Serving at Faith Academy in the Philippines with EFCCM
Fence them, feed them, or finance them?
The workers who built part of our campus came from the province, and like millions of others, ended up staying in Manila. There are about 300 families that live down the hill in an "informal settlement" or squatter village. Our school has lots of stories of involvement with these people. Now we do too.
Last year, teaching Social studies, we decided to copy the Noble peace prize winner from Bangladesh and give a micro-loan. We looked at all sorts of avenues until we find the opportunity right under our noses. So last year and this, the students, started small businesses to compete to see how much money they could raise for the loan. Then we had a candidate come up to class, and Rose was the first recipient. A recent widow, still providing for some kids, got enough money to buy a sewing machine, and meanwhile she has paid off the loan.
Usually, even though it's dry season from Nov to May, when the flowers come out on the mango tree in January, it rains; washing away the pollen and resulting in far less mangos. This year, of all years, it did not rain! We have harvested more than two thousand so far. Our freezers have no room. I thought of buying another freezer so we could have mango smoothies all year. Isn't there a parable about that. Yup/nope. So we keep giving them to the 300 families. They each will have received 7 by the time you read this. A good number.
And Rose says she's praying for us.
We did give a few to some other missionaries. More per family than the squatters got. The next day they emailed asking for more. But it's too dangerous to give there. They might pay you back. Rose and her village won't.
The community around their village doesn't like them squatting there. It kinda wrecks the property values. So they build a fence. Not to keep them from moving around, but to make it much harder. One of the guys on the board that built the fence goes to our church. We go to his small group. It's really small. One week it was just me and him. He asked how he could grow his ministry. "Have you thought of helping the poor?" I asked. He runs five small businesses. Now he also teaches our micro-loan recipients and anyone else how to run a business. I love God's irony.
