of teenagers showed up Monday morning ready to play. Leaders Don Cole, Sam Fleischman and Alicia Bandy refereed games from morning until evening. Between games, ICS students gave their testimonies, and a guest appearance by Kirk Long, Ateneo de Manila University basketball star, ministered to the players and bystanders. We had the opportunity to feed the kids lunch and award prizes for the winning team. ICS had a team in the tournament as well, taking third place when all was said and done.

The rest of the week consisted of hard-working efforts on the part of the team. Every day at 10am and 4pm, members of the team took community and children's home kids to the pool to teach them how to swim. The team also went on daily feedings, passing out food to hungry children in areas where families have a hard time providing meals. In both situations, just being there for the local community is a blessing. Sharing a smile and a hug can warm hearts and give hope.

Construction crews helped carry cinder blocks from the ground floor to the top of our new educational wing located behind the YMC (YunJin Lyso Ministry Center). Many construction materials were hauled around the community as the team members helped build and plaster walls, mix cement and build the foundation in the homes of three of our Filipino construction workers, Lito, Digol and Arnold.

Apart from the feedings, swimming lessons and construction, the team helped out in the nursery at the Children's Home, did devotions each night, played with the orphans, and were a constant presence in the kids' lives all week. Also, the team held a half-day soccer clinic for the community kids whose appetite for the sport is steadily growing. Clinics like this usually cost $150, an unthinkable amount for our community kids to pay.

As if that wasn't enough blessing for the team to bring to the table, they wanted to get back into the community they had served last year. They went back to help put in a basketball court and renovate some of the housing there. As they entered the community, they were surprised as the people they blessed last year knew all of their names and faces. That was a blessing right back on the team.

We look forward to having Singapore ICS next year, and the next, and the next... you get the idea. We love you ICS!