This fall, I spent Thanksgiving Week in The Philippines, where our team served with UMC Bridge partners in and around Manila. On the Friday after Thanksgiving I was missing my family and having a difficult time “being present” when God really got my attention.
We’d spent the day at the Gilead Center with at-risk children. The center has a tremendous children’s ministry, led by a woman named Love, in a tranquil farm setting.
There had been one boy from the group, a 12-year-old rascal, who’d been with me almost every step of the way throughout the day. Ronnel chose me when we had to play the silly icebreaker game. He was there again in my group when we had to sing. He insisted I join his team for making Christmas cards. He even took my fishing pole when I couldn’t catch anything, and he promptly landed the largest fish of the day. I couldn’t get away from that kid. He even sat right behind me on the bus heading home.
Our van stopped and parked on a small, two-lane road that led down a dirt lane towards the dump. You see, many of the Gilead Center kids live on the edge of the city dumpsite. Their families are the recyclers; they scavenge through the trash to reclaim and make use of the throw away items. There we were, an odd Black Friday parade of the local children and outsiders, walking through a cramped access walkway around that recycling village.
Our senses, and souls, were overwhelmed with all we were experiencing. The joyous time at the healing farm was in sharp contrast with the blunt recognition of where the children actually lived, and what their lives are like when they aren’t at Gilead. After dodging clotheslines and assorted salvaged goods – and the realization that their living quarters were also outside along this path .. and that we were actually walking through their homes – we soon arrived at our destination.
The very last house at the garbage village is where Ronnel lives. That kid who had been underfoot all day lives at the edge of the dump.
His mom has a small farm and offers their enclosed area as a sanctuary of safety, and learning, and ministry for the children of that recycling village. Though a very modest home, their place offers a sense of sanctuary from the dump. They not only recycle items thrown out that might be useful again, but they also help reclaim lives and create new destinies as they work for God’s preferred future. I bought a couple of rugs reclaimed from thrown away clothes so I’d remember; Ronnel’s mom threw in an extra hot mat as a gift.
Black Friday 2015 offered me something very different from what Americans typically experience while shopping at the local mall the day after Thanksgiving. My Black Friday wandering led me to a fresh and present salvation that I needed to experience first-hand!
I told some of this story at our team debriefing. Afterward, Bishop Rudy Juan caught me and said that he “was that boy.” This added dimension reminds me that there is no telling how God will renew us and empower the church of today and tomorrow.
It’s a powerful thing to be cleaned up, recycled, and made useful once again! Black Friday 2015 offered a greater deal than I could have ever imagined. And that’s part of the reason we must go, and learn, and partner, and walk with others in this mission of God as participant and recipient. Along the way, we may be blessed enough to have a boy underfoot who serves as our guide and friend.
Rev. Scott Parrish is a Mission Specialist with Connectional Ministries in North Georgia and Mission Strategist for the General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church. You may contact Scott at scott.parrish@ngumc.net.
Editor's Note: A team from LaGrange College along with several North Georgia United Methodists are currently taking part in a Bridges trip to The Philippines. Yesterday they visited Gilead Center.
