Erickson’s Philippines Updates

I would like to introduce you to Cliff Parrish. Cliff is a husband, father, member of Community Christian Church in Naperville, IL, the founder and CEO of RemoteLink (a telecommunications company that does phone systems and programs…), and a friend of mine. Pictured here, he is talking to my first year high school class about life (I teach computer science at Frontline Christian Academy). Here are the highlights I got from his talk:

1. “I would rather make less money and enjoy what I do, than to make more money and wake up every morning knowing I am going to a job I do not like and that does not complete my goals and vision for my life.”

2. “Think about what you want out of life. Do you want a family? Then prioritize your family when you choose a career. Do not take a job that will constantly pull you away and have you so stressed out you do not spend time with them.”

3. “Knowledge brings opportunities, which will expand your options in the future. The one with the most options in the end is the winner.”

My analysis of Cliff has been two years in the making, and I have decided he is an all around good guy. He cares about people and prioritizes relationships as one of the most important aspects of his life. He has a burden to see lost people come to know Christ. He and his wife especially care for the kids in FTC, and have time and time again contributed in various ways. They have invested the most precious resource we have in to the lives of the kids, their time.

As you can see in the first picture, our sandbox is undergoing a renovation. At first we used old wooden boards to make the walls that would contain the sand. However, we decided that putting hollow blocks up about 2 feet will help the kids to have more fun and be able to sit on the side. In the second picture, Roldan helps by carrying the cement over for the carpenter to use. In the third picture, Banjo doing the same.

I cannot fully explain all the joy I felt in my heart as I walked into the kitchen tonight. As Andrea was talking to the kids about their schedules for the “Street Child Feeding Ministry” I glanced over and saw Eugene Lance Diaz, a.k.a Lan-Lan, sitting at the end of the table feeding himself dinner. For anyone who has known about Lan-Lan over the past several years, you also know that when the team found him he was virtually alone, abandoned and cast out of society. His immediate family had given up on him. Why? Lan-Lan is blind.

The doctor believes that Lan-Lan was not born blind, but that he had an eye infection as a young child. His family was probably poor and either could not afford to go see an eye specialist, or simply did not want to. Lan-Lan was left with a “relative” and subjected to unthinkable living conditions for about 6 years of his life. Because of serious neglect he is not as developed as other blind children, but look at him now, feeding himself! He can also dress himself and we just recently started teaching him how to use a walking stick.

When music plays Lan-Lan’s face lights up and he gets all excited and starts rocking his body back and forth, shaking his hands in joy and making noise. I would not want to be in Lan-Lan’s situation, and in fact it is sometimes hard to walk by him wondering why that had to happen to him, but every time I walk by and see him smiling or laughing I am reminded of God’s goodness. Even though Lan-Lan is blind, God is still faithful to him. After all, he brought him to us! We will be good stewards with what and whom God sends, and I will certainly learn many lessons from Lan-Lan, like how much he is “lovin’ life”.

There are more projects going on at FTC, a continued work from the financial blessing the Lord sent through CCC. When the rain is strong and it’s windy, water leaks into the kitchen where we cook all the food for the kids and staff at FTC. Before it was only a nuisance, but since we were also able to buy a large freezer (seen in the background of the first picture), it’s time to solve the water problem. The freezer allows us to buy more meat in bulk for a cheaper price. It also lets us butcher a pig at a lower cost and freeze the meat until it is ready to be used.

As you can see in the front of the first picture we ripped out all the old bamboo and cocoa lumber from the back side of the kitchen. This was easy since it was mostly rotted and damaged by water. In the second picture, a carpenter from the church is putting up the cement wall that will be used to keep water out of the kitchen when we get a heavy rainfall with wind. Also, not pictured is the new triple sink we are building. We will simply make it out of cement. It will be nice for the kids and staff to have three sinks, especially since we total 45 people!

Pictured above is Bob Clinkert. Bob lives in the Naperville, Illinois area. He is a husband, father, member of Community Christian Church, programmer and avid fan and supporter of Face the Children. During his second trip to the Philippines, God used him to help convince a young girl to give up her life on the street, and she came to live at FTC. Within the past 2 years, he has contributed repeatedly by giving his time and money and leading several projects from the U.S. to the Philippines that have been very beneficial to the kids.In the pictures he is explaining ‘protocols’ to one of my high school classes. (I teach the computer science class for all four high school levels in the team’s private Christian school, FCA). The theory is that we have ‘protocols’ in almost everything we do, just like computers. A protocol is simply very detailed rules of communication, so when you write a comment on this post (hint hint hint!) there will be many protocols that your comment goes through before it is actually displayed.

In the same way, we use protocols when we talk to our husband, wife, mom, dad, sister, brother, children and all the people in our lives. This just means there is a certain way that we go about it that may be different for each person we communicate with, depending on the situation. If a husband comes home from work and wants to know what kind of day his wife has had, he can simply look around and get some indication. Are the kids running around the house screaming and making a mess? Is the wife frowning, or even crying? Unspoken rules have told him that her day has been stressful and he should ‘approach with caution’. We change our approach, or protocols, in how we communicate with people before words are even used. Some famous phrases I have heard (not sure who said it!):

‘In everything you do, preach the Gospel! If necessary, use words.’

‘In communication between people, verbal accounts for about 10% of what we say.’

It got me started thinking about the ‘protocols’ in my relationship with God. What are the rules I have made? Do I have to be in a certain mood? Do things have to fall in line exactly as I want them to before I will initiate a meaningful devotional time? Do I break my communication with Him when I am too busy, or feeling frustrated? As Andrea and I continue to mentor these kids (along with all the other staff), please pray that we will be the best examples we can be, and show them good ‘protocols’ to use in their own lives.

Every Wednesday afternoon some of our kids go to the hospital to pray for the people. This ministry was started by Jeff Rice, a missionary from Florida, and is now under the Mercy ministries of Frontline Worship Center. It is great to see our kids going to sick, depressed, and emotionally traumatized people and sharing God’s love with them. When they pray for both children and adults, they pray with such conviction. They mean every word they say and they believe that God will really move in the lives of those they pray for. They have already seen person after person recover from their sickness or injuries. The day these pictures were taken they were also able to hand out several TY Beanie Babies that were donated to FTC from Christian Community Church (Naperville, IL).

We can see two different areas of maturity in the kids’ lives through this ministry. First, even though the stuffed animals were donated for them, they chose to give them away to children in the hospital, who REALLY needed them. This shows that they’re breaking the ‘street mentality’ of hording “things”. Second, they are praying with authority, understanding that God is using them no matter what their age or history because if they submit their lives to God He is faithful. The photographer who took these pictures is Jennilyn. In the first picture, Babylyn is praying for a little child, who was also a recipient of a stuffed animal. The second picture is Ronilo giving some emotional encouragement to a man in the hospital. The third picture shows Cristina praying for an elderly lady. Krishelle was also present.

It’s hard to imagine that I could be half way around the world from where I was born and where our family lives, and still get stuck in the comfort zone of daily life.
Last Saturday, Andrea and I went with some friends from the team to Manila. The purpose of our trip was two-fold. First, we were there to say goodbye to our friend, Darryl from Canada who has been here for three months. Second was to see the ministry that he was working with. The name of the church is New Hope, and the Pastors are Ding and Mona. We went to see their weekly Super Saturday that they have for the kids of the squatter villages (poverty-level housing). It was so great to see 300 screaming kids dancing and singing, listening to the Word of God, memorizing scripture verses, and of course, eating lunch afterwards.
When we first arrived, the kids were ALL over me. I am used to shaking hands and giving hi-fives to kids who haven’t bathed in two weeks, no problem. . . but the combination of many kids jumping on my arms and back, running between my legs, using me as a divider from another kid they’re fighting with, and all inside a very hot room, almost got to be too much! It was the grace of God that I was able to calmly pry one child off at a time and work my way to the back of the room, without being totally drenched in sweat. What New Hope is really offering is what these kids REALLY need, and that is LOVE.
As I watched what was going on it reminded me that even though we have 27 kids here at FTC, and we are definitely impacting and changing lives, there are many kids out there that we have yet to reach. So I asked myself and now ask you two questions:
(1) When was the last time you did something out of your normal routine for the sake of helping others?
(2) When was the last time you experienced something from a different culture or point of view?
I was very blessed to take part in the work that Pastor Ding and Mona are doing in Manila, and I hope that we too can reach out and help more kids.