Mary Judkins is a member of our volunteer support team and created November’s Get Messy! Vol.4 session on Peace: how can I be a peacemaker? She leads a Messy Church Goes Wild in Cornwall but has recently been on a mission trip to the Philippines. We caught up with her about her travels:
Why the Philippines?
My first trip to the Philippines was in 2018 with Hopelink, a UK charity funding an education programme, which started in 2002. Most of the team attended a church in St Ives. As I volunteered in our local church school with Rodney, the pastor, he invited to go with them. His wife Ahmor was born in the Philippines.
The vision for the charity came from Pastor Fred, Ahmor’s father. Over half of his congregation came from very poor communities and parents could not afford to “kit” their children for school. Pastor Fred was passionate about helping and caring for the poor, but his church had limited resources. His request and challenge were simple: would you Ahmor and Rodney help us?
Growing up in the Philippines, Ahmor knew the value of education and how it improved someone’s life. Motivated by their faith, Ahmor with Rodney started to personally fund the education programme set up by the Philippines church. Being missionaries themselves and with two young children to provide for, money was already tight, so taking on funding 30 school children which later grew to 60 children was a huge step of faith involving personal sacrifice. Nonetheless, they knew that this was what God wanted them to do. Every school year, there’s always enough money saved up to send for the children’s uniforms and school supplies.
In 2010, Rodney and Ahmor led a group from the UK to the Philippines. The team could not believe the extreme poverty and dire conditions. Seeing poverty face-to-face was heart-breaking. Yet despite that, there was hope. The team met some of the children and their families in the education programme. Many had become followers of Jesus. The team wanted to do more. That was the catalyst to involve more people and share the vision, so together with 4 other founding trustees, Hopelink was born. I was asked to be a trustee soon after my first visit.
Sadly, the covid pandemic prevented our next mission trip. Rodney and Ahmor then moved to Belfast to pastor a church there. Ahmor planned another mission and this time my husband came too, joining a team from the church in Belfast.
Tell us about your recent trip
We took very little personal luggage as we wanted to take things for those in the Philippines. We are so blessed in the UK compared to our friends in the Philippines, who have so little. Whilst the church folk are better off than many, there is a huge gap between the rich and poor, and a lot of corruption.
We received a wonderful welcome at the airport from Ahmor’s family and members of the church. They are based at Christ Forever Faithful Church (CFFC) in Navotas, an area of Manila, which you can find on Facebook! I didn’t know who to hug first! The teenagers I met seven years ago are in their early twenties, some married, some having completed their degrees and in professional jobs. There were many I didn’t even recognize. They called me Lola Mary last time which means grandma and I continued in that role! Keith was Lolo – grandad!
On the way to our hotel our first impressions of Manila were again warm rain, heat, rubbish heaps, more rain, motor bikes everywhere, more rubbish, heavy assorted traffic, more rubbish… Ahmor had hired a minibus and driver for our time there. We settled in. And luxury – there was a famous coffee shop nearly next door!
What did the team do?
I could write a book to go to accompany the 1000 photos that I took! Our team travelled with a photographer, a local pastor, and local folk from CFFC church plants.
Poverty hit us hard. Even on a second visit, it was still hard to take in. Families, especially in the slums, had one mattress for all to sleep on, propped against the wall during the day. Many homes had been flooded by one of the worst typhoons to hit the country. As I write this there is another typhoon raging. Add high tides to that and no flood defences, many stand no chance. The shanty towns were literally one ‘house’ on top of another.
There was no running water in most homes, no electricity, and cooking was on a gas burner with one cooking pot. We took sweets, toys and simple elastic hair bands as gifts. You would have thought we were giving them gold. Everywhere we visited we asked if folk wanted prayer. The response was always a resounding ‘yes’. The Christians with us, mainly late teens and early twenties, translated. The language spoken is Tagalog. I am ashamed to say I only learned two phrases: thank you/ salamat, and I love you/mahal kita. We learned a worship song in Tagalog, with actions starting with ‘Mahal kita’, telling God how much we love Him. Our team taught that old favourite ‘Hallelu, Hallelujah, Praise ye the Lord.’ It was sung with great enthusiasm.
We prayed lots. We prayed in our morning worship, in services out in the community and with many individuals. The main prayer requests were for men to get jobs and children to have education. We saw folk receiving Jesus as Saviour and Lord. The men in the team visited the prison to minister there. The conditions are awful, not like our UK prisons! Meanwhile, the women in our group visited the preschool called ‘Twinnies’, that hosts two sessions of 30 children each time, including a meal. One little boy wouldn’t eat his meal because he wanted to take it home to share with his mum. Another took his home when his mum collected him…the two of them live under a bridge!
We fed people with church-prepared meals of rice and chicken at the end of services – for some that was their only meal of the day. One afternoon we went to McDonalds and invited all the children and young people in the education programme, who enjoyed their meal of chicken or burger with rice!! We also had an evening at a local restaurant with those who’d been through the Hopelink education programme and now had degrees and jobs. It was powerful hearing their stories and how Hopelink helped them succeed.
The team spent one afternoon in a local secondary school. I had a wonderful time in year 7 sharing the story of the boy giving his 5 loaves and 2 fish to Jesus. I used this story on several occasions. My visual aids were tiny pipe cleaner fish that they all made, and the cardboard cup ‘shooter’. The message? God can use any one of us however small we are as long as we commit to follow Him.
What was your most challenging moment?
After services and food distribution we visited people in the slums. It’s hard to call where they live, houses. One lady we saw was sitting in a makeshift hut built on garbage. She had no electricity. She just sat. She had no family and was waiting to die. We saw bin bags full of empty plastic water bottles. The children sort through the rubbish to collect them and are given about 3 pence for every full bag, which is better than nothing!
There was one area we couldn’t visit this time, Smokey Mountain, as there had been recent violence. A church was planted since my first visit. During our recent trip, a fire broke out but even the fire fighters were attacked with stones, leaving the pastor’s house destroyed by the fire.
What was the food like?
We had lunch in the church every day, cooked by church members. Rice every time with different additions including fish with their heads on! One evening we found the local Burger King because we were desperate for chips (French fries)!
What were your highlights?
God blessed us all in many different ways. The youngest of the team aged 20 can’t wait to go again. We all had opportunities to share our testimonies during services and meetings. I did the talk at McDonalds! The church I preached at 7 years ago invited me back to preach!
What was your favourite moment?
The last Sunday was a ‘harvest’ service, not our sort of harvest, but a harvest of souls. Pastor Rodney preached a brilliant sermon with an interpreter. Then Pastor Alfredo (Ahmor’s brother) reiterated it and invited people to give their lives to Jesus. So many came forward. The Holy Spirit was working. I was with Cecil (my young interpreter) and we talked and prayed with a grandma. She returned to her seat. But her grandson stayed. Cecil asked what he wanted and he said he wanted to ask Jesus into his life. We prayed – his name? Timothy! He is 9. Cecil is pastoring him and she sent a selfie of them at church a few weeks ago!
What can we do to support this work?
Please pray for the Christians we met who are so passionate about sharing Jesus with their families and friends. They have lots to teach us. The youngsters are now leading worship, both in dance, song and instrumental. They are already training the next age group. Please pray that Jesus will continue to work in them though His Holy Spirit.
Thank you
Mary Judkins
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