Call it Grace

It is a Sunday afternoon and I am currently sitting in Starbucks, drinking my iced coffee, and blogging from the comforts of an air-conditioned building. It is hard to believe that just two weeks ago, this would have seemed like the Ritz.

As most of you know, on July 18^th, I packed my suitcase and flew 18 hours to the capital of the Philippines--Manila. Our team of Americans landed in the Philippines around 9pm on Sunday and we were greeted by Bob Tebow and his team of Filipino pastors. We were then shuttled in jeeps that looked like they came straight out of a WWII movie to our “hotel.” Once we arrived we were told to be up at 5:30am to start preaching to the schools in the city.
            10pm. At this point, I was exhausted, alone, and had seven hours to learn how to “preach.” Before this trip I was scared to give a speech in front of a class of 30 peers let alone give the gospel presentation in front of 60 high schoolers who might not even want to hear what I had to say. That night, I went to bed praying for God to give me the words to say to these students and to let them see Jesus through me.

            5:30am. Breakfast in Mr. Tebow’s room. He began by telling us that the Filipino government gives permission for Americans to go classroom to classroom teaching “moral and spiritual values” to their students. This is where we come in as missionaries. Without us, it would be impossible to share the gospel with these kids. Mr. Tebow equipped each of us with a Filipino pastor/translator who he ensured would fix all our mistakes without us even knowing (which worked out for me because I forgot to add that Jesus rose from the dead a couple of times ha).

            6am. Hopped in our un-air-conditioned WWII Jeeps and fought through Manila traffic, pollution, and chaos to reach our schools. In the Philippines, there are so many students that school sessions run from 6am-12pm and then from 12pm-6pm. We would travel from one school to the next in the morning and then repeat the same schools in the afternoon. At each school, a missionary and a translator would go classroom to classroom giving the gospel presentation and then asking the kids if they would like to ask Jesus into their hearts.

            4pm. At this point, we were all exhausted, covered in sweat, and barely able to talk after having given the gospel presentation around 25 times in one day. We would retreat to our rooms to shower and then meet for a family dinner.

            6pm. Bed. Not even joking.

This was a typical day in the Philippines. Over the weekend, we took a plane to Bob Tebow’s orphanage in  Lamsugod, Surallah, South Cotabato, Mindanao, Philippines and spent the day playing with the children and sharing the love of Jesus. This was probably the highlight of my trip.

At the orphanage and in the city, I found myself overwhelmed by these children. Children who came from extreme poverty and whose parents fought just to clothe them to go to school. In one of the classrooms, the teacher told us that just a week earlier, a 5^th grader committed suicide because he got tired of being made fun of for not having the proper school supplies because his parents couldn’t afford to buy them. I would hear these stories and see these children and wonder to myself what I did to deserve to be born into such luxury. What I did to deserve freedom? To deserve a family? To deserve food on my table every night? What did I do? I did NOTHING. That was God. And I remembered Luke 12:48,

“From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked."

And this verse made me realize how all these years I had failed at using what God had blessed me with for His name. I had failed to give back. And I think this is a problem for many Christians. We get so caught up in the comforts of our own world that we forget that we weren’t designed for comfort. We were designed to be lights to lost. To be love to the broken. And while tithing is important, the lost aren’t found in that little plate you pass around on Sunday and love requires more than just nice words.

“The truth is that the 143 million orphaned children and the 11 million who starve to death or die from preventable diseases and the 8.5 million who work as child slaves, prostitutes, or under other horrific conditions and the 2.3 million who live with HIV add up to 164.8 million needy children. And though at first glance that looks like a big number, 2.1 billion people on this earth proclaim to be Christians. The truth is that if only 8 percent of the Christians would care for one more child, there would not be any statistics left.” -Katie J. Davis

If anything, I pray that my journey to the Philippines encourages you to take the next step in your faith. God has blessed us all with so much—it’s time to use those blessings for HIS glory. This life isn’t about us. It’s about HIM.

I can’t say thank you enough to everyone who donated to my trip. Because of your support, our team reached 535 schools and 236, 885 Filipinos asked Jesus into their hearts this summer. There is no greater investment you could have made. I hope my story touches your heart. I hope it strengthens your walk with God. And I hope it encourages you to use your gifts for His glory.

"Some may call it foolish and impossible But for every heart it rescues, it's a miracle It's nothing less than scandalous That Jesus took our place Call it what it is, just call it grace." -Unspoken